FIFTIETH CONGRESS, 1887-1889. 1168 
in the city of Cleveland. His audiences number hundreds of thou- 
sands. Man has a peculiar interest in all living things. The animals 
of a circus have ever had more interest for the youth than the contor- 
tions of the clown. Thestudy of life always has, and always will have, 
a fascinating interest for the human mind, and where can lower forms 
of life be better studied than in zoological gardens ? 
It is something we need in this city, and the expenditure of $200,000 
in a matter of this kind is a mere bagatelle compared with its necessity 
and its usefulness for the advancement of science. I do not care if it 
does cost $50,000 or a $100,000 next year, although there is no warrant 
for that assumption. You have to-day a National Museum, with a 
large ethnological collection, in this city, and with a large collection 
of the fauna and flora of the country. As you have gone that far, why 
not in addition have a zoological garden ? 
I understand that in the Smithsonian Institution or the National 
Museum there are fifty or a hundred animals already, donated by men 
interested in the zoological geography of the country. Instead of 
having to pay for the animals for this park they will be donated by 
persons from all parts of the United States, because there are large- 
hearted and generous men in the United States everywhere who are 
anxious to enrich and perpetuate this science. Until recently our 
knowledge of extinct animals was so very limited that the science 
hardly deserved the name, but within a few years the discovery of 
extinct fossil remains has enabled the scientist, by an examination of 
these records of past ages, to solve many mysteries, not only of rela- 
tion, but of structure as well. In this research dwarfed organs have 
been found in full development and widely separated forms linked 
together. The zoology of the future will include the past as well as 
the present. It is already a most wonderful as well as a most useful 
science, and it is to stimulate and advance it that this measure is pro- 
posed. All scientists now agree that the germ of life, the bioplasm, 
the clay from which the Great Potter molds living beings, is identic- 
ally the same in all animals, man included. It is for this reason that 
the study of life, its origin, its purpose, its existence has so great an 
interest to the human mind. Therefore I say, Mr. Speaker, that the 
expenditure of this money will be productive of great and lasting 
benefit to science. | 
Let me say, in conclusion, that the people do not scan too closely 
the expenditures of money out of the Treasury provided it is ex- 
pended for their benefit. Persons coming to this city and seeing this 
magnificent structure, the Capitol of the United States, are not filled 
with envy because it is located in Washington. It is the nation’s 
building, and each citizen has a part in it. As the visitors go through 
the beautiful grounds of the Botanic Garden or through the National 
Museum and the Smithsonian Institution they are conscious these 
