THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 131 



iieated by stoves, and the larger ones by furnaces. Estimates have 

 been procured for substituting hot water apparatus, but the expense 

 of introducing this method is so great that we would hesitate to 

 advise its adoption at present." Temporary expediency and pru- 

 dential reasons have no doubt continued to prevail, until the recent 

 fatal results demonstrated that it was a false economy to delay 

 grappling with the evil. It is one with which all institutions re- 

 quiring extensive accommodation find it peculiarly difficult to deal, 

 and which has already involved the loss of many valuable libraries, 

 museums, and galleries of art, on this continent. 



The Smithsonian bequest was still hanging in unstable equilibrium 

 between the various schemes which we have indicated above, pro- 

 pounded for its expenditure, when it fortunately passed to a great 

 extent under the judicious control of Professor Joseph Henry, to 

 whom, as secretary of the Institution, the scientific world is mainly 

 indebted for the wise and beneficial expenditure of the income in 

 the publication of the series of " Contributions to Knowledge," 

 now extending to thirteen quarto volumes, embracing valuable 

 monographs on Archaeology, G-eology, Philology, Meteorology, 

 Mathematics, Natural History, &c. ; in addition to the series of 

 octavo " Miscellaneous Collections," devoted to meteorological and 

 physical tables, directions for observations, and special reports ; and 

 thirdly, the Annual Eeports, printed at the expense of the United 

 States Grovernment, but including reports or abstracts of the scien- 

 tific lectures delivered at the Institution building, and selections 

 and translations, chiefly from foreign scientific periodicals. 



In the plan for the administration of the trust, chiefly, if not 

 wholly due to the wise foresight and liberality of Professor Henry, 

 the objects of the Institution are defined as : — 1st, to increase, and 

 2nd, to difiuse knowledge among men ; and in one of the general 

 considerations set forth as a guide to the just fulfilment of the duties 

 of the Board of Eegents, it is remarked : " It should be recollected 

 that mankind in general are to be benefited by the bequest, and 

 that therefore all unnecessary expenditure on local objects would be 

 a perversion of the trust." The increase of knowledge is accord- 

 ingly proposed to be efiected by stimulating men of talent to carry 

 out original researches, and ofiering rewards for memoirs embodying 

 new truths ; while the different series of publications already referred 

 to, are the exponents of the second part of the plan, whereby the 

 diffusion of knowledge is secured. 



