182 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 163. 



The work is divided into two parts ; the 

 first deals with the History of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution in a series of chapters 

 by the officers, and the second part consists 

 of ' Appreciations of the Work' of the Insti- 

 tution, in fifteen chapters, written by scien- 

 tists not organically connected therewith. 



Samuel Pierpont Langley, Secretary of 

 the Smithsonian, contributes a biography 

 of James Smithson, based upon official rec- 

 ords and embodying results of investiga- 

 tions made in England in 1894. From these 

 it appears that owing to an erroneous in- 

 scription on Smithson's tomb at Genoa, the 

 date of his birth has been usually given 

 inaccurately ; a record in Pembroke College 

 places Smithson's birth in 1765, eleven 

 years later than that previously assigned. 



Professor Langley gives a graphic sketch 

 of Smithson's life and scientific publications, 

 and reproduces his notable wiU, all of which 

 is familiar ground to readers of Science. 

 Smithson once wrote : " The best blood of 

 England flows in my veins ; on my father's 

 side I am a Northumberland, on my 

 mother's I am related to kings, but this 

 avails me not. My name shall live in the 

 memory of man when the titles of the 

 Northumberlands and the Percys are ex- 

 tinct and forgotten." This youthful ambi- 

 tion seems to have occurred to him at the 

 time of making his will, for he bequeathed 

 his property (under certain limitations) ' to 

 the United States of America, to found at 

 Washington, under the name of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, an establishment for the 

 increase and diifusion of knowledge among 

 men.' 



Smithson's monument is the Institution 

 bearing his name ; his grave at Genoa has 

 been recently marked by a tablet placed by 

 the Smithsonian, with an inscription nam- 

 ing him as its founder. 



In a chapter on ' The Founding of the 

 Institution 1835-1846,' Dr. George Brown 

 Goode chronicles the events of the long 



period that elapsed between the receipt of 

 the legacy by the United States in 1838 and 

 the passage of the law establishing the In- 

 stitution in 1846, during which plans of or- 

 ganization were discussed in Congress and 

 in the press. A great university, an astro- 

 nomical observatory, an agricultural school, 

 a public library, a museum of natural his- 

 tory and geology, and other schemes, were 

 advocated only to be discarded, and the 

 final draft of the bill adopted was the result 

 of a compromise. Dr. Goode points out 

 the relations between the ' National Insti- 

 tution to promote science and the useful 

 arts ' and the proposed Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution ; the former was founded in 1840 on 

 a broad and liberal plan, and some of its 

 members thought it ought to be custodian 

 of the Smithson legacy. This was not sus- 

 tained, but it is interesting to note that the 

 Smithsonian Institution as finally organized 

 followed quite closely the lines of the Na- 

 tional Institution both as respects its su- 

 perior officers and its list of objects. 



Many influential persons contributed to 

 the plan of organization. Dr. Goode points 

 out that several of the most important fea- 

 tures were due to Joel E. Poinsett, of South 

 Carolina, viz. : The idea of an imposing and 

 permanent building, the plan of a national 

 museum with a stafi" of curators, the loca- 

 tion of the Institution on the Mall, the main 

 features of the Establishment, and the sys- 

 tem of international exchanges of books. 

 The library project was largely due to Ru- 

 fus Choate and George P. Marsh, and the 

 success in harmonizing the various plans 

 that had been under discussion for ten years 

 was due to Robert Dale Owen. 



In the next succeeding chapter the same 

 writer deals with the ' Establishment ' and 

 the Board of Regents, in an appendix to 

 which Mr. William Jones Rhees gives con- 

 cise biographies of the 129 distinguished 

 persons who have filled the office of Regent. 



A chapter of special interest is that on 



