412 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 272. 



of them are attached to the Executive De- 

 partments, others are independent of any 

 control but that of the Congress. Some of 

 them are adequately equipped and well 

 housed, others are most inadequately pro- 

 vided for. To wait for the reorganization 

 of the scientific work of the Government in 

 systematic fashion, is to postpone indefi- 

 nitely the question of taking advantage of 

 the opportunites which the Government has 

 to offer. In the view of your sub-committee 

 therefore, it is essential, in any plan which 

 may now be adopted, that no attempt be 

 made to alter the existing status of the 

 Government's scientific work ; that is a large 

 undertaking, for which time and further ex- 

 perience are necessary. The conditions at 

 Washington must be accepted just as they 

 are. The head of each Bureau or Division 

 which can offer any facilities for research, 

 should be asked to state, in detail, just what 

 those facilities are, how many persons can 

 be received, and under what limitations 

 or conditions. It would be one of the 

 functions of any administrative of&cer who 

 might be charged with the oversight of a 

 School or Bureau of Research, to make these 

 facilities known, as well as to exercise su- 

 pervision over the students who avail them- 

 selves of them. 



The resolution of reference contemplates 

 the active cooperation of the Smithsonian 

 Institution in the conduct of the proposed 

 School or Bureau. The attitude of the 

 governing board ofthe Smithsonian towards 

 the undertaking, becomes then a matter of 

 great importance. What this attitude is 

 we are able to learn from the action taken 

 by the Regents of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion at their annual meeting, held January 

 24, 1900, upon a communication from the 

 American Association of Agricultural Col- 

 leges and Experiment Stations, which asked 

 for the organization of a Bureau of Gradu- 

 ate Study in Washington under the super- 

 vision of the Smithsonian. The report of 



the committee to which the communication 

 had been referred, contained this language : 



" The committee does not hesitate to express its 

 warm and decided sympathy with the general pur- 

 pose of the movement thus made by the associated 

 colleges. The object sought commends itself to us 

 all, and the zeal and ability with which it has been 

 pressed upon our consideration by the very able and 

 distinguished educators and scientists connected with 

 these colleges furnish ample assurance that the con- 

 summation of the great and leading object sought by 

 them is only a question of time. The material al- 

 ready collected in the bureaus and departments of 

 the government furnishes a rich mine of educational 

 wealth that will not be permitted to remain forever 

 undeveloped. This material is now being constantly 

 enriched by the most valuable additions to its present 

 enormous wealth. Already it has invited to the na- 

 tional capital many distinguished scientists, anxious 

 to avail themselves ofthe superior advantages thus 

 offered for investigation and research. 



" Your committee, however, is painfully impressed 

 with the fact that the powers of the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution as at present organized are scarcely broad 

 enough to embrace the work proposed. And the com- 

 mittee is equally impressed with the fact that even 

 with enlarged authority its present financial condi- 

 tion would absolutely prevent anything like efficient 

 and creditable performance of the work contemplated. 



"It is well known to the members of this board 

 that a great wealth of material — material which would 

 be of immense utility in the successful accomplish- 

 ment of the purposes indicated by the associated col- 

 leges — lies buried in the crypts and cellars of the 

 National Museum. 



' ' If our institution is unable for want of room, as it 

 undoubtedly is, even to place this valuable material on 

 exhibition for the public eyes, and as little to arrange 

 it for scientific uses, the problem of providing halls 

 for lectures and meeting the necessary expenditures 

 incident to the work proposed becomes serious and 

 formidable in the extreme. Your committee is not 

 prepared to make definite recommendations to the 

 board for its final or ultimate action. That which is 

 clearly inexpedient to-day may become not only ex- 

 pedient but eminently desirable to-morrow." 



It is felt by the Regents of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution that their present powers 

 are hardly broad enough to embrace educa- 

 tional work, and also that it is doubtful 

 whether the Congress has power, under the 

 Constitution, to appropriate money, raised 

 by taxation, for purposes of education. In 



