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of models illustrating the progress of some of the mostHseful inveiuions ; 

 such, for example, as the steam engine, from its earliest and rudest form 

 to its present most improved state ; but this they propose only so lar as 

 it may not encroach on ground already covered by the numerous models 

 in the Patent Office. 



Specimens of staple materials, of their gradual manufacture, and of the 

 finished products of manufactures and the arts, may also, your committee 

 think, be usefully introduced. This would supply opportunity to ex- 

 amine samples of the best maimfactured articles our country affords, and 

 to judge her gradual progress in arts and manufactures. 



As chemistry was the favorite study of Smithson's life, of which a 

 considerable portion was spent in his own laboratory, and as it is, without 

 doubt, one of the most comprehensive and important of the natural 

 sciences, your committee recommend that this department be fitted up in 

 as complete a manner as modern science can suggest. And for the pur- 

 pQse of encouraging in the young men of our country original research 

 in the same branch of science in which Smithson himself successfully 

 labored ; and inasmuch as many are now compelled, in order to complete 

 their studies as practical chemists, to resort to Paris or Germany, your 

 committee further recommend that there be included in the building a 

 working laboratory, somewhat, perhaps, after the model of that instituted 

 by one of the ablest of German chemists, the celebrated Liebig ; to be 

 opened under proper regulations and supervision, without charge to those 

 who may desire to institute experiments and prosecute researches for 

 themselves in that science. 



The gallery of art, your committee think, should include both paint- 

 ings and sculpture, as well as engravings and architectural designs ; and 

 it is desirable to have in connexion with it one or more studios, in which 

 young artists might copy without interruption, being admitted under 

 such regulations as the board may prescribe. Your committee also think 

 that as the collection of paintings and sculpture will probably accumulate 

 slowly, the room destined for a gallery of art might properly and usefully 

 meanwhile be occupied during the session of Congress as an exhibition 

 room for the works of artists generally; and the extent and general use- 

 fulness of such an exhibition might probably be increased, if an arrange- 

 ment could be effected with the Academy of Design, the Arts Union, the 

 Artists' Fund Society, and other associations of similar character, so as 

 to concentrate at the metropolis, for a certain portion of each winter, the 

 best results of talent in the fine arts. 



The charter provides that the Secretary of the institution may, with 

 the consent of the board, employ assistants ; and the items above enu- 

 merated, touching a library, museum, and laboratory, seem to demand at 

 the propex time the appointment of not less than three such assistants ; 

 one as librarian, one as curator of the museum, and one as chemist. 

 After a careful review of the means of the institution, and the annual de- 

 mands upon it necessitated by the objects specially required in the charter, 

 your committee are not prepared, with the present endowment only at 

 command, to recommend a greater extension than these named of perma- 

 nent offices requiring scientific or literary qiialifications ; and thl?y think 

 that the appointments of curator and chemist may be postponed until the 

 time, or nearly the time, when the building is likely to be completed. 



In these various recommendations your committee have been guided 



