4 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



by the energetic exercise of native talents, there are probably not a few 

 who only need the assurance of a successful precedent to induce them 

 to emulate the liberality of Smithson in the endowment of other institu- 

 tions for the advancement of knowledge. 



At the last session of the board it was resolved that a memorial should 

 be presented to Congress, setting forth the large expenditure to which 

 the Institution had been subjected by reason of the accommodation and 

 maintenance of the National Museum, and asking that the usual appro- 

 priation of $4,000 which had been made on account of these objects 

 might be increased to $10,000; also that $25,000 might be appropri- 

 ated towards fitting up the large room in the second story of the 

 main building for the better exhibition of the government collections. 

 In accordance with this resolution the petition was prepared, signed by 

 the Chancellor and Secretary of the Institution, and presented to the 

 House of Representatives by General Garfield, one of the regents. It was 

 referred to the Committee on Appropriations, and although forcibly and 

 eloquently advocated by the members of the Board of Regents belonging 

 to the House, it was not granted, and only the usual appropriation of 

 $4,000 was made. The reasonableness of this petition, Which I doubt 

 not under a better condition of the national finances will meet with a 

 more favorable reception, must be manifest when it is considered that 

 $4,000 is the sum which the maintenance of the museum cost the gov- 

 ernment when it was under the charge of the Patent Office, and that 

 since its removal to the Institution it has been enlarged to threefold its 

 previous size, while the money has been depreciated to one-half its former 

 value ; and furthermore, that the amount expended since the fire in 

 1865, for the reconstruction of the building and supply of furniture, is 

 over $140,000, the greater part of which was for the accommodation of the 

 National Museum. This large sum was rendered necessary by the pecu- 

 liar character of the architecture, the cost of fire-proof materials, and 

 the high price of labor. Of the above amount, more than $20,000 was 

 defrayed from the annual income of last year, and after this reduction 

 of the resources it was scarcely to be expected that the operations of 

 the Institution could be carried on with as much efficiency as had been 

 the casein years previous to the disaster which entailed on it this heavy 

 incidental expenditure. Yet we venture to hope that the exposition given 

 in the following parts of this report will show the results attained to 

 have been little inferior in value or extent to those of any preceding year. 



It will appear from the report of the Executive Committee, that notwith- 

 standing the large draughts which have been made upon the funds on 

 account of the building, they are still in a highly prosperous condition. 

 Thus, while at the beginning of the year 1868 there was a balance in the 

 treasury of about $11,000, with outstanding liabilities contracted prin- 

 cipally for repairs and reconstruction to the amount of $22,000; on the 

 other hand, at the beginning of 1869, there is a disposable balance of 



