REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 7 



duce the most important results with a given expenditure of means. 

 The funds of the Institution, it was seen, were not sufficient to carry 

 out all the objects contemplated in the original law of organization. To 

 sustain properly a national museum and render it an efficient means of 

 popular instruction would require a number of professors of the differ- 

 ent branches into which natural history has been divided. But, as the 

 income was manifestly insufficient for this purpose, the plan was adopted 

 of calling in, as far as possible, the aid of individual collaborators and 

 of other institutions. Agreeably to this principle of action the plants 

 were given in charge, as has been stated, to Doctors Gray and Tor- 

 rey for naming and arrangement into sets, and to the latter gentleman 

 for safe keeping until such time as means could be provided for their 

 maintenance in Washington. 



For the same reason as that just given, all the type specimens of in- 

 sects which have been collected by the Institution have been divided 

 among collaborators for study and arrangement, to be reclaimed at any 

 time when required by the Institution. Nor is this system of co-operation 

 confined to this country, for while through its exchanges the Institution 

 holds friendly correspondence with all the principal scientific and literary 

 establishments of the Old World, with a number of them it maintains 

 relations of mutual co-operation in the way of affording assistance by 

 sending rare specimens and furnishing required data in cases of special 

 investigations. 



While the result of the policy which has been adopted is the imme- 

 diate advancement of knowledge, it tends incidentally to render the 

 seat of government a center of scientific activity, which enlarges its 

 reputation and extends its influence. Indeed, though Washington has 

 generally been regarded as almost exclusively a focus of political 

 agitation, it in reality contains a greater number of persons connected 

 with scientific operations, and interested in intellectual pursuits, than 

 any other city of equal population in this country. In illustration of 

 this remark I need only mention the officers of the Engineer Department, 

 of the Coast Survey, of the Light-house Board, of the Ordnance Bureau, 

 of the army and the navy, of the Patent Office, and of the Agricultural 

 Department ; also the computers of the Nautical Almanac, the profes- 

 sors of the National Observatory, and those of three colleges, three 

 medical schools, a law school, and of an institution for the deaf and 

 dumb ; besides the the directors and assistants of the asylum for the 

 insane, two hospitals, and of the various bureaus of the government, 

 the greater part of whom are men of more than ordinary culture, on 

 many of whom the Institution can call for assistance and co-operation. 



Publications. — The Smithsonian publications, as has been frequently 

 stated before, are of three classes : the Contributions to Knowledge, the 



