REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 9 



departments of science become that no one individual can be profoundly 

 acquainted with more than one or two of them; hence, in order that 

 a director should properly perform the duties of a curator of an 

 establishment of this kind, he should have a corps of learned assistants. 

 For example, for the preservation and practical use of an herbarium, the 

 constant attendance and supervision of a botanist is requisite, whose 

 duty it will be to classify the specimens, to render them unassailable 

 by insects, to arrange them for study or exhibition, and to be always 

 present to assist those who may desire to examine them, either for ele- 

 mentary study or original research. Without a number of assistants in 

 the line of natural history, a museum must principally consist of mere 

 articles of curiosity, of comparatively little use in the way of valuable 

 instruction. It is evident, however, that a corps of such assistants, 

 supported on permanent salaries, in addition to the other expenses of 

 the museum, would soon absorb the whole of the Smithson income. 



What has been said has reference merely to the impropriety of 

 attempting to maintain a museum worthy of the nation at the expense 

 of the Smithson fund, and is not intended to disparage the value 

 of a complete representation of the natural products of America, with 

 such foreign specimens as may be required for comparison and gene- 

 ralization. This we think of great importance, particularly as a 

 means of developing and illustrating our industrial resources, as well 

 as of facilitating the study of the relations of our geology, mineralogy, 

 flora and fauna to those of the old world : and, indeed, the wants of the 

 government appear to demand a collection of this kind, since the Med- 

 ical Department, the Agricultural Department, and the General Land 

 Office are each rapidly accumulating articles of illustration, and find 

 the necessity for the permanent employment of persons well skilled in 

 the branches to which their specimens pertain. With these the 

 national museum, of a general character, would maintain relations of 

 co-operation and mutual assistance. 



It will be seen in previous reports, that from the first, in order to 

 compensate in some degree for the great outlay on local objects, 

 measures were adopted for the increase of the capital of the endow- 

 ment. These principally consisted in deferring the completion of 

 the building for a series of years, and in the meanwhile investing 

 the money appropriated for its construction, as well as a portion of 

 the annual income, saved by judicious and economical management, 

 in government and State stocks. These stocks, however, were not 

 permanently secured, and were in danger of being disposed of inju- 

 diciously, upon casual or inadequate considerations. It has, there- 



