REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



The income from the Smithson fund during the year 1869, including 

 the premium on gold, was $49,515. 



In a late report from the Treasury Department, giving a list of the 

 appropriations of Congress for the District of Columbia, a large amount 

 is put down to the Smithsonian Institution. This statement, without 

 explanation, would give an erroneous impression. From the organiza- 

 tion of the Institution to the present time it cannot properly be said 

 that the government has appropriated a single dollar from the public 

 treasury for the Institution. The principal " appropriations" mentioned 

 in the report in question were not from the public money, but from the 

 Smithson fund deposited in the Treasury of the United States. The only 

 appropriation from the national treasury which might appear to be for 

 the benefit of the Institution, is that of $4,000, annually made for the 

 care and exhibition of the Government Museum, and, also, at one time 

 $10,000, and at another $4,000, to erect cases for the better preservation 

 of the specimens; and even in these instances, as has been shown, the 

 Institution was far from being reimbursed for the actual expenditure on 

 the -care of the museum. , 



Cooperation with Government Departments. — It has always 

 been a prominent feature in the policy of the Institution to act in unison 

 with other institutions, and especially to cooperate with the several 

 departments and bureaus of the general government in all cases in 

 which their respective functions would admit of such cooperation. 

 It is in accordance with this policy that the extensive and rapidly 

 increasing library of the Institution has been incorporated with that of 

 Congress, and that a similar arrangement, mentioned in the last report, 

 for transferring to the Department of Agriculture the large Smithsonian 

 herbarium, has been completed. It is also in accordance with this policy 

 that an arrangement has been made with Surgeon General Barnes by 

 which all the crania and other of the osteological specimens of the In- 

 stitution have been transferred to the Army Medical Museum. 



These cooperations, while they relieve the Institution from the expend- 

 iture of more than $10,000 annually, and thus enable it to more vigor- 

 ously prosecute its researches, to publish a larger number of contribu- 

 tions, and to extend its system of international exchanges, tend also to 

 increase the amount of scientific material in the capital of the United 

 States, as well as to facilitate its employment in the advance and diffu- 

 sion of knowledge. 



This Institution and its collaborators have the use not only of its 

 books deposited in the Capitol, but also that of those in the National 

 Library, as may be seen by the terms of the deposit given in a previous 

 report. Also, agreeably to the terms upon which the plants were trans- 

 ferred, they are accessible to the public for practical or educational 

 purposes, and to the Institution for scientific investigation. Further- 

 more, a botanist approved by the Institution has been appointed, who 



