REPORT 



OP 



PROFESSOR JOSEPH HENRY, 



SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 

 FOR 1871. 



To the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution : 



Gentlemen: I have the honor to present herewith another annual 

 report, in which I am happy to inform you that the financial affairs of 

 the Institution intrusted to your care by the Government of the United 

 States are still in a favorable condition, and that its operations during 

 the year 1871 have continued to enlarge the bounds of human knowl- 

 edge and to facilitate the international exchange of scientific truths. 



Finances. — The following is a general statement of the condition of 

 the Smithson fund at the beginning of the year 1872, as will be seen by 

 a reference to the report of the Executive Committee : 



Total permanent Smithson fund in United States Treasury . $650, 000 00 

 In addition to the above there remains of the extra fund, 

 derived from savings, &c, in Virginia bonds, at par val- 

 ue, $88,125.20 ; now worth about 35, 500 00 



Cash balance in First National Bank 16, 315 02 



Amount of congressional appropriation for the fiscal year, 

 June 30, 1872, $10,000, one-half of which is available 

 January, 1872 5, 000 00 



Total Smithson funds, January, 1872 706, 815 02 



The Virginia stock, which in 1870 was $72,760, has been nominally 

 increased to $88,125.18 by the funding of the interest due, while the 

 marketable value of the whole has declined from $48,000 to $35,500. 

 This fall in the value of the Virginia stock has been due to the un- 

 settled policy of the State in regard to its public debt. It will be 

 recollected that all the other State stocks held by the Institution, in 

 which the savings from the income had been invested, were sold in 

 1867, and the proceeds, added, by an act of Congress, to the perma- 

 nent fund, forever deposited in the Treasury of the United States. 

 The Virginia stock was retained, with the confident expectation on the 

 part of the majority of the Board of Begents that its value would 

 increase. Not the slightest idea was entertained that Virginia, with 



