REPORT OF THE SECRETARY FOR THE YEAR 1872. 



To the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution : 



Gentlemen : The report which I have the honor to present at this 

 time completes the history of the operations of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion for the first quarter of a century of its active existence; and as it 

 is important to recapitulate, from time to time, the policy which has beeu 

 adopted for the management of the funds intrusted to the United States 

 for the good of men by James Smithson, it may be well on this occasion 

 to recall the essential features of the trust, and to briefly state such 

 salient points connected with its administration as may be of especial 

 importance in the future. 



At the time the funds were received by the General Government, the 

 distinction between education and original scientific research was not 

 so fully recognized as it is at the present day, and therefore it is not 

 surprising that the brief though comprehensive language in which the 

 will of Smithson was expressed should not have been generally under- 

 stood, or that the words " I bequeath the whole of my property to the 

 United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of 

 the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffu- 

 sion of knowledge among men," should have been so interpreted as to. 

 induce Congress to direct the expenditure of the income of the fund 

 principally to objects which, though important in themselves, did not 

 comport with the strict interpretation of the will, being of a local char- 

 acter-instead of affecting the interests of humanity in general. 



Smithson devoted his life to abstract science and original research,, 

 and there cannot be a reasonable doubt that he used the terms " increase 

 and diffusion of knowledge among men"* to imply that the income of 

 his bequest should be devoted to original research in all branches of 

 knowledge susceptible of increase, and the diffusion of the result of this 

 through the press for the benefit of mankind generally. 



* The terms increase and diffusion of knowledge were used, in the specific sense here 

 indicated, by men of science of the time of Smithson. As an illustration of this we may 

 cite the following remark of William Swainson, a celebrated naturalist. Speaking of 

 the Zoological Society of London, he says : "It is more calculated to diffuse than to. 

 increase the actual stock of scientific knowledge." The author further remarks that, 

 "while we may truly exult in this awakening of the national intellect, we must remem- 

 ber that diffusion and advancement are two very different processes ; and each may exist 

 independent of the other. It is very essential, therefore, to our present purpose, when, 

 we speak of the diffusion or extension of science, that we do not confound these stages of 

 development with discovery or advancement ; since the latter may be as different from, 

 the former as depth is from shallowness.' 7 (See Cabinet Cyclopedia, Natural History,. 

 p. 314, London, 1834.) 



