2 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



The terms of the will, when critically analyzed in their scientific signi- 

 fication, will admit of no other interpretation, and the fitness of the 

 policy which has been adopted after ranch discussion, and, as far as the 

 original restrictions of Congress would allow, has met with general 

 approval by men of science of ah! countries. 



After having devoted assiduously twenty-five of the best years of my 

 life to the administration of the affairs of the Institution, I may be par- 

 doned for making some personal allusions to the past, and expressing 

 my earnest desire that the same policy which was inaugurated and has 

 been continually observed under my direction may be continued in the 

 future, when I shall have ended my connection with the establishment, 

 with only such modifications as the ever-changing conditions of the 

 world may render necessary. 



Immediately after the organization of the Institution, in 1846, I was 

 requested by personal friends in the Board of Eegents to give my views 

 as to what the Institution ought to be, in order to realize the intention 

 of the founder as expressed in his will. Having been long impressed 

 with the importance of special provision for original research, and 

 believing it was the intention of the founder of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion to offer facilities for this purpose, I suggested the essential features 

 of the programme published in my first report to the Board of Eegents 

 in 1847; and, on account of this suggestion I presume, I was informed 

 that if I would accept the position of Secretary, or rather director, of 

 the establishment, I would receive the appointment. 



Being at the time engaged in a series of original researches, I did 

 not at first entertain the proposition ; but afterward, on the expression 

 of the opinion of the more prominent members of the American Philo- 

 sophical Society that it was my duty, as the only scientific candidate 

 that had been proposed, to accept the appointment, I accordingly con - 

 sen ted, was elected, and entered upon my duty; not, however, without 

 much anxiety and great solicitude as to my ability in the line of admin- 

 istration, but with the hope that the policy which I wished to inaugu- 

 rate would be readily understood and properly appreciated ; that my 

 plans would be immediately adopted; and that, after seeing the Insti- 

 tution fully under way in the direction proposed, I might retire from its 

 charge, return to my former position in the College of New Jersey, and 

 resume my scientific investigations. In this, however, I was sadly dis- 

 appointed. 



The plan proposed was too much in advance of the popular intelli- 

 gence of the day, both in this country and in England, to be immedi- 

 ately adopted. The value of scientific research had not then received 

 that high appreciation whijeh it enjoys at the present time; and, indeed, 

 no distinction was then made between the popular expounder of scien- 

 tific principles and the original investigator, to whose labors the world 

 was indebted for important additions to human knowledge. 



Opposed to the views of establishing an institution the great feature of 



