REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 5 



gress for the support of the museum, still more important results will 

 be obtained. 



The success of the plan for realizing the intentions of Smithson for 

 increasing and diffusing knowledge among men has been due to its 

 simplicity and efficiency. Under a Board of Eegents, which holds its 

 sessions once a year, the operations of the establishment are directed by 

 a single individual, called the Secretary, who, with the consent of the 

 Eegents, employs assistants and disburses the income of the fund. Iu 

 determining the appropriations to different objects of research, the 

 advice of persons of established reputation in different branches of 

 science is obtained, and in all cases, before an article is accepted for 

 publication, it is submitted to a commission of experts, who report upon 

 its fitness for adoption by the Institution. In order to obtain a free and 

 unbiased judgment, the name of the author, as far as possible, is concealed 

 from the examiners, and the names of the latter are unknown to the 

 former. By adopting this course the Institution secures the co-opera- 

 tion of the best minds of the country, and in some cases has called iu 

 the aid of foreign savans. It is gratifying to be able to state that in no 

 instance has aid of this kind been declined. In this way the greatest 

 amount of mental labor is secured with a given expenditure of funds. 

 It is true the plan might have been adopted of electing men of original 

 research in the various branches of science, and supporting them entirely 

 on the funds of the establishment; but the income was not sufficient for 

 this purpose, as will be evident when the fact is considered that the will 

 includes all branches of knowledge, and that every subject susceptible 

 of increase is entitled to the benefit of the funds. At the beginning, 

 however, since Congress directed the formation of a library and a museum, 

 it was necessary that the Secretary should have assistants to take 

 especial charge of these two branches of the establishment. With the 

 transfer of the library to the care of the Government, a librarian of the 

 Institution has been dispensed with; but since the museum is still under 

 the care of the Institution, an assistant in charge of this is still re- 

 quired, and Professor Baird, who has acted as assistant secretary, has 

 had charge of the museum, and has rendered important service, not only 

 in the line of natural history, but in that of the general operations of 

 the establishment. 



The greatest opposition to the plan of active operations was made by 

 the friends of the establishment of a library, but they have finally acqui- 

 esced in the propriety of the course which has been pursued. The num- 

 ber of books of the first class which the Institution is bringing into the 

 country through its system of exchange, and which are distributed 

 to all the large cities of the United States, more than compensates for 

 the support of a restricted library in the city of Washington by the 

 funds of the Institution. 



The plan in regard to the museum was also at first misunderstood. 



It was supposed that because the Secretary opposed the establishment 



2 s 



