148 EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



SECOND ANNUAL REPORT 



Of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, giving an account of the 

 operations of the year 1848. Presented December 13, 1849. 



Gentlemen: By a resolution of the Board of Regents, at their last 

 annual meeting, I was charged with the execution of the details of the 

 programme which had been provisionally adopted, and was directed to 

 report annually to the Board the progress made in the execution of the 

 duty assigned to me. In accordance with this resolution, I present the 

 following statement of the operations of the past year. 



The programme of the plan of organization of the Institution has 

 been submitted to a number of literary and scientific societies, and in 

 ever}' - case has received their unqualified approbation. The principal 

 officers of these societies have expressed a willingness to co-operate 

 with the Smithsonian Institution in carrying out the plans which have 

 been adopted, and it is confidently believed, that as soon as these are 

 fully developed and brought into practical operation, they will meet 

 with general approval. 



It was recommended in my last report that the details of the plan 

 should be adopted provisionally, and should be carried into operation 

 gradually and cautiously, with such changes, from time to time, as 

 experience might dictate. The Institution is not one of a day, but 

 is designed to endure as long as our government shall exist ; and it is 

 therefore peculiarly important that in the beginning we should proceed 

 carefully and not attempt to produce immediate effects at the expense 

 of permanent usefulness. The process of increasing knowledge is an 

 extremely slow one, and the value of the results of this part of the plan 

 cannot be properly realized until some years have elapsed. Independ- 

 ently of these considerations, the financial arrangements adopted by 

 the Board of Regents are such as to prevent the full operation of the 

 Institution until after three years from next March ; up to that time 

 more than one half of the income is to be devoted to the erection of 

 the building, and indirectly to the increase of the permanent fund. 



It will be recollected that the programme embraces — 



1st. The plan of publishing original memoirs on all branches of 

 knowledge, in a series of quarto volumes. 



2d. The institution of original researches under the direction of 

 competent persons. 



3d. The publication of a series of reports from year to year, giving 

 an account of the progress of the different branches of knowledge. 



4th. The formation of a library and a museum of objects of nature 

 and art. 



Publication of original memoirs. 



The first volume of the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge has 

 been published and partially distributed. It consists of a single me- 

 moir on the Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, comprising 



