

I - 



THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 119 



REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 



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FROM 1847 to 1853. 



To make the operations of the Institution more generally known, it has been thought advi- 

 sable to append to this Report, for reprinting, the several Annual Reports of the Secretary. 

 They give a connected history of all the operations of the Institution, from its organization to 

 the end of the year 1852. These Reports exhibit the fact that very little change has been 

 made in the plau of active operations originally adopted, and that all the anticipations which 

 were entertained in regard to it have been fully realized. 



FIRST REPORT/ 



Report of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution to the Board of Re- 

 gents, December 8, 1847. 



Gentlemen : A statement of the financial condition of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, and of the progress made in the erection of the build- 

 ing, having been presented to your Board by the committees charged 

 with the care of these objects, it becomes my duty, as Secretary t>f the 

 Institution, to give an account of what has been done relative to the 

 development of the plan of organization, and of the steps which have 

 been taken in the way of carrying it into operation. 



In accordance with my instructions, I consulted with men of emi- 

 nence, in the different branches of literature and science, relative to the 

 details of the plan of organization, and arranged the various suggestions 

 offered in the form of the accompanying programme. This, after hav- 

 ing been submitted to a number of persons in whose knowledge and 

 judgment I have confidence, is now presented to the Board, with the 

 concurrence of the Committee on Organization, for consideration and 

 provisional adoption. I regret that my engagements have been such as 

 to render it impossible for me to call upon many persons whose counsel 

 would have been valuable, but I hope hereafter to avail my self of their 

 advice in behalf of the Institution. I also regret that I could not give 

 the names oL those whose suggestions have been adopted in the pro- 

 gramme ; the impossibility of rendering justice to all has prevented 



"The first Report of the Secretary was given in the second Report of the Regents to Con- 

 gress, hence the number of the former is one less than that of the latter. 



