198 EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT OP 



session of the Institution a medallion of Smithson, in copper, taken in 

 after life. It is from this that the head on the title-page of the Smith- 

 sonian publications has been copied. 



Lectures. 



During the past session of Congress a series of popular lectures has 

 been given to the citizens of this place and strangers, in the lecture- 

 room of the Smithsonian building. These lectures were delivered by 

 gentlemen distinguished for their standing, and for their attainments in 

 literature and science, who were invited for this purpose. The interest 

 in these lectures has been sustained to a wonderful degree. They have 

 been attended from the first by large audiences •; and the results thus 

 far indicate that considerable good may be derived from the diffusion 

 of knowledge in this way, in a central position like Washington, where 

 persons from every part of the Union are found. Although the lectures 

 appear to the public one of the most prominent objects of the Institu- 

 tion, and although they are attended with much trouble and consider- 

 able expense, they really form the least important feature of the plan 

 adopted. So long, however, as there is a prospect of doing good by 

 means of them, it is due to the city in which the Institution is located 

 that they should be continued. 



Much complaint has been made on account of the size of the lecture- 

 room. It is certainly too small to accommodate all who have wished 

 to attend. We have, however, endeavored, in several instances, to 

 obviate this difficulty, by procuring a repetition of the lectures ; but this 

 plan is attended with additional expense, and* cannot, in all cases, be 

 adopted. Should large audiences continue, it may be well to provide 

 a larger lecture-room in the main building, and, by removing the seats 

 from the present lecture-room, convert it into a museum of apparatus. 

 This change, if thought advisable, can be made at very little, if an} r , 

 additional expense ; since the present wood-work of the interior of the 

 main building is to give place to a fire-proof structure, which will ad- 

 mit of being arranged as a lecture-room. Indeed, the original plan 

 contemplated a room of this kind in the main building ; but the arrange- 

 ment of it was such as to seat scarcely more than the room at present 

 used. 



Many inquiries are made as to the publication of these lectures. In 

 some cases, reports of them have been given in the newspapers, and it 

 will be advisable to extend this practice to all; but the publication, in 

 a separate form, of lectures, which in many cases are not written out, 

 and not intended by their authors as additions to knowledge, would be 

 attended with much expense and little useful effect. The Institution, 

 in several instances, is doing better service, by publishing in- full the 

 original researches on which the lectures are based. The papers of 

 Professor Agassiz, of Professor Harvey, and of Lieutenant Davis, are 

 of this character, and will be given to the world through the Smith- 

 sonian Contributions. 



