200 EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT 

 Of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, for the year 1851. 



To the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution : 



Gentlemen : Besides the care of all the property of the Institution, 

 and the responsibility of the direction of its operations, under the con- 

 trol of the Regents, the Secretary is required to give an account, at their 

 annual session, of the condition of the Institution, and of its transac- 

 tions during the preceding year. 



Tn the discharge of this duty on the present occasion, I am happy to 

 inform the Regents, that the Institution under their care is still in a pros- 

 perous condition, and that since their last meeting it has continued, 

 silently but effectually, to enlarge the sphere of its influence and useful- 

 ness, and to elicit from every part of the civilized world commendations 

 not only of the plan of organization it has adopted, but also of the 

 results it has produced. 



In my last Report I gave a brief account of the means employed to 

 increase the income, so that in addition to the requirements of Congress 

 in regard to the formation of a library and a museum, and the erection 

 of a building on a liberal scale, operations of a more active character 

 could be incorporated into the plan of organization. 



During the past year the same policy has been observed ; and though 

 the officers of the Institution have been subjected to the inconvenience 

 of transacting business in an unfinished building, and in rooms not in- 

 tended for the purpose, yet this has been considered of minor import- 

 ance in comparison with the saving of the funds. Every dollar now 

 expended on the building lessens the amount of accruing interest, and 

 diminishes the means of producing results which are to affect the world 

 at large ; hence the importance of an adherence to the plan of finishing 

 it by degrees. Since the last session of the Board, it has, therefore, not 

 been thought advisable to urge the contractor to a rapid completion of 

 his work, and all the expenditures on account of the building have been 

 made from the accrued interest of the current year, and from a portion 

 of that of the year preceding. There is, consequently, still on hand 

 the two hundred thousand dollars of accumulated interest mentioned in 

 the last and preceding reports. Of this, it will be recollected, $50,000 

 are to be applied towards finishing the building, and the remainder to 

 be invested as part of the principal. 



The importance of increasing the funds and of gradually developing 

 the operations embraced in the programme, was set forth in the last 

 report. The Institution, it is to be hoped, is not one of a day, but is 

 to endure as long as our government shall last; it is therefore necessary, 

 in the beginning, that we should constantly look to the future, and guard 

 against the temptation, to which we are continually exposed, of ex- 

 panding too rapidly. 



By a resolution of the board, at their session in 1849, the Secretary 

 was directed to petition Congress to take from the Institution $150,000, 



