THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 229 



ties of our country, and to .the language of the Indian tribes, by the 

 publications of the Institution on these subjects. 



The following is an account of the memoirs received since the date 

 of the last Report : 



1. Contributions to the History of the Marine Algae of North Ameri- 

 ca : By Dr. W. H. Harvey : Part II. 



In the Report for 1850, an account was given of the acceptance for 

 publication of an»extended and expensive memoir of the Marine Alga? 

 of the eastern and southern cdasts of the United States, by Professor 

 Harvey, of the University of Dublin. The first part of this memoir 

 was published last spring, and has found much favor with thPbotanical 

 world, as well as with the inhabitants and visitors df our sea-board. 

 The second part of the same memoir is now printed, and will be ready 

 for distribution in the course of a few weeks. It is illustrated by twen- 

 t}r-four plates, and comprises 240 pages of printed matter. 



The common name of the class of plants which forms the subject of 

 this memoir, viz : sea-weeds, has subjected the Institution to the charge 

 of expending its funds on trifling and unworthy objects ; and as the 

 same objection may be made to many of the papers forming the series 

 of Smithsonian Contributions, a few words in vindication of researches 

 of this character may not be inappropriate. 



Nothing in the whole system of nature is isolated or unimportant. 

 The fall of a leaf and the motion of a planet are governed by the safWe 

 laws. The structure of a lichen and the formation of an oak are equally 

 the result of definite plans. It is in the study of objects, considered 

 trivial and unworthy of notice by the casual observer, that genius finds 

 the most important and interesting phenomena. It w r as in the investi- 

 gation of the varying colors of the soap-bubble that Newton detected 

 the remarkable fact of the fits of easy reflection and easy refraction 

 presented by a ray of light in its passage through space, and upon 

 which he established the fundamental principle of the present gen- 

 e^lization of the undulatory theory of light. Smithson himself, the 

 founder of this Institution, considered the analysis of a tear as nowise 

 unworthy of his peculiar chemical skill ; and well might he so con- 

 sider it; for the knowledge o£the composition of every secretion of the 

 body is of importance, in a physiological point of view, as well as in 

 the preservation of health and the cure of disease. The study of the 

 cause of the spasmodic muscular contraction of a frog, when brought 

 into contact with two pieces of metal, revealed to Galvani the first facts 

 of the branch of science which now bears his name. The microscopic 

 organization of animals and plants is replete with the highest instruction ; 

 and, surely, in the language of one of the fathers of modern physical 

 science, "nothing can be unworthy of being investigated by man which 

 was thought worthy of being created by God." 



These remarks are particularly applicable to the study of the lower 

 classes of the organic creation. Nature everywhere exhibits economy 

 of means in attaining the most complex and diversified ends. Every 

 result is produced in the simplest manner when viewed in relation to 

 the whole design. ♦.Ill 1 parts of organized beings, whether plants or 

 animals, are formed of a few elementary structures, variously trans- 



