THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 15 



necting range is divided into a number of small apartments devoted 

 to the operations in natural history, and the lower story is fitted up 

 as a working laboratory. 



The interior of the main edifice is 200 feet long by 50 feet wide, and 

 consists of two stories and a basement. The upper story is divided 

 into a lecture-room capable of holding 2,000 persons ; and into two 

 additional rooms, one on either side, each fifty feet square, one of which 

 is appropriated to a museum of apparatus, and the other, at present, 

 to a gallery of art. Both are occasionally used as minor lecture-rooms 

 and for the meetings of scientific, educational, or industrial associa- 

 tions. The lower story of the main building consists of one large hall 

 to be appropriated to a museum or a library. It is at present unoc- 

 cupied, but will be brought into use as soon as the means are pro- 

 vided for furnishing it with proper cases for containing the objects to 

 which it may be appropriated. The basement of this portion of the 

 building is used as a lumber-room and as a receptacle for fuel. 



The west wing is at present occupied as a library, and is suffi- 

 ciently large to accommodate all the books which will probably be 

 received during the next ten years. The west connecting range is 

 appropriated to a reading-room. 



The principal towers are divided into stories, and thus furnish a 

 large number of rooms of different sizes, which will all come into use 

 in the varied operations of the Institution. A large room in the 

 main south tower is appropriated to the meetings of the " Establish- 

 ment" and the Board of Kegents ; three rooms in one range, in the 

 main front towers,, are used as offices ; and two rooms below, in the same 

 towers, are occupied by one of the assistants and the janitor ; other 

 rooms in the towers are used for drawing, engraving, and work-shops. 

 There are in the whole building, of all sizes, ninety different apart- 

 ments ; of these eight are of a large size, and are intended for public 

 exhibitions. 



The delay in finishing the building has not only been attended with 

 advantage in husbanding the funds, but also in allowing a more com- 

 plete adaptation of the interior to the purposes of the Institution. It 

 is surely better, in the construction of such an edifice, to imitate the 

 example of the mollusc, who, in fashioning his shell, adapts it to the 

 form and dimensions of his body, rather than that of another animal 

 who forces himself into a house intended for a different occupant. The 

 first point to be settled, in commencing a building, is the uses to 

 which it is to be applied. This, however, could not be definitely 

 ascertained at the beginning of the Institution, and hence the next 

 wisest step to that of not commencing to build immediately, was to 

 defer the completion of the structure until the plan of operations and 

 the wants of the establishment were more precisely known. 



From the report of the Building Committee it will appear that about 

 .$6,000 remain to be paid upon the contracts, which amount will be met 

 by the interest of the extra fund during the present year. The whole 

 amount expended on the building, grounds, and objects connected 

 with them, is $318,727 01. This exceeds considerably the original 

 estimate, and the limit which was at first adopted by the Begents. 



The excess has been principally occasioned by substituting fire-proof 



