REPORT OF S. P. LANGLEY, 



SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 



FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1889. 



To the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution: 



Gentlemen : I have the honor to present the report upon the oper- 

 ations of the Smithsonian Institution for the year ending June 30, 1889, 

 together with the customary summary of the work performed by the 

 Bureau of Exchanges, the National Museum, and the Bureau of Eth- 

 nology. 



THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 

 THE BOARD OF REGENTS. 



As the Annual Reports of the Secretary are intended to present a 

 history of the affairs of the Institution, it seems proper to state that by 

 the appointment of the Hon. Melville W. Fuller as Chief Justice of the 

 United States, the latter became ex officio a regent of the Institution, 

 and that at the annual meeting of the Board of Regents, held on the 

 9th of January, 1889, he was unanimously elected its chancellor. 



The Hon. Levi P. Morton has become a Regent by his election as 

 Vice-President, the holder of that high office being ex officio a Regent 

 of the Institution. 



The terms of Senator S. M. Cullom, appointed March 23, 1885, and 

 Senator R. L. Gibson, appointed December 10, 1887, having expired on 

 March 3 of the present year, those gentlemen were re-appointed by the 

 President of the Senate. 



The Board has lost from its number by death the Hon. S. S. Cox, long 

 connected with the Institution ; but this event having occurred since the 

 expiration of the year which forms the subject of this report, the re- 

 marks called out by this great loss will be more properly made in a later 

 communication. 



FINANCES. 



I have in my last report referred to the fact that owing to the chang- 

 ing value of money, the purchasing power of the Smithsonian fund, in 

 the language of a committee of the Regents — 



" while nominally fixed, is growing actually less year by year, and of 



less and less importance in the work it accomplishes with reference to 



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