326 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. V., No. 115. 



institution has been little by little to secure an in- 

 dependent existence for each of its varied depart- 

 ments, so that the trust-funds at its disposal could 

 be utilized for new fields of work, — a policy 

 fully justified by the intensely practical value of 

 its labors in the increase and diffusion of knowl- 

 edge. Thus it happened, that, as soon as the 

 library of congress had an organization and income 

 sufficient to warrant the step, the Smithsonian 

 transferred to its care its large scientific library, 

 and relinquished the idea of maintaining a separate 

 library of its own. Similarly, in 1874, the signal- 

 office weather-bureau having apparently a separate 

 existence of its own, the institution transferred to 

 it its great collection of meteorological data and 

 correspondence, thus relinquishing its own division 

 of work in that department. More recently its 

 system of international exchanges, as also its mu- 

 seum and its mineralogical and anthropological col- 

 lections, have been recognized as worthy of special 

 encouragement by the government, and have been 

 either made into separate departments, or partially 

 transferred to the geological survey, the national 

 museum, etc. 



In a hundred ways the devoted chiefs Henry 

 and Baird have known how to stimulate and co- 

 operate in the increase and diffusion of knowledge. 

 It is now proposed to reverse this process by which 

 separate institutions have grown up as children 

 under the Smithsonian, and have gone out from it 

 when able to stand alone, and to send them all 

 back, with others, to the fostering care of the 

 parent. Evidently, however, some new plan of 

 organization must be adopted before these full- 

 grown institutions can be comfortably housed to- 

 gether. The secretaries, Professors Henry and 

 Baird, have neither of them ever indicated their 

 ability, willingness, or desire to be burdened with 

 the responsibility of so many great organizations ; 

 and the regents, composed of statesmen and the 

 executive officers of the government, are not the 

 proper persons to whom to commit these important 

 interests, involving the annual expenditure of from 

 five to twenty million dollars, and in respect to 

 which the expenses of the present administration 

 of the Smithsonian, or the responsibility of its 

 present regents, are quite insignificant. Some 

 satisfactory co-ordination of government work is 

 certainly desirable, — such a co-operation of all 

 departments as has been especially shown by the 

 surgeon-general's office, the signal-office, the navy 

 and the interior departments, in their relations 

 with the Smithsonian. But to put all under the 

 present board of regents of the Smithsonian, who 



are merely the advisers of our government as 

 executor of Smithson's will, is not a very dignified 

 proceeding, and is utterly contrary to the provisions 

 and spirit of the federal constitution, according to 

 which the executive power is vested in the presi- 

 dent, to whom is allowed a cabinet officer in charge 

 of each of the executive departments ; and all dis- 

 bursements of public moneys must take place 

 through and with the authority of some one of 

 these executive officers. 



2. A second proposition has been thrown out by 

 the committee appointed by the president of the 

 National academy of sciences, Prof. O. C. Marsh. 

 This committee, although consisting of members 

 of the academy, does not speak with the authority 

 of that academy as such, as its views were never 

 submitted to, or ratified by, the academy. On the 

 one previous occasion, when congress asked advice 

 of the academy in a matter of legislation concern- 

 ing the consolidation of surveys, the report of the 

 committee was discussed, amended, and adopted 

 by the academy as a whole, as, indeed, the impor- 

 tance of the subject warranted ; and the recommen- 

 dation of the academy was sufficiently mature to 

 command the respect of all. In the present case 

 this has not been done ; and whatever aid or sug- 

 gestion this present committee has given, is there- 

 fore to be credited to them individually, and has 

 not the weight of the authority of the academy as 

 such. The committee, after being shorn of two of 

 its best members, has submitted two distinct propo- 

 sitions, both of which are, they say, ' the general 

 sentiment and wish of men of science,' although 

 they give us no hint as to how they discovered or 

 drew out such expressions of opinion. Both their 

 propositions embody the general feature of the col- 

 lection of the scientific and other bureaus under 

 one general authority, to be recognized as responsi- 

 ble for and controlling generally the scientific op- 

 erations of the government. Among the definite 

 forms that might be given to such central authority, 

 they specify two ; namely, — 



(A) The establishment of a new special depart- 

 ment of science as one of the principal branches 

 of the executive department of the government 

 (see article ii. of the federal constitution), to which 

 shall be given the direction and control of all the 

 purely scientific work of the government; and 

 which work should be cultivated, they say, because 

 scientific investigation promotes that general wel- 

 fare the attainment of which was the object of the 

 constitution. 



(B) The transfer of all such work or bureaus 

 as now exist to some one of the present executive 



