United States, and give publicity to every 

 discovery which they may have been enabled 

 to make. 



Art. 4. To obtain information respecting the mineral 

 waters of the United States, their locality, 

 analysis and utility; together with such topo- 

 graphical remarks as may aid valetudinarians. 



Art. 5. To invite communications on agricultural subjects, 

 on the management of stock, their diseases and 

 the remedies. 



Art. 6. To form a topographical and statistical history 

 of the different districts of the United States, 

 noticing particularly the number and extent of 

 streams, how far navigable; agricultural products, 

 the imports and exports; the value of lands; the 

 climate, the state of the thermometer and barom- 

 eter; the diseases which prevail during the differ- 

 ent seasons; the state of the arts and 

 manufactures; and any other information which 

 may be deemed of general utility. 



Art. 7. To publish annually, or whenever the Institute 

 shall have become possessed of a sufficient stock 

 of important information, such communications 

 as may be of public utility; and to give the 

 earliest information, in the public papers, of 

 all discoveries that may have been made by or 

 communicated to the Institute. 6 



The activities deriving from these objectives, Dr. Cut- 

 bush told a large audience at Congress Hall on the evening 

 of January 11, 1817, would bring numerous advantages to 

 Washington. "It is true," Cutbush emphasized, "that in the 

 infantile state of our city, we cannot boast of the possession 

 of many, whose avocations have permitted them to devote 

 their time to the cultivation of the sciences." Still, he felt con- 

 fident that there were many people in Washington who pos- 

 sessed the "industry and an ardent desire to promote the 

 objectives of the Institute." Those "minds, when allured to 

 the contemplation of those objectives, aided by a botanical 



6 Rathbun, The Columbian Institute, p. 67. 



3 



