THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. MEMBERS EX OFFICIO OF THE "ESTABLISHMENT." GROVER CLEVELAND, President of the United States. RICHARD OLNEY, Secretary of State. JOHN G. CARLISLE, Secretary of the Treasury. WILLIAM L. WILSON, Postmaster-General. J. STERLING MORTON, Secretary of Agriculture. REGENTS OF THE INSTITUTION. (List given on the following page.) OFFICERS OF THE INSTITUTION. SAMUEL P. LANGLEY, Secretary, Director of the Institution and of the U. S. National Museum. G. BROWN GOODE, Assistant Secretary. IX REGENTS OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. By the organizing act approved August 10, 1846 (Revised Statutes, Title LXXIII, section 5580), and amended March 12, 1894, "The business of the institution shall be conducted at the city of Washington by a Board of Regents, named the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, to be composed of the Vice-President, the Chief Justice of the United States, three members of the Senate, and three members of the House of Representatives, together with six other persons, other than Members of Congress, two of whom shall be resident in the city of Washington and the other four shall be inhabitants of some State, but no two of the same State." REGENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1896. The Chief Justice of the United States: MELVILLE W. FULLER, elected Chancellor and President of the Board January 9, 1889. The Vice-President of the United States: ADLAI E. STEVENSON. Term expires. United States Senators: JUSTIN S. MORRILL (appointed Feb. 21, 1883, Mar. 23, 1885, and Mar. 3, 1897 SHELBY M. CULLOM (appointed Mar. 23, 1885, Mar. 28, 1889, and Mar. 3, 1901 GEORGE GRAY (appointed Dec. 20, 1892, and Mar. 20, 1893)...... Mar. 3, 1899 Members of the House of Representatives: JOSEPH WHEELER (appointed Jan. 10, 1888, Jan. 6, 1890, Jan. 15, 1892, Jan. 4, 1894, and Dec. 20, 1895).. Dec. 22, 1897 ROBERT R. HITT (appointed Aug. 11, 1893, Jan. 4, 1894, and Dec. 20, 1895). Dec. 22, 1897 ROBERT ADAMS, JR. (appointed Dec. 20, 1895) Dec. 22, 1897 Citizens of a State: JAMES B. ANGELL, of Michigan (appointed Jan. 19, 1887, and Jan. 19, 1899 ANDREW D. WHITE, of New York (appointed Feb. 15, 1888, and Mar. 19, 1900 WILLIAM PRESTON JOHNSTON, of Louisiana (appointed Jan. 26, 1892) ..... Jan. 26, 1898 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. ANNUAL MEETING OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS. JANUARY 22, 1896. In accordance with a resolution of the Board of Regents, adopted January 8, 1890, by which its stated annual meeting occurs on the fourth Wednesday of January, the board met to-day at 10 o'clock a. m. Present: The Chancellor (the Hon. M. W. Fuller) in the chair; the Vice-President of the United States (the Hon. A. E. Stevenson), the Hon. J. S. Morrill, the Hon. S. M. Cullom, the Hon. George Gray, the Hon. Joseph Wheeler, the Hon. R. R. Hitt, the Hon. Robert Adams, jr., the Hon. Andrew D. White, the Hon. J. B. Henderson, the Hon. Gardiuer G. Hubbard, the Hon. W. L. Wilson, and the Secretary Mr. S. P. Langley. Excuses for nonattendance were read from Dr. William Preston Johnston, on account of illness, and from Dr. J. B. Angell, on account of an important business engagement. At the Chancellor's suggestion, the Secretary read the minutes of the last meeting, in abstract. There being no objection, the minutes stood approved. The Secretary then announced the following reappointments and appointments of Regents: REAPPOINTMENTS. The Hon. S. M. Cullom, of Illinois, by the President of the Senate, on December 18, 1895. The Hon. Joseph Wheeler, of Alabama, and the Hon. R. R. Hitt, of Illinois, by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, on December 20, 1895. The Hon. William L. Wilson, of West Virginia, by joint resolution of Congress, approved by the President January 14, 1896. APPOINTMENTS. The Hon. Gardiner G. Hubbard, of Washington, D. C., by joint reso lution of Congress, approved by the President February 27, 1895. The Hon. Robert Adams, jr., of Pennsylvania, by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, on December 20, 1895. The Chancellor announced that the vacancies existing in the Executive Committee were customarily filled by the adoption of resolutions, and General Wheeler introduced the following: Resolved, That the vacancies in the Executive Committee be filled by the election of the Hon. William L. Wilson and the Hon. Gardiner G. Hubbard. Resolved, That the Hon. J. B. Henderson be elected chairman of the Executive Committee. On motion, the resolutions were adopted. The Chancellor announced the death of Dr. Henry Coppée, and appointed Senator Henderson and the Secretary a committee to draft suitable resolutions. Senator Henderson, on behalf of the committee, presented the following: Whereas the members of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution are called to mourn the death of their colleague, the late Henry Coppée, LL. D., acting president of Lehigh University, for twenty years a Regent of the Institution, and long a member of its Executive Committee: Resolved, That the Board of Regents feels sincere sorrow in the loss of one whose distinguished career as a soldier, a man of letters, and whose services in the promotion of education command their highest respect and admiration. Resolved, That in the death of Dr. Coppée the Smithsonian Institution and the Board of Regents have suffered the loss of a tried and valued friend, a wise and prudent counsellor, whose genial courtesy, well-stored, disciplined mind, and sincere devotion to the interests of the Institution will be ever remembered. Resolved, That these resolutions be recorded in the journal of the proceedings of the board, and that the Secretary be requested to send a copy to the family of their departed associate and friend in token of sympathy in this common affliction. On motion, the resolutions were unanimously adopted by a rising vote. The Secretary presented his annual report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1895, and said: “I may speak of the last year as one of varied and fruitful activities, which are detailed in this report, which, however, does not cover some points I desire presently to bring before the Regents." After discussion by the Regents of a report upon the condition of the Avery fund, the Secretary said: "I may ask the attention of the Regents to the fact that the Hodgkins fund prizes have been awarded, one of which the principal one, of $10,000—was given through the American embassy in London to Lord Rayleigh and Professor Ramsay for the discovery of a new element in the atmosphere 'Argon.' A similar prize of 50,000 francs was given nearly simultaneously to the same persons by the Institute of France. The second prize was not awarded, and the third (of $1,000) was given to M. Varigny for the best popular treatise, in accordance with the terms of the announcement. Morever, three silver and six bronze medals have been awarded to the laureates out of nearly two hundred contestants. Letters had been sent to these, with the thanks of the Institution, and inviting them to say whether they would have their memoirs remain here or be sent back. In certain cases, in accordance with the suggestion made last year by General Wheeler, preparations had been made for the publication of some of the more meritorious ones. Some of them exhibited such care and pains in the preparation that it was thought desirable to give some kind of token of the appreciation of the Institution, and medals of silver and bronze had been awarded. These medals (of which the Secretary showed a photograph) were now being struck.” Mr. Wheeler inquired if it was the papers that had received honorable mention which it was proposed to print, to which the Secretary responded that that was the purpose, save where the authors preferred to print themselves. The Secretary went on to say: There has probably been no single event in the history of the Institution which has drawn more attention to it abroad than the announcement and award of these prizes, which the Regents will remember were given in accordance with the expressed desire of the donor that such might be at any rate the first disposition of the income of the amount especially set apart by him for the study of the atmosphere. Having done this, I feel that a sort of pious duty has been accomplished in fulfilling the wishes of Mr. Hodgkins, but while the money has been well bestowed for once in drawing the almost universal attention of the scientific world to the Hodgkins bequest and to the Institution and the fund which it administers, as well as to its fitness as an administrator of other trusts of this character, it may be doubted if it is a wise policy to continue the giving of such large prizes, which have rarely been found efficacious in stimulating discovery. Unless, therefore, I am instructed by the Regents to do otherwise, the income hereafter will be spent in the customary channels of the Institution's activities, through the aid of investigations in regard to the air which more immediately promote the general welfare. The large amount required for the great prize to which I have alluded, and which is not likely to be called for again, has, of course, naturally limited the application of this fund to the aid of original research in more practical ways, which I hope it will take hereafter; but I may mention one outcome of it, a valuable investigation by Dr. Weir Mitchell and Dr. Billings in "The composition of expired air." Continuing, the Secretary said: I now desire to bring before the Regents a matter in which they may see fit to express some opinion. The fundamental act creating the Institution, in enumerating its functions, apparently considers it first as a kind of Gallery of Art, and declares that all objects of art and of foreign and curious research, the property of the United States, shall be delivered to the Regents, and only after this adds that objects of natural history shall be so also. The scientific side of the Institution's activities has been in the past so much greater than its æsthetic that it is well to recall the undoubted fact that it was intended by Congress to be a curator of the national art, and that this function has never been forgotten, though often in abeyance. In 1849, your first Secretary, Joseph Henry, in pursuance of this function of an Institution which, in his own words, existed for "the true, the beautiful, as well as for the immediately practical," purchased of the Hon. George P. Marsh a collection of works of art-chiefly engravings-for the sum of $3,000, understood then to be but a fraction of its cost, and which, owing to the great rise in the market value of such things in the last fifty years, does not in the least represent its value to-day. It is impossible to state what the present value of the collection is, without an examination of the engravings and etchings, but experts that I have consulted say that the rise in all good specimens of engraving and etching during the forty-seven |