Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/334
302 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
that full credit be given to the name of Smithson. This liberal policy has never been discontinued.
The institution established systematic meteorological observa- tions, it instituted the first telegraphic weather service, published meteorological tables and charts, and became, in fact, the parent of the present Weather Bureau,
The institution early adopted a policy of doing nothing which co-uld be accomplished as well by other means, and of relinquish- ing undertakings causing a draft upon its finances so soon as other bodies, or the Government, should agree to take them in charge. In pursuance of this wise plan the Secretary and the Regents in- duced Congress from time to time to make separate appropria- tions from the public Treasury in support of the National Mu- seum, and of certain branches of work directly ordered by the Government itself. The library soon outgrew its limited quar- ters, and in 186G was deposited in the Library of Congress, at a great saving of expense. The meteorological service was likewise transferred in is7-i to the Signal Corps of the United States Army.
For many years the institution conducted explorations in re- gard to the ethnology of the Indians of North America, and this has developed into an important Bureau of Ethnology, supported by Government appropriations, yet controlled by the Smithso- nian.
The botanical collection was transferred to the Department of Agriculture, and the osteological specimens were placed in the Army Medical Museum.
The Smithsonian has been exceedingly fortunate in its execu- tive officers. After the death of Henry, in 1878, Prof. Spencer F. Baird, the eminent naturalist, was called to the secretaryship. He had been United States Commissioner of Fishes for seven years and Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian for twenty-eight years, and thus brought to the post wide experience as well as ad- ministrative ability. Under his care the National Museum was especially augmented, and the jDublications were issued uniformly on the lines laid down by his predecessor. Of his distinguished services to science we can not here take note ; we merely quote two paragraphs from the resolutions adopted by the Board of Regents, November 18, 1887, on the occasion of his death :
" Resolved, That the cultivators of science both in this country and abroad have to deplore the loss of a veteran and distinguished naturalist, who was from early years a sedulous and successful investigator, whose native gifts and whose experience in sys- tematic biologic work served in no small degree to adapt him to the administrative duties which filled the later years of his life, but whose knowledge and whose interest in science widened and deepened as the opportunities for investigation lessened, and who
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