that full credit be given to the name of Smithson. This liberal policy has never been discontinued.
The institution established systematic meteorological observations, 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 could be accomplished as well by other means, and of relinquishing 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 induced Congress from time to time to make separate appropriations from the public Treasury in support of the National Museum, and of certain branches of work directly ordered by the Government itself. The library soon outgrew its limited quarters, and in 1866 was deposited in the Library of Congress, at a great saving of expense. The meteorological service was likewise transferred in 1874 to the Signal Corps of the United States Army.
For many years the institution conducted explorations in regard 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 Smithsonian.
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 executive 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 administrative ability. Under his care the National Museum was especially augmented, and the publications 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 systematic 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
