The publications of the establishment are as numerous as those of a great publishing house, and as a matter of fact, they are all given away; although there is a provision for their sale at cost price, I doubt if a thousand dollars’ worth has been sold in five years. There are three series, the aspect of which must be familiar to every observing person who has ever spent a day among the shelves in any American library of respectable standing. The Smithsonian “Contributions to Knowledge,” now including twenty-three stately volumes quarto with 116 memoirs, in all 12,456 pages, and numerous fine plates, the Smithsonian miscellaneous collection, in octavo, containing 122 papers with 20,299 pages, and thirty-five annual reports. The papers included in these volumes are all published separately, the number of separate volumes printed up to this time being above 500. These include papers varying in length from 4 to 1,000 pages, by the most eminent specialists in every branch of science. The most recent work, one now in progress, two volumes having been published, is a systematic work on the botany of North America by Dr. Asa Gray; another is an illustrated work on prehistoric fishing, by Dr. Charles Rau.
I have never seen an estimate of the value of the books distributed during the thirty-eight years, but I should judge that it can not fall below $1,000,000, estimating the prices at standing publishing rates.
In addition to the direct publications of the Institution let us look at the numerous magnificent volumes of scientific reports printed in more or less direct coöperation with the Institution by the various government surveys and exploring expeditions, at government expense. Who can doubt that the extent of this literature, which is a constant source of comment in foreign scientific journals, where it is desired to stimulate European governments to publish scientific researches in a similar way, is largely a product of the influence of the Institution?
One of the main features of the Institution in its early days was its library. Its publications were distributed throughout the world to every scientific and literary institution of good repute, and in exchange they sent their own publications. In this way an immense collection of scientific periodicals and journals was received, and the Smithsonian library became one of the most extensive in the world in this department. Books came in freely from other quarters and the support of the library became a great burden to the Smithson fund. The same policy which led to the abandonment of the Smithsonian cabinet, led to a transfer of the library, and in 1866 the books were transferred to the Capitol where they are cared for as a section of the national library under the name of “The Smithsonian Deposit.” The books come in as heretofore, in exchange and as donations, and are sent weekly to their place of custody at the other end of the mall. The increase in 1883 amounted to 11,739 books and pamphlets, and the total deposit amounts to about 100,000 volumes. Several thousand volumes are retained in the working libraries of the Institution.
At the time of the Smithson bequest the endowment of research had scarcely been attempted in America. There were schools and colleges in which science was taught and certain of the professors employed in these institutions were engaged in original investigation. There were a few young and struggling scientific societies, the American Academy of Sciences in Boston, and the Boston Society of Natural History, the Connecticut Academy of Sciences, the New York Lyceum of Natural History (now the New York Academy of Sciences), the American Philosophical Society, and the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. The American Association for the Advancement of Science was not organized until 1840. The publications of these societies were necessarily very limited in extent and influence, but then together with the monthly journal published at New Haven, by Professor Silliman, they embodied the chief outcome of American scientific work. Science in America was an infant in swaddling clothes. Forty years have passed and American science now stands by the side of the science of Britain, of Germany, of France, a fellow worker, competing on an equal footing in nearly every field of research. No one is likely to question the statement that the Smithsonian Institution has done what was absolutely indispensable to the rapid and symmetrical development of American scientific institutions, and it is equally certain that the progress of American science has had an immense influence upon the welfare of America in every department of intellectual and industrial activity. It has offered a helping hand to every institution and every individual in America capable of profiting by its generous aid, and has stimulated coöperation by them with similar workers abroad. In this way its influence has been enormous, but still greater has been the benefit of its stimulating powers upon the policy of the general government toward scientific ends.
FOOTNOTES
[H] “One trait,” remarks Professor Gray, “may not be wholly omitted from the biography of one who has well been called ‘the model of a Christian gentleman,’ and who is also our best example of a physical philosopher. His life was the practical harmony of the two characters. His entire freedom from the doubts which disturb some minds is shown in that last letter which he dictated, in which he touches the grounds of faith, both in natural and revealed religion; also in his sententious declaration upon some earlier occasions, that the person who thought there could be any real conflict between science and religion must be either very young in science or very ignorant of religion.”