THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. MEMBERS EX OFFICIO OF THE "ESTABLISHMENT. (January, 1889.) GROVER CLEVELAND, President of the United States. JOHN J. INGALLS, President of the United States Senate pro tempore. MELVILLE W. FULLER, Chief-Justice of the United States. THOMAS F. BAYARD, Secretary of State. CHARLES S. FAIRCHILD, Secretary of the Treasury. WILLIAM C. ENDICOTT, Secretary of War. WILLIAM C. WHITNEY, Secretary of the Navy. REGENTS OF THE INSTITUTION. OFFICERS OF THE INSTITUTION. SAMUEL P. LANGLEY, Secretary. Director of the Institution, and of the U. S. National Museum. G. BROWN GOODE, Assistant Secretary. WILLIAM J. RHEES, Chief Clerk. REGENTS OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. By the organizing act approved August 10, 1846 (Revised Statutes, Title LXXIII, Section 5580), "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 [and the Governor of the District of Columbia], three members of the Senate, and three mem bers 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 1889. The Vice-President of the United States: JOHN J. INGALLS (elected President of the Senate pro tem. February 26, 1887) The Chief-Justice of the United States: MELVILLE W. FULLER, elected Chancellor and President of the Board J uary 9, 1889. United States Senators: JUSTIN S. MORRILL (appointed February 21, 1883).... Members of the House of Representatives: SAMUEL S. COX (appointed Jan. 5, 1888, died Sept. 10, 1 JOSEPH WHEELER (appointed January 5, 1888).... Citizens of a State: HENRY COPPÉE, of Pennsylvania (first appo Citizens of Washington: JAMES C. WELLING (first appoin T. JAMES C. W XII Dr. Coppée, in a fer est his character and partner thought the expressshould be placed upon ta motion, it was Resolved, That a m retary shall be c resolution expremin or Gray Chair ap the emer inent in the gratetution, of the -n in the De teacher ssion in a charm, but Spread on the y of our veneramily in token of widow of Dr. Gray id part of the "Flora been published by the In her possession and renname of the Regents to furn the occasion to express their labors of their late colleague; express her very sincere thanks. tion by joint resolution of Congress, .ary 15, 1888, of Dr. Andrew B. White, Regent for the term of six years, to fill → death of Dr. Gray. as the next business in order, the election -x, Chief-Justice Melville W. Fuller was unaniellor of the Institution. epting the office, after thanking the members of the pliment, expressed his desire to promote the objects on, in whose welfare, he was well aware, the late chanustice Waite, had such great interest, and he earnestly hould be able to discharge his duties with as much fidel Erman of the Executive Committee, presented its e year ending June 30, 1888; which was read and Board of Regents, his companions in scientific research, and the great body of younger men who looked up to him as their master, have all been made to realize that something has gone from the world which can ill be spared, and that their own lives have lost a part of that which made up their fulluess. Upon the Smithsonian Institution his loss falls with particular weight, since his active interest in its welfare is almost continuous with its existence, for he was one of the Committee of the American Acad emy of Arts and Sciences, the report of which upon the "plan proposed for the organization of the Smithsonian Institution," rendered in 1847, has exercised so active an influence upon the subsequent history of this establishment. Appointed a Regent in January, 1874, to succeed Prof. Louis Agas siz, his efficient and active interest in the welfare of this Institution has been one of its most valuable possessions, and it is with deeper feeling than formal resolutions of regret unsually convey that we now endeavor to express some part of our sense of irreparable loss. Dr. Gray's scientific reputation, while literally world-wide, was nat urally greatest in his own country, for it is he who has made the botanical world acquainted with probably nearly three-fourths of the forms that grow on this northern continent; and in this country, where everything was referred to his Harvard Herbarium and to his judg ment and classification, as the final court of appeal, he occupied a unique position as priest and pontiff of American botany. His botanical labors are otherwise too familiar to need rehearsal here, but it is not perhaps so generally known that he was an honored sponsor at the birth of the Darwinian Theory. In this constant correspondence with its illustrious author, Dr. Gray elicited the frequent expression of an admiration as hearty as it was sincere;* and in Europe as well as in this country our friend was recognized rather as the colleague than as the disciple of the great English naturalist. As another distinguished botanist has said of him, in speaking on this same subject, "Wherever it was known that Asa Gray saw nothing sinister, nothing dangerous, in the teachings of Darwin, those teachings were stripped of all their terrors. The impossibility that such a man, so eminent in science, so clear in his conceptions, so pure in his morals, and so steadfast in his faith, could pass judgment upon a work that he had not thoroughly examined, or favor a doctrine that could be productive of evil, was apparent to all who knew him, and to the full extent of Dr. Gray's wide influence throughout the world, the works of Charles Darwin were stricken from the index expurgatorius and admitted into the family circle as safe books for all to read. I Rather with the desire that a permanent record shall be made of the * "I said in a former letter that you were a lawyer, but I made gross mistake. am sure that you are a poet,-no, I will tell you what you are: a hybrid, a com plex cross of lawyer, poet, naturalist, and theologian! Was there ever such a monster seen before?" (Darwin to Gray, September 10, 1860.) |