Evening Capital

HALF A CENTURY OF SCIENCE AT THE
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.
Indebted For Its Existence to the Liberality of a Sensitive English Scientist Who
Had Been Snubbed by the Royal Society
of London.

The Smithsonian institution has been
established just 50 years, and the regents
at a recent meeting decided to observe
its semicentennial in an appropriate
manner. Their plans for doing this bring
forward the fact that it is to an English-
man that America is indebted for this
great storehouse of science. In a rather
obscure English cemetery in Genoa lie
the bones of James Smithson, who left
his whole fortune to the United States,
a country which he had never seen, for
the purpose of founding an institution
for the dissemination of scientific knowl-
edge. A simple monument of marble
marks the grave of this broad minded
Briton, but his memory is to be further
honored by the erection of two bronze
tablets, one on his tomb in Genoa and
another in the English church in the
same city.
There will also be issued a semicen-
tennial volume, giving an account of the
origin of the institution and summing up
the results of its half century of work in
all departments of science. A simple re-
cital of the unparalleled progress which
the institution has made in encouraging
scientific research and activity will be
more of a praise offering than pages of
eulogy.
The circumstances connected with the
founding of the Smithsonian are sure to
be recalled at the coming anniversary
celebration. It was due to the return of
a manuscript that James Smithson's
money came across the water to us in-
stead of remaining in England to endow
some British institution.
James Smithson came of a noble line
of ancestors, but on account of his hav-
ing been a natural son of the Duke of
Northumberland he never claimed any
title, and until he left college he bore the
name of his mother and graduated as
James Lewis Macie. In 1786, when he
was 27 years old, he assumed the name
of his father, but not his title. Smithson
inherited a fortune and devoted his
whole life to scientific investigation. He
was especially interested in the study of
geology and he made a valuable collec-
tion of minerals. Much of his time he
spent rambling over Europe, making
long excursions in the pursuit of new
specimens. He made perilous voyages
to small islands and had himself lower-
ed into mines in buckets. He discovered
a carbonate of zinc, which was named
smithsonite in his honor.
He was made a fellow of the Royal
society of London and afterward became
a vice president of the organization. For
years his scientific papers appeared in the
publications of the society, but in 1819
one of his articles was rejected. This so
injured the sensitive soul of the scientist
that he withdrew from the society and
changed his will, in which he had be-
queathed all his fortune to the London
society and transferred his bequest to
the United States. Perhaps it was his
antipathy to a monarchical form of gov-
ernment which made him select this
country instead of Germany or France,
where he was quite as much at home as
he was in England.
It was not a direct bequest, but was
made conditional. Mr. Smithson never
married, but he had a nephew and to
him the fortune of about $500,000 first
went. In the event of the death of the
nephew without male heir the whole
sum was to be given to the United
States government to be used for the
purpose of establishing in America
an organization "for the increase and
diffusion of knowledge among men."
Smithson died in Genoa in 1829, and
the nephew, who was not at all inter-
est in science, went to Paris, where
he lived for five years in the most
lively fashion that he could devise,
spending the interest of his uncle's
money with a lavish hand. As the
nephew died a bachelor the fortune re-
verted to the United States. We did not
get it without much litigation, though,
but finally the entire sum in golden soy-
ereigns was handed over to Richard
Rush, who had been sent over to get the
money. Mr. Rush, after finding that
the English bankers were trying to make
him pay an exorbitant rate of exchange,
boxed up the gold coins and put them
aboard a small sailing ship bound for
America. If the ship had gone down we
would have had no Smithsonian institu-
tion, but she arrived safely. Once more
the safety of the bequest was imperiled,
for while congress was quarreling over
the best method of applying the money
it was invested in Arkansas state bonds,
which have never been redeemed. The
government, however, was responsible
and had to restore the capital, although
it is claimed that Arkansas still owes
the interest. The building was begun in
1847 and has grown to be one of the
scientific centers of the world.