Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution

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Page 7 - I mean stock to remain in this country, to the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.
Page 145 - He says you had the notion from him, though he owns the demonstration of the curves generated thereby to be wholly your own. How much of this is so, you know best, as likewise what you have to do in this matter ; only Mr.
Page 11 - To carry out the plan before described, a library will be required, consisting, 1st, of a complete collection of the transactions and proceedings of all the learned societies in the world ; 2d, of the more important current periodical publications, and other works necessary in preparing the periodical reports.
Page 138 - About the year 1645, while I lived in London (at a time when, by our Civil Wars, Academical Studies were much interrupted in both our Universities:) beside the Conversation of divers eminent Divines, as to matters Theological ; I had the opportunity of being acquainted with divers worthy Persons, inquisitive into Natural Philosophy, and other parts of Humane Learning ; And particularly of what hath been called the New Philosophy or Experimental Philosophy.
Page 8 - To increase knowledge : It is proposed — 1. To stimulate men of talent to make original researches by offering suitable rewards for memoirs containing new truths; and, 2. To appropriate annually a portion of the income for particular researches, under the direction of suitable persons.
Page 140 - And like th' old Hebrews many years did stray In deserts but of small extent, Bacon, like Moses, led us forth at last. The barren wilderness he past, Did on the very border stand Of the blest promis'd land, And from the mountain's top of his exalted wit, Saw it himself, and shew'd us it.
Page 8 - Each memoir presented to the Institution to be submitted for examination to a commission of persons of reputation for learning in the branch to which the memoir pertains, and to be accepted for publication only in case the report of this commission is favorable.
Page 138 - Our business was (precluding matters of theology and state affairs) to discourse and consider of philosophical enquiries, and such as related thereunto: as Physick, Anatomy, Geometry, Astronomy, Navigation, Staticks, Magneticks, Chymicks, Mechanicks, and Natural Experiments; with the state of these studies and their cultivation at home and abroad.
Page 203 - ... or of the more tangible agents described in toxicological text-books. It was not a poison dug out of the earth, extracted from plants, or prepared in the laboratory of the chemist. It was not a poison administered by design or negligence. But it was a poison unknown to all concerned ; and was eaten with the meat in which it was contained, and of which it formed a living constituent. When...
Page 138 - Mercury, the improvement of telescopes, the grinding of glasses for that purpose, the weight of air, the possibility or impossibility of vacuities, and Nature's abhorrence thereof, the Torricellian experiment in quicksilver, the descent of heavy bodies and the degree of acceleration therein, and divers other things of like nature.

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