ABSTRACT
In the autumn of 1965, in Washington, D.C., the Smithsonian Institution celebrated, with appropriate pomp and some circumstance, the two-hundredth anniversary of the birth of its founder, James Smithson. On July 7, 791, Smithson read to the Royal Society his first scientific paper, entitled "An Account of Some Chemical Experiments on Tabasheer," tabasheer being a curious concretion found in the hollow of bamboo canes and "an article of importance in the materia medica of the ancient Arabians." Smithson apparently lived in Paris through much of the turbulent period of the French Revolution, and at least in the early stages of that struggle his sympathies were with the revolutionists. The organic Act of August 10, 1846, establishing the Smithsonian Institution provided the framework on which to build. Although it contained imperfections, it also demonstrated an honest attempt on the part of Congress to interpret and implement the wishes of Smithson, whose directions were, after all, open-ended.
