The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-07-10
KNOWLEDGE KEPT ON TAP.
All Sorts of Questions Sent to the
smithsonian--Finy Thousand In
quiries Answered Yearly for People
All Over the United STATES.

quiries Answered Yearly for People
All Over the United states.
Washington Letter to the New York Sun.
One branch of the work done by the
Smithsonian Institution Is little known,
and yet 1t is probably the most i'm
portant from a popular standpoint.
This is the answering OF questions re-
ceived from people all over the United
States. When a Sun reporter called at
the National museum yesterday he
found Prof. Otis T. Mason with a num-
ber of letters all dealing with the same
subject.
II am engaged" said Prof. Mason,
"in finding a suitable name for a coun-
try seat for a lady in California. This
is an example of the work we do in
this line. Some time ago / received q
letter from the lady telling me that she
desired a name for her country seat in
Marin county, Cal She wanted a name
taken from the Indian language.
wrote her that as there were some
fifty-eight Indian languages and more
than 200 dialects l would like her to
be more specific. / also suggested that
she select a name from the language
of one of the Indian tribes of Cali
fornia~ She replied that she would pre-
fer to have q California name and
would accept any but one from the
Digger Indians, to whom she appears
to have an antipathy. She wants a
name indicating mountain rest
mountain retreat or something else of
that kind. I have been going over our
books and dictionaries and will find her
the name.
1T takes a great deal of labor to
answer these questions, but the Smith
sonian makes 1t a point to answer
every sensible or well-intended ques-
tion which is propounded to it. We re-
ceive fifty thousand inquiries a year.
and none of them is neglected If it is
a question that can be answered. This
is the only government that does such
a thing. Such questions as that
have shown you. if sent to the British
museum, would be thrown into the
waste paper basket Prof. Henry in
augurated the system in vogue here
some forty years ago. He held that
well-informed man was n much better
citizen than an ignorant one, and that
it was his duty to impart information
whenever requested if such informa-
tion was obtainable.
" You must have a marvellous fund
of information, said a friend to him
one day.
:" Not at all, he replied; only know
the men who have it,
INFORMATION SEARCHERS.
prof. Young said that in the course
of his long experience at the Smithson"
hn ho ho1
pounded that somebody in Washington
was not able to answer. All these ques-
tions go to Prof. Langley, sec'eta1y
of the Smithsonian, and ore referred
by him to the proper departments. n
few days ago l had one from a man in
Kansas, who wanted know if at one
time the letter " was not included in
a numeral system. He could not find
it in his Chambers nor in the Encyclo-
raedia Britannica, but / dug it up out
Of an old British encyclopaedia TO" him.
The letters u and W in the Roman
alphabet are the same, so it was in this
way that his attention had been at
tracted to it. Another case was that
of a young girl in Maryland, who
wanted to know how to study Mary
land grasses. / told her that a book
fully explaining these grasses and Civ
ing copious illustrations had been writ
ten by one of the scientists of the de-
partment of agriculture and referred
her to him. A few days ago two young
boys, Sunday school scholars, came to
the museum and asked for the widows
mite They had been reading about it,.
Mr.. Cazenovitch, the Hebraic expert,
took them to the case in which we keep
the specimens of the widows mite and
took the coins from the case. He al
lowed them to examine the coins min
utely and they went away very hap
py.
BEATS THEM ALL.
THE Smithsonian Institution is of
| more benefit in the general distribution
of knowledge than all the scientific in
stitutions of England combined. Its
ramifications extend to all quarters of
the globe. There is not a country in
which there is a post Office where we
have not a correspondent. Not only
do they keep us informed of all that is
going on in the scientific world, but
they send US a great number of books,
which we distribute to other scientists
free of charge. For instance, suppose
a scientist in Iceland writes a book on
the temperature of the water, giving
the times of taking it and other obser-
vations. He does not know how to
oh nt hnt -ntn tiGtc 10 he, ,p