Briefly stated, the plan of Professor Henry was to "increase knowledge" by original investigations and study, either in science or literature, and to "diffuse knowledge" not only through the United States, but everywhere, and especially by promoting an interchange of thought among the learned in all nations, with no restriction in favor of any one branch of knowledge. A leading feature of his plan was "to assist men of science in making original researches, to publish them in a series of volumes, and to give a copy of them to every first-class library on the face of the earth." There is said to be probably not a scientific observer of any standing in the United States to whom the Institution has not at some time extended a helping hand, and this aid also goes liberally across the Atlantic. As income grew, the scope has been enlarged. In the various museums there is a particularly good collection of American ethnology, and a most elaborate display of American fossils, minerals, animals, birds and antiquities. There are also shown by the Fish Commission specimens of the fishing implements and fishery methods of all nations, an exhibition which is unexcelled in these special departments. Many specifically interesting things are in the National Museum. The personal effects of Washington, Jackson and General Grant are there. Benjamin Franklin's old printing-press is preserved in a somewhat dilapidated condition, and there is also the first railway engine sent from England to the United States, the original "John Bull," built by Stephenson & Son at Newcastle-on-Tyne in June, 1831, and sent out as "Engine No. 1" for the Camden and Amboy Railroad crossing New Jersey, now a part of the Pennsylvania Railroad. It weighs ten tons, and has four driving-wheels of fifty-four inches diameter. This relic, after being used on the railroad for forty years, until improved machinery superseded it, has been given the Government as a national heirloom. Among the anthropological collections is a chronologically arranged series illustrating American history from the period of the discovery to the present day. This includes George Catlin's famous collection of six hundred paintings, illustrating the manners and customs of the North American Indians. One of the most important features of the work of this most interesting establishment is its active participation in all the great International Expositions by the loan to them of valuable exhibits under Government direction and control. THE SOLDIERS' HOME AND WASHINGTON MONUMENT.