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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



In 1850 Spencer Fullerton Baird, a distinguished naturalist, was 

 elected assistant secretary of the institution. To him the great activity 

 in natural history work was due, and by him the museum was fostered, 

 he being greatly aided from 1875 by a young and enthusiastic naturalist, 

 George Brown Goode. Secretary Baird initiated in the Smithsonian 

 Institution those economic studies which led to the establishment of the 

 United States Fish Commission. 



JOSEPH HENRY. 



FIRST SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1846-1878. 



As another means of diffusing knowledge there was early established 

 the bureau of international exchanges, originally intended simply for 

 the proper distribution of the Smithsonian's publications, but which 

 gradually assumed very wide proportions, becoming no less than an 

 arrangement with learned societies throughout the world to recipro- 

 cally carry free publications of learned societies, or of individual scien- 

 tific men, intended for gratuitous distribution. This system was after- 



