THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



3 2 9 



-wards taken up by various governments which, through treaties, bound 

 themselves to exchange their own publications in the same way. Since 

 the inaguration of this service, 5,000,000 pounds weight of books and 

 pamphlets have been carried to every portion of America and of the 

 world. The institution existing not only for America, in which it has 

 over 8,000 correspondents, but for the world, has throughout Europe, 



SFEXCER Fl'LLERTOX BAIRD. 

 SECOND SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1S7S-18.S". 



Asia, Africa, and the islands of the sea, nearly 28,000 correspondents 

 more without the United States than within justifying the words 

 'Per Orbem,' as the device on the Smithsonian seal. 



Other work has been intrusted to the institution by the govern- 

 ment, such as the Bureau of American Ethnology, for studies relating 

 to the aborigines of this continent ; the Astrophysical Observatory, 



