450 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the institution is also secretary of this board and the principal 

 executive officer. 



Buildings. The Smithsonian Institution is housed in two 

 buildings the Norman, castlelike structure completed in 1855, 

 and the huge one-story museum, to be noted below. The former 

 is occupied as follows : The east wing contains the administration 

 offices, comprising the rooms for the regents, the secretary, the 

 editor, and other officers. A small library of reference books 

 (thirty thousand volumes) occupies a part of the ground floor. 

 The main central hall is filled with valuable collections in or- 

 nithology and conchology, including the Isaac Lea cabinet of 

 shells. Above this, another large hall is devoted to prehistoric 

 anthropology. The west wing contains ichthyological specimens, 

 and a very beautiful collection of Crustacea, batrachia, and 

 ophidia. In the south porch is a small group of instruments of 

 research. 



Correspondence. The official and casual correspondence of 

 the Smithsonian Institution is no insignificant part of its daily 

 life. Letters are addressed to the Secretary by the most learned 

 scholars of Europe as well as by the humblest seeker after truth 

 living in the wilds of North America, and all receive considera- 

 tion and respectful answers. Tens of thousands of letters are an- 

 nually received and acknowledged. If inquiries are made which 

 the Secretary and his aids can not immediately answer, the letters 

 are referred to eminent specialists outside of the institution. 



The official list of correspondents, embracing learned societies 

 and men of science throughout the world, numbers twenty-four 

 thousand (1894). For a great many years the responsibility of the 

 official correspondence devolved on the chief clerk, Mr. William 

 J. Rhees, who is now keeper of the archives of the institution. 



The International Exchange Service. The Board of Re- 

 gents in 1851 established a system of international exchanges of 

 the transactions of learned societies and of certain other classes 

 of scientific works. The exchange extends also to specimens in 

 natural history. In 1867 Congress imposed upon the institution 

 the duty of exchanging official documents printed by order of 

 either House, or by the United States Government bureaus, for 

 similar works published by foreign governments. 



This international exchange is of the greatest service to 

 learned societies on both sides of the ocean, and to individual men 

 of. science who avail themselves of its privileges ; it involves a 

 prodigious amount of well-directed labor, as shown by the fact 

 that in the twelve months 1893 to 1893 over one hundred tons 

 of books were handled ; these comprised 39,500 packages and 31,- 

 850 Government documents sent out, besides 101,000 packages and 

 5,190 Government publications received. 



