REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 23 



charge of the exchange system, includes about 3,000 titles, and forms an 

 octavo volume of 174 pages, being No. 469 of the Smithsonian publica- 

 tion. 



The various papers on anthropological subjects, contributed by Dr. 

 Chas. Ran to the Smithsonian Annual Reports, from 1860 to 1877, have 

 been collected and issued in one volume, with a preface by the author 

 containing notes as to changes and additions rendered necessary by re- 

 cent observations and researches. 



The work forms an octavo volume of 180 pages, with 53 wood-cuts, 

 and constitutes No. 440 of the Smithsonian series of publications. 



The steady increase of publications by the Institution renders neces- 

 sary a frequent reissue and extension of the i^rinted list of the same. 

 The last check-list (to the end of 1881) presented 438 titles, stated in 

 brief, and occupying 20 pages 8vo. It wds at the time designed to have 

 a more complete catalogue prepared, giving the title-page of each work 

 in full. Mr. William J. Rhees has accordingly undertaken the labor 

 of compiling such a catalogue, in a much more thorough and satis- 

 factory form than has heretofore been attempted. This list (including 

 40 additional titles) has been brought down to the 1st of July, 1882. 

 The whole number of titles is 478 ; and in addition to a full biblio- 

 graphical description of each work, in the case of volumes which em- 

 brace several independent articles (as the Contributions, Collections, 

 Reports, Bulletins, and Proceedings), the contents of each are given. 

 This catalogue (of 89 pages) is followed by a classified list of all the 

 separate i)ublications, under general heads. A very full alphabetical 

 index of all the articles contained in each of the publications (with 

 abundant cross-references) concludes the work. The whole (including 

 14 pages of prefatory information), comprises 342 pages, 8vo. In order 

 to make this catalogue still more available, it is intended to supple- 

 ment it with a complete subject-matter index of all the subjects treated 

 of in the different publications, including the miscellaneous papers fur- 

 nished in the annual reports. 



A history of the rise and progress of the Smithsonian system of ex- 

 changes has been prepared by Mr. George H. Boehmer, of the Institu- 

 tion. The account is prefaced by a sketch of some earlier efforts at 

 interchanges of a limited character, in order to show more clearly the 

 distinctive features of the Smithsonian system as an agency of univer- 

 sal exchange among learned societies and others, irrespective of spe- 

 cial returns to itself. The history includes the work of the Institution 

 with reference to the distribution of Government publications ; and 

 also a notice of the organization by the Paris convention of 1875, in 

 promotion of a system of international exchange of scientific and liter- 

 ary memoirs, together with the proceedings subsequently taken by other 

 nations in the matter. The whole forms a pamphlet; of 162 pages, 8vo. 



The interest attached to TucJcahoe, or Indian bread, as a well-known 

 and largely diffused article of food among the aborigines of our country, 



