52 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



The donation from the Royal Library of Munich, mentioned above, 

 is a part of a large invoice of rare and valuable works, including many 

 incunabula, for presentation to different specified libraries in the 

 United States, after this Institution should have made its selec- 

 tion. 



The purchases have been chiefly in the way of completing such 

 series of transactions as could not be obtained by exchange, and of 

 works necessary to the investigations connected with the Institution, 

 such as those on natural history, meteorology, &c. 



About one third of the expenditure under the head of "cost of 

 books,' ' given in the report of the executive committee, is for bind- 

 ing — an item of expense which is every year increasing with the num- 

 ber of serials received through our exchanges ; the current volumes of 

 this kind being usually distributed in paper covers. Since the date 

 of the last report, all the scientific pamphlets have been classified 

 according to subjects, and placed in the hands of the binder. 



The policy adopted in regard to the library, as we have said, is that 

 of rendering it a special collection, as complete as possible in transac- 

 tions, proceedings of learned societies, and other scientific serials; and 

 since the space which can be devoted — without further extension of the 

 building — to the increase of this and other collections is limited, it has 

 been thought proper to present to the American Antiquarian Society a 

 large accumulation of newspapers in exchange for works more imme- 

 diately in accordance with the design of the Institution, and with one of 

 the fundamental propositions of the programme of organization, viz: 

 that of doing nothing with its funds which can be done equally well or 

 better by other means. While the care of these ephemeral publica- 

 tions would be troublesome and expensive to the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, it forms a legitimate part of the duty of the Antiquarian Society, 

 which has a considerable fund expressly devoted to the purpose. This 

 disposition of the papers, many of which have been presented to the 

 Institution, is not made on account of a want of proper appreciation 

 of their value; on the contrary, we fully agree with the opinion ex- 

 pressed by Mr. Haven, the learned librarian of the Antiquarian So- 

 ciety, "that even partial series, when properly arranged, constitute a 

 geographical and historical chart of public sentiment, and of social 

 and political facts, in which sectional and denominational diversities, 

 of whatever kind, are brought under a single view for examination and 

 comparison." They have been presented to the Antiquarian Society 

 that they may better subserve this object, and in the spirit of coopera- 

 tion which characterizes the policy of the Institution. 



