REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 



39 



The works received embrace most of the current volumes of scientific 

 transactions, with some back series, and are of the highest importance 

 as materiaLs of scientific research. 



In the followin*^ tables are exhibited the chief statistics of exchange 

 during both 1856 and 1857. The last annual report did not fully 

 cover the subject, owing to the fact that a supplementary sending was 

 required in January, 1857, to complete that of July, 1856, and a re- 

 port for 1856 could not reasonably include what was actually not per- 

 formed till the ensuing year. In presenting the series of tables 

 throughout, those of transmissions for 1856 are to be uuderstood as 

 embracing parcels forwarded in January 1857. This will explain the 

 apparent disproportion in amount for the two years, as much of what 

 was sent in the beginning of 1857 would otherwise not have gone until 

 the ensuinsr summer. 



B. 



Table shnoing the statistics of foreign exchanges of the Smithsonian Inslitulion in 1856. 



