8 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



PUBLICATIONS. 



The publications of the Institution may be said to now comprise four 

 series. First, the " Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge" in quarto 

 form, presenting the results of original research (corresponding gen- 

 erally with the transactions of learned societies), of which 25 vol- 

 umes have been published. Second, the "Smithsonian Miscellaneous 

 Collections," in octavo form, presenting papers, tabulations, classi- 

 ficatious, and other compilations, generally of a more technical and 

 practical character, of which 30 volumes have been published. Third, 

 the "annual reports of the Board of Kegents of the Institution" to 

 Congress, in octavo form, containing, in addition to the exposition of 

 the operations and condition of the Institution, papers from corre- 

 spondents illustrating the progress of scientific investigation, of which 

 40 volumes have been published. Fourth, the more recent series of 

 "Annual Reports, of the Bureau of Ethnology" in imperial octavo 

 form, of which 4 volumes have been published. 



Smithsoman Contributions to Knoiolerlge. — The only memoir of this 

 series actually issued during the past fiscal year, is " Researches upon 

 the Venoms of Poisonous Serpents," by S. Weir Mitchell, M. D., and 

 Edward T. Reichert, M. D. This forms a quarto volume of 196 pages, 

 illustrated by 4 cuts inserted in the text and 5 colored plates. This 

 work was leaving the printer's hands at the close of the last fiscal year, 

 though it was not actually published until the beginning of the ijresent 

 fiscal year, and it was fully described in the last annual report. 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. — ^Numerous i)apers belonging 

 to this series have been published during the past year, and 3 com- 

 plete volumes have been collected from the published papers on 

 hand. These have been selected without reference to their chronolog- 

 ical order, but mainly with regard to the average size of the resulting 

 volume, and also with some attention to congruity of compilation. The 

 numbers prefixed to the following titles indicate merely their order in 

 the official catalogue of publications. 



512. " List of Institutions in the United States receiving Publications 

 of the Smithsonian Institution," comprising over 1,800 addresses, with 

 a prefatory statement of the rules for the distribution of publications. 

 Octavo, xii+72 pages. 



522. " Miscellaneous Collections. Vol.XXVlII." The fourth edition 

 (revised and enlarged) of " Tables Meteorological and Physical." By 

 Arnold Guyot, LL. D., edited by William Libbey, jr. Octavo, xxv+ 

 747 pages. This is a reprint for the Miscellaneous Collections of the 

 edition published in 1884, and was fully described in the Smithsonian 

 report for 1884-'85. 



536. " List of Astronomical Observatories." By George H. Boehmer. 

 This is a simple list of the observatories, American and foreign, alpha- 



