REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 

 List of comets observed in 1880. 



13 



All arrangement in regard to the exchange of telegrams of astro- 

 nomical discoveries was proposed by Lord Lindsay in connection with 

 the working of his jnivate observatory of Dun Echt, in Scotland, and 

 the Institution was invited to exchange therewith telegraphic commu- 

 nications in regard to tlie discovery of comets and asteroids. After 

 further conference with the director in charge of the observatory of 

 Greenwich it was concluded that dispatches sent to the latter would 

 answer all the purposes by simply providing for the i)rompt repetition 

 of these dispatches from Greenwich to Dun Echt. 



EXCHANGES. 



International Exchanges. — The system of international exchanges which 

 has been successfully prosecuted for thirty years may be regarded as 

 having been inaugurated by this Institution. A method of exchange 

 had indeed been carried on for some years previously by Mr. Alexander 

 Vattemare, of Paris, France, but on essentially different principles. Mr. 

 Vattemare's plan consisted in obtaining duplicate volumes and contri- 

 butions from booksellers, literary and scientific societies, public libraries, 

 and other sources, and then from the collected mass making to his 

 various contributors returns, at his own discretion, of what appeared to 

 him a fair equivalent. Such a method of course presupposed a great 

 familiarity with the actual possessions of the various bodies in corres- 

 pondence, as well as of their needs; and while undoubtedly beneficial in 

 some cases, was likely to be entirely unsuccessful in others. 



The Smithsonian system consists substantially in offering to cor- 

 respondents a safe and gratuitous channel of intercommunication, eacli 

 being responsible to the other for the amount and character or value of 

 the packages interchanged, the Institution assuming, between them, 

 only the relation or function of carrier. It naturally happens, however, 

 not unfrequently, that the Institution is requested to designate suitable 

 parties to whom publications of a particular character should be sent. 

 Such a request is responded to, either by furnishing such lists of names 

 or societies as may be supj^osed to be desirable, or by undertaking the 

 actual assignment of such works as are submitted to- its discretion, dur- 

 ing the process of making up its own packages. 



