REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 19 



Pamplilets : 



Octavo or smaller 1, 618 



Quarto or larger 477 



2, 095 



Maps and charts . . ^ 152 



Total 8, 570 



The Institution has received from Mr. John T. Fisk, president of the 

 American Industrial Deputation, at Puebla, Mexico, through his excel- 

 lency the Mexican minister, a very handsomely bound volume of small 

 size, of Prayers and Devotions, in the Spanish language. The binding 

 of this book is quite unique, the sides and back being covered with 

 highly polished plates of JMexican onyx, cemented upon a purple silk 

 cover, which is exposed only in the groove forming the flexible joint be- 

 tween the sides and the back. The front plate (four and a half inches 

 long, by two and seven-eighths inches wide, aud probably about three- 

 sixteenths of an inch at its middle, gently rounding and thinning toward 

 its edges) is of a delicate mottled pink color, and is embellished with orna- 

 mental engraving filled in gilt. The corresponding plate forming the 

 opposite cover is, of course, of exactly the same size ; but it is of a deli- 

 cate mottled green color: its oruamentation is similar to that of the front 

 side, though of a different design. The back of this curious volume is 

 entirely covered with a finely polished piece of delicately mottled blue 

 Mexican onyx, without ornament, nearly one inch in width, which has 

 been laboriously and skillfully hollowed out to conform to the rounded 

 back of the volume. On the front fly-leaf of the book the following in- 

 scription is written : " The Yery Rev. Monsignor Eulagio G. Gillou, do- 

 mestic prelate of the Pope, to the American Industrial Deputation, on 

 its visit to this city, presents this small token of the mineral produce 

 and industry of the State: it contains, besides, specimens of Mexican 

 poetry; with the request that it be placed by its distinguished president, 

 Mr. John Theo. Fisk, in some public institution of the United States 

 for the inspection of its citizens and artisans. " 



The Institution has also received, through the honorable Secretary of 

 State (by official letter of the department dated December 3, 880), 

 from the international exhibition commission of Sydney (X. S. \V.), 

 Australia (under cover of a letter dated !N"ovember 8, 1 880, from 11. W. 

 Cameron, esq., one of the United States commissioners to said exhibi- 

 tion), a specimen bronze medal of award of the said Sydney international 

 exhibition of 1879. This medal, three inches in diameter and a quarter 

 of an inch thick at its outer rim, presents a very fine specimen of die- 

 sinking. On its obverse side, within a border bearing the legend of the 

 exhibition, is represented in bold relief a female figure, standing, sur- 

 rounded by emblems of the arts, supporting with her left hand a shield 

 bearing the arms of the province, and extending with her right hand 

 the victor's laurel wreath, while in the rear is shown in low relief the 



