18 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1912. 



expended prior to June 30. The allotments for the year ending 

 June 30, 1913, aggregating $74,900, are as follows : 



For the Smithsonian Institution, for printing and binding annual re- 

 ports of the Board of Regents, with general appendixes $10, 000 



E'or the annual reports of the National Mnseuni, with general appen- 

 dixes, and for printing labels and blanlis, and for the bulletins and 

 proceedings of the National Museum, the editions of which shall not 

 exceed 4,000 copies, and binding, in half turkey or material not more 

 expensive, scientific books and pamphlets presented to or acquired 

 by the National Museum library 34,000 



For the annual reports and bulletins of the Bureau of American Eth- 

 nology, and for miscellaneous printing and binding for the bureau — 21, 000 



For miscellaneous printing and binding : 



International Exchanges 200 



International Catalogue of Scientific Literature 100 



National Zoological Park 200 



For miscellaneous printing and binding for the Astrophysical Observa- 

 tory, $400, and for 1,500 copies of volume 3 of the Annals of the 

 Astrophysical Observatory, $2,000 2, 400 



For the annual report of the American Historical Association 7, 000 



Total 74,900 



Distribution of publications. — There was under discussion before 

 committees of Congress at the close of the fiscal year, and later 

 enacted into law, certain proposed measures which particularly affect 

 the practice of the Institution and it branches in the distribution of 

 publications. As finally passed by Congress the law requires that 

 all Government publications must be mailed from the Government. 

 Printing Office, mailing lists or labels being forwarded to the Super- 

 intendent of Documents for that purpose. 



At the Regents' meeting in February last, the secretary called the 

 attention of the board to the proposed legislation and stated that the 

 publications of the Institution are not an incidental result of its 

 work but something planned for and systematically executed. The 

 Institution keeps in touch with all the principal scientific and art 

 establisliments of the world, and with experts in science and art 

 who are promoting work in a line with its own, or who are in posi- 

 tions to help in securing collections, information, or advice. The 

 actual labor of wrapping, labeling, and handling the Smithsonian 

 report had been furnished by the Institution and not by the Govern- 

 ment, and it was feared that the transfer of the actual work of 

 distribution of the publications of the Institution and its branches 

 to another establishment would distinctly tend to defeat the well- 

 considered plans under which it has been conducted heretofore. 



The law as enacted requires the transfer to the Public Printer by 

 October 1 of all publications on hand, and that distribution shall 

 thereafter be made from his office. This measure does not, however, 

 apply to the two series of publications published at the private 



