74 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, lf>20. 



Packages from foreign countries frequently contain more than one 

 publication. The returns from abroad, therefore, are larger than 

 would be supposed from a casual glance at the figures in the table. 

 Even allowing for this, there is still a disparity between the number 

 of publications sent and those received through the International 

 Exchange Service. This apparent one-sidedness, however, is largely 

 offset by the number of publications received by governmental and 

 other establishments in this country directly through the mails from 

 abroad. Several years ago (1907) the Institution brought this sub- 

 ject to the attention of the various bureaus of the Government and 

 offered to make a special effort to secure for them more adequate 

 returns for the publications sent by them through the Exchange 

 Service to foreign correspondents. While several offices took ad- 

 vantage of this offer, and a large number of foreign publications 

 were received for them by the Institution, many of the bureaus 

 stated that the quantity and value of the publications received, either 

 through the International Exchange Service or direct by mail, were 

 considered an equivalent for the documents sent abroad. Quota- 

 tions from some of the letters are given below : 



Coast and Geodetic Survey. — Not all of our publications forwarded to foreign 

 addresses are sent, in anticipation of exchanges to be received by this bureau. 

 Many are sent to individuals from whom no return is expected. I take it that 

 in like manner many individuals, citizens of the United States, are favored with 

 publications of interest to them put out by foreign Governments. I think we 

 are now receiving all of the publications of other Governments in which we are 

 interested. Many of these reach us through the mails. 



Weather Bureau.— It is believed that the bureau already receives adequate 

 returns from its foreign correspondents, most of whom send their publications 

 by mail direct. 



Office of the Chief of Staff. — Many of the exchanges are received by the War 

 Department from our military attaches abroad, all of whom have pouch service 

 through the Department of State, which probably accounts largely, if not en- 

 tirely, for the lesser number of packages received than sent. 



Nautical Almanac Office. — The Ephemeris, being issued every year, makes 

 the volume of our publications larger than that of most observatories, and on 

 that, account anything like an equality in the number of packages exchanged 

 can not be expected. 



Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. — The cause of the excess of 

 packages sent by this bureau through your exchange as compared with those 

 received for it is, as you are probably aware, that this department has no 

 adequate appropriation for the payment of postage on packages sent abroad 

 and is therefore obliged to avail itself of the lesser expense of sending them 

 through your Institution, while foreign Governments in most cases pay the 

 postage on exchanges and mail them direct to this bureau. 



Surf/eon General's Office, War Department. — The volumes of the Index Cata- 

 logue, the only publication of this office now sent through the Smithsonian 

 Exchange Service, have been forwarded annually to the libraries of the most 

 important medical and other scientific institutions in foreign countries — includ- 

 ing the universities in France and Germany — receiving, in return, the theses 

 and dissertations of the universities and such publications as the other insti- 



