26 REPORT OP THE SECRETARY. 



110 means satisfactory, audit seems desirable, either tlirough diplomatic 

 chauuels or through a special represeutative of the lustitutiou seut 

 abroad, to secure the interest and cooperation of the foreign govern- 

 ments and the learned societies where no official exchange bureau has 

 been established. 



The greater part of the expense of the service is now met by direct 

 appropriation for the purpose by Congress to the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion. A i^art of the expense is also met by appropriations to different 

 Government bureaus from their contingent funds, the Eegents of the 

 Institution having decided to make a charge to all Government bureaus 

 of 5 cents per pound weight for the transmission of their publications 

 or for the publications received for them from abroad. 



Special acknowledgments are due to the Treasury Department for 

 designating one of its otticers at the New York custom-house to receive 

 and transmit to Washington the international exchange cases addressed 

 to the Institntion, and I may in this connection again quote the remark 

 made by Prof. Henry in his report for 1854 : 



There is, therefore, no port to which the Smithsonian packages are 

 shipped where duties are charged on them, a certified invoice of con- 

 tents by the Secretary being sufficient to pass them through the custom- 

 house free of duty. On the other hand, all packages addressed to the 

 Institution arriving at the ports of the United States are admitted 

 without detention, duty free. 



By referring to the report of the curator, in the appendix, it will be 

 seen that over 100 tons of books passed through the exchange office 

 duringthefiscalyear 1892-'03, and while the service is used almostexclu- 

 sively for the transmission of printed matter of a scientific nature, nat- 

 ural history specimens, having no commercial value, are occasionally 

 transmitted under special permission, when they can not be conveniently 

 forwarded by the ordinary means of conveyance. 



The expenditures for the year have been $18,518.25, of which $17,000 

 were appropriated by Congress, $1,396.61 were paid by Government 

 bureaus, $87.35 by State institutions and others, leaving a deficiency 

 of $34.26. 



The amount estimated for the exchange bureau for tlie year 1893-'94 

 was $23,000, a sum which it was hoped would render it unnecessary to 

 call upon the different Government Departments for a part of the 

 expense attending the transmission of their publications, and would 

 also render it possible to put into effect a second treaty entered into by 

 the United States and other countries at the same time as the treaty 

 referred to above, by which each country undertook to distribute its 

 parliamentary proceedings immediately when issued. On account of a 

 lack of appropriations for this purpose no action has yet been taken by 

 the United States for carrying out this latter agreement. 



In my report for 1890 I stated that there had been expended from the 

 Smithsonian fund for the support of the international exchange sys- 

 tem, in the interests and by the authority of the National Government, 



