REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 11 



delayed. I have positive assurance from Professor Cope that it will be 

 completed within the present year, but the expense entailed in the pub- 

 lication has continued to prove far greater than the late Secretary had 

 anticipated, and I am sorry that the expectation of its completion dur- 

 ing the past year has not been fulfilled. 



I have referred in my last report to the demaud for greater economy 

 in publication, and to the probability that some change would bo re- 

 quisite in the form of the annual reports. It will be remembered ''jat 

 the Smithsonian Institution has three classes of publications: 



The Contributions to Knowledge. 



The Miscellaneous Collections. 



The Annual Reports. 



A brief review of tlie past and present condition of each of these 

 iwblications may here be made, with special reference to the latter. 

 For details concerning these different classes, and for the matter 

 actually presented under each, reference may be made to the appendix. 



Smithfionian Contributions to Knowledge. — The first work of original re- 

 search published by the Institution was the well-known treatise by Messrs. 

 Squier and Davis, in 1848, on Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi 

 Valley. This was the commencement of the quarto series entitled 

 " Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge," which now numbers 

 twenty-five volumes. This series is designed to record the results of 

 original research, oifering positive additions to human knowledge, either 

 undertaken by ageuts of the Institution or encouraged by its assistance. 

 In general character these contributions correspond somewhat with 

 the more elaborate transactions of learned societies. From causes 

 briefly adverted to in my last report, original memoirs deemed worthy 

 of a place in this series have been much rarer in later years than in the 

 earlier portion of the Institution's history. 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. — In 1862, a second series of pub- 

 lications was commenced by the Institution, in octavo form, with the 

 Meteorological and Physical Tables of Professor Guyot, under the title 

 of "Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections." This series embraces 

 papers or treatises of a more practical character than those of the Con- 

 tributions, including resumes of existing knowledge in special depart- 

 ments, systejnatic lists or classifications of species in the animal, 

 botanical, or mineral kingdoms of nature, tabular collections of natural 

 constants, scientific bibliographies, and other summaries, of value to 

 the students of physical or biological science. These collections now 

 number thirty-three volumes. 



Among the subjects heretofore included in this series have been the 

 proceedings or transactions of several scientific societies of Washington 

 (the Philosoi)hical, the Anthropological, and the Biological), which were 

 organized under the auspices of officers of the Smithsonian Institution. 

 To promote their usefulness the stereotyping of their several published 



