REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 37 



articles) arc found to reach flic eiioi'mous iiuiiiber of 3,594; and yet 

 tlie.se by no means comprise, as it will be seen, all that the Smithsonian 

 lists contain. 



Five thousand seven hundred and thirty names Avere in fact received, 

 but many of these were duplicates, after striking- out which, 3,501 titles 

 remain, and a careful investigation by Mr. Boehmer, then in charge of 

 exchanges, shows that of these, 2,328 were foreign, and 1,26G were 

 domestic ; and that of the foreign titles but 792 were on our old lists. 

 As regards these latter, then, the final result of the inquiry is the nearly 

 trebling" of our foreign lists by adding to them 1,536 new titles (con- 

 sisting largely of iieriodicals begun in the past twelve or fifteen years), 

 and this list will be used by the library in obtaining, so far as possible, 



the ijeriodicals themselves. 



•- 



LIBRARY. 



Chiefly through its exchange system, the Smithsonian had in 1805 

 accumulated about forty thousand volumes, largely publications of 

 learned societies, containing the record of the actual progress of the 

 world in all that pertains to the mental and physical development of 

 the human family, and aflbrding the means of tracing the history of at 

 least every branch of positive science since the days of revival of let- 

 ters until the present time.* 



These books, in many cases presents from old European libraries, 

 and not to be obtained by purchase, formed even then one of the best 

 collections of the kind in the world. 



The danger incurred from the tire of that year, and the fact that the 

 greater portion of these volumes, being unbound and crowded into in- 

 sufficient space, could not be readily consulted, while the expense to 

 be incurred for this binding, enlarged room, and other purposes con- 

 nected with their use threatened to grow^ beyond the means of the In- 

 stitution, appear to have been the moving causes w^hich determined the 

 Kegents to accept an arrangement by which Congress was to place the 

 Smithsonian Library with its own in the Capitol, subject to the right of 

 the Kegents to withdraw the books on paying the charges of binding, 

 etc. Owing to the same causes (which have affected the Library of 

 Congress itself) these principal conditions, except as regards their 

 custody in a fire proof building, have never been fulfilled. 



The books are still deposited chietly in the Cai)itol, but though they 

 have now accumulated from 40,000 to fully 250,000 volumes and parts 

 of volumes, and form without doubt the most valuable collection of the 

 kind in existence, they not only remain unbound, but in a far more 

 crowded and inaccessible condition than they were' before the transfer. 

 It is hardly necessary to add that these facts are dejdored by no one 

 more than by the present efficient Librarian of Congress, who would, I 

 am confident, gladly give, as far as it lies in his power, effect to any ex- 



* Sec .SinitliHdiiiiui Report of 18()7. 



