[108 



43 



in the chemical arts." This embraces two hundred and twelve pages, and 

 has been stereotyped. 



The fifth annual report of the Smithsonian Institution (for 1850) did 

 not appear until December, 1851. This consists of three hundred and 

 twenty-five pages with, and one hundred and forty-four pages without the 

 list of copyright books received by the Institution up to 1851. 



The report of Dr. F. E. Melsheimer, on the Coleoptera of the United 

 States, is in press and will appear some time in the course of 1852. 



The collection of Barometrical, Thermometrical, Hypsometrical and other 

 tables, by Professor Guyot, has been stereotyped, with the exception of a 

 few pages, and will be ready in a few weekj. It will embrace about two 

 hundred pages. 



A small pamphlet of directions for making collections of Natural History 

 has been printed and is nearly ready. This will serve as a substitute for the 

 larger work on the same subject which is now ready for the press. A cir- 

 cular sheet of similar character has also been published and extensively 

 distributed, as also a sheet of directions and lists for the observation and 

 registry of periodical phenomena of animal and vegetable life. 



2. DISTRIBUTION OF VOLUMES AND EXCHANGE. 



During the past year the second volume of the Smithsonian Contributions 

 to Knowledge issued from the press, after having been subjected to many 

 unforeseen delays. The first (copies received from the binder were sent to 

 such domestic institutions as were on the list. Their distribution was 

 effected very rapidly by forwarding those for each district to some central 

 bookseller, and mailing letters of advice to each institution or library to 

 be supplied, informing it of the fact. The distribution was accomplished 

 with such promptness in this way, that in the course of a month or six 

 weeks all the copies, with few exceptions, reached their destination. Ac- 

 knowledgments have already been received for nearly all. The gentlemen 

 to whom the Institution is mainly indebted for this service, performed 

 gratuitously in all cases, are Messrs. J. P. Jewett & Co., Boston ; Geo. P. 

 Putnam, esq.. New York; Lippincott, Grarabo & Co., Philadelphia; John 

 Russel, esq., Charleston; and H. W. Derby & Co., Cincinnati. 



Nearly all the packages sent out, included copies of the History of the 

 Indian tribes, by Messrs. Schoolcraft and Eastman, and presented by the 

 Honorable Luke Lea, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, to such institutions, 

 selected from the list of the Smithsonian Institution, as were judged entitled 

 to them. A special acknowledgment direct to the Indian Bureau was re- 

 quested. 



The parcels for a few institutions in the South and West are still on hand, 

 no favorable mode of transmission having yet presented itself. Most of 

 these, however, will be taken charge of by members of Congress, and by 

 them conveyed to their destination. 



It was not until the beginning of July that copies enough were received 

 to supply the foreigif Ijusts. By the 21st, however, all the parcels were in 

 readiness, catalogued arkJ boxed up for sending, and invoices of the contents 

 of each prepared for traj ' ' ' mail direct. The lists used in the 



distribution of the first ^ '•ably enlarged, and subjected to 



various corrections, will I di». 



) 



