20 S. Mis. 53. 



is stereotyped, and therefore copies can be supplied at any time, at a 

 comparatively small cost. 



4. A description of the portraits of the North American Indians in 

 the gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, by the painter of the portraits, 

 J. M. Stanley, esq. This is a pamphlet of sevent3^-six pages, and con- 

 tains brief sketches of the characters and incidents in the history of 

 forty-three different tribes of Indians. 



5. The first part of the collection of tables to facilitate meteorological 

 and other calculations, by Professor Guyot : this was mentioned in the 

 last report, and has been stereotyped and distributed. It is a very 

 acceptable present to the meteorological observers of the Institution, 

 and other persons engaged in scientific investigations. 



Several reports on different subjects are in progress of preparation; 

 but the appropriation for this part of the programme of operations is at 

 present so small, that the completion of them has not been urged upon 

 the authors. The first part of the report on forest trees, by Dr. Gray, 

 of Cambridge, will be ready for the press the latter part of the present 

 or beginning of the next year. 



Distribution of publications mid exchanges. — Copies of the Smithsonian 

 Contributions to knowledge are sent to all the first-class libraries and 

 Hterary and scientific societies of the world, and in return the Insti- 

 tution receives an equivalent in Transactions and other publications. 

 After the printing of the first volume of Contributions was completed, 

 a copy of it and of the programme of organization were sent to the 

 principal foreign literary and scientific institutions, with the request 

 that they would exchange publications, on the condition that a volume 

 of equal importance should be presented to them annually. At first 

 the number of responses to this proposition was small; but since the 

 character of the Institution has become known and appreciated, the 

 works received in exchange have rapidly increased in number and 

 impottance. The whole number of articles received during 1S52 is 

 four thousand seven hundred and forty-four, which is more than three 

 times that of all the previous years. The publications received in 

 many cases consist of entire sets of Transactions, the earlier volumes 

 of which are out of print, and cannot be purchased. They are of 

 use in carrying on the various investigations of the Institution, and 

 of value to the country as works of reference. They ought not to be 

 considered donations to the library, but the products of the active opera- 

 tions, which the Institution is at liberty to dispose of in the manner best 

 suited to further its designs. The principal object, however, of the 

 distribution of the Smithsonian volumes, is not to procure a large library 

 in exchange, but to diffuse among men a knowledge of the new truths 

 discovered by the agency of the Smithsonian fund. The worth and 

 importance of the Institution is not to be estimated by what it accu- 

 mulates within the walls of its building, but by what it sends forth to 

 the world. Its great mission is to facilitate the use of implements of 

 research, and to diffuse the knowledge which this use may develop. 

 The Smithsonian publications are sent to some institutions abroad, and 

 to the greater majority of those at home, without, any return except, 

 in some cases, that of co-operation in meteorological and other obser- 

 vations. Apphcations for these publications have now become so nu- 



