REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 57 



government, and consequently an important portion of the income is 

 made available for active operations. 



Sixth. The transfer has furthermore tended to awaken an interest 

 in the library of Congress, which cannot fail to render it, under 

 the energetic superintendence of the librarian, Mr. Spofford, worthy 

 of the nation. At the last session of Congress an appropriation of 

 $100,000 was made for the purchase of the library of Mr. Peter Force, 

 consisting of books relating to America, and with these additions the 

 library of Congress is the largest in the United States,* and may even 

 now with propriety be denominated, as we have ventured to call it, 

 the National Library. 



By the law autliorizing the transfer, the Institution is at liberty to 

 draw any books it may require for its use either from its own collec- 

 tion or from those of Congress. It is proposed, as soon as the 

 regents' room is properly provided with cases, to keep in the Institu- 

 tion such books as are most frequently required for consultation in its 

 operations, and fortunately a considerable number of these are dupli- 

 cates in the two libraries. 



Seventh. The books transferred to the National Library are in 

 many cases such as could not be obtained by purchase, and are pres- 

 ents to the Institution from the old libraries of Europe, consisting of 

 transactions and other publications of learned societies, forming a 

 special collection not only ranking first in this country, but one of the 

 best in the world. 



Neither is it the value of the books already' transferred which is to 

 be considered, but also the perpetual increase of the several series of 

 scientific transactions in their continuations from year to year whicli 

 are regularly supplied in exchange for the publications of the Insti- 

 tution. 



The collections of transactions of societies contain the record of 

 the actual progress of the world in all that essentially pertains to the 

 mental and physical development of the human family, and as it has 

 been the aim of the Smithsonian Institution from the first to establish 

 exchanges with all societies, of this character, the list of those now 

 in the national library includes, with scarcely any important excep- 

 tion, the whole series of the world, and affords tne means therefore of 

 tracing the history of at least every branch of positive science since 

 the days of the revival of letters until the present time. 



The use of this library for the purpose of research will soon bo 

 much facilitated and its treasures brought more generally into requi- 



* In January, 1868, it contained 105,467 volumes. 



