48 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES. 



The importance of the work accomplished by the Interna- 

 tional Exchangee Service is constantly becoming more fully 

 understood, and the benefits derived from it in the inter- 

 change of the publications of the civilized world more ade- 

 quately estimated. The liberality of the American people in 

 gratuitously suppljang their scientific literature to apprecia- 

 tive students of it, wherever they ma}^ be, and the provision 

 for its transmission at the expense of the United States Gov- 

 ernment and of the Smithsonian Institution jointly, creates 

 such an impression abroad that the Institution is often asked 

 for a description of the methods for recording and forward- 

 ing exchanges, with a view to cnal)ling others to adopt its 

 system, which for accuracj^, labor saving, and as a perma- 

 nent record for ready reference, 3^ears of assiduous study 

 have perfected into what it is to-day. 



The term " International Exchanges," to those unaccus- 

 tomed to its application, may seem ambiguous, but the use of 

 the term is now universally accepted as appljang to the 

 mutual exchange' between Smithsonian correspondents every- 

 where of printed books on subjects of interest to the student 

 in any branch of human knowledge. 



The Institution adopted the custom of voluntarily present- 

 ing its publications to learned societies in the year 1849, when 

 it sent a copy of Volume I of the Smithsonian Contributions 

 to Knowledge to each of one hundred and seventy-three for- 

 eign institutions. The recipients of these copies subsequently 

 sent their publications in exchange, and these reciprocal con- 

 tributions aided in forming the nucleus of the librar}^ of the 

 Smithsonian Institution. 



As the Institution increased the publication of works on 

 scientific subjects, the exchange with its correspondents 

 abroad also increased, and the facilities for forwarding and 

 distributing the parcels soon led to requests being made b}^ 

 other learned establishments in the United States for their 

 publications to be forwarded abroad by the Institution in the 

 same manner. The purpose of the donor of the Smithsonian 

 fund, "the diffusion of knowledge among men," could not, in 

 the minds of the Regents, be better promulgated than by 



