REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 31 



Africa, 30. 



Ameriea, cxcluBivc of the United States, 135, 



Asia, 68. 



Australasia, 82. 



Europe, 2,578. 



Polynesia, &c., 9. 



A detailed list of the parties in the United States sending and receiv- 

 ing the packages embraced in these transmissions will also be found 

 in the Api^endix. 



The expenses of the service for the year, in consequence of an ap- 

 ])ropriation bj"^ Congress, have been reduced from $9,996.05 in 1880, to 

 $7,467.81 in 1881. 



It is very desirable that the entire cost of this system of exchange, 

 so far as the actual expenses are concerned, should be defrayed by the 

 government. So far as establishments other than the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution are concerned, there is every reason why the government 

 should pay the cost, and the propriety is still greater in reference to the 

 exchanges of the Institution itself, since all the returns obtained are 

 inmiediately transferred to the Library of Congress, of which they con- 

 stitute a very important part. 



The acquisition of many works, of great scientific and economical 

 value, unpurchasable by money, is accomplished, first, by expenditures 

 of the Institution for printing its publications, and then by their trans- 

 mission through the system of exchange to various parts of the world, 

 and the receipt of returns for the same. 



The cost of the system of Smithsonian exchanges would be some 

 thousands of dollars greater than is actually the case but for the con- 

 tinued liberality of the various steamship lines between the United 

 States and other parts of the world. A list of these lines and of the 

 general agencies through which transmissions are made is given in the 

 Appendix. 



Among the imjiortant additions made to this list during the past year, 

 special mention should be made of the Eed Star Line, of which Messrs. 

 Peter Wright & Sous, of Philadelphia, are the agents. This line has 

 carried a large number of packages between New York and Antwerp 

 without charge. The Hamburg American Packet Company has also 

 extended its privileges so as to cover a much larger range of material 

 than heretofore. 



For some years past there have been serious difiiculties in the trans- 

 mission of the exchanges of the Smithsonian Institution to Cuba, owing 

 to onerous custom-house regulations, and an arrangement was finally 

 made through the minister of Spain, Sefior Don Felipe Mendez de Vigo, 

 by which all our i^ackages were to be addressed to the governor-general 

 of Cuba and transferred by him, with the accompanyiug invoice, to 

 Prof. Felipe Poey, of the University of Havana, by whom thoy are dis- 

 tributed. 



