710 HISTORY OF THE SMITHSONIAN EXCHANGES. 



enrich its cabinet of natural history, although the exchange of books 

 was not excluded. In this way its museum obtained many valuable ad- 

 ditions during the succeeding years, but the financial condition of the 

 institute prevented a vigorous execution of the system. Notwithstand- 

 ing several appeals to Congress for aid, of which the last one was made 

 on December 16, 1845, nothing was done toward giving the desired re- 

 lief, and on the 25th of November, 1840, the following "notice to the 

 members of the jSTational Institute " was published, which will give a 

 fair insight into its condition : 



" A reference to the last * memorial to Congress,' which was presented 

 to the Senate by the Hon. Lewis Cass and to the House of Representa- 

 tives by the venerable John Quincy Adams, will aiford the members 

 some idea of the present condition of the National Institute. Notwith- 

 standing that renewed appeal. Congress has again omitted to grant re- 

 lief. More than a thousand boxes, barrels, trunks, &c., embracing col 

 lections of value and rarity in literature, in the arts, and in natural his- 

 tory, remain on hand unopened, the liberal contributions of members at 

 home and abroad, of governments, of learned and scientific societies and 

 institutions, of foreign countries and of our own, and of munificent friends 

 and patrons in every part of the world. The worth, extent, and Amer- 

 ican interests of these collections may be understood, though imperfectly, 

 by a perusal of the four bulletins which are now before the public. For 

 the preservation, reception, and display of these the institute has neither 

 funds nor a suitable de j)ository . The usual meetings of the members have 

 been suspended for a considerable period. Hence the regular proceed- 

 ings have been interrupted, and hence the present volume (which has 

 been published by the subscrii^tion of a few members and others, a sub- 

 scription so limited as to have rendered it intlispensably necessary to 

 abridge the publication within the narrowest possible comjjass), instead 

 ot presenting in the usual form the proceedings of the institute, gives a 

 mere and meager abstract of a voluminous and valuable correspondence, 

 and an imperfect account of donations and contributions to its library 

 and cabinet." 



And thus with the year 181G vii-tually ceased the activity of the Na- 

 tional Institute in that direction. 



From this sketch it will be seen that the system introduced by the 

 two early scientific institutions of our country had in view mainly the 

 interchange of their own transactions for those of foreign societies, for 

 their own benefit and the extension of their own reputation, and that the 

 system introduced in France had in view mainly the interchange among 

 public libraries of their superfluous duplicates and of government pub- 

 lications. The Smithsonian In^^titution, starting out with the same 

 system, at a very early date in its history inaugurated the original en- 

 terprise of furthering the muiual interchange of scientific transactions 

 and i)ublications throughout the world, without reference to any direct 

 benefit to itself by reason of such exchanges. 



