SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS. 



324 



CIRCULAR RELATIVE TO SCIENTIFIC AND 

 LITERARY EXCHANGES. 



The Smithsonian Institution, among its operations for the increase 

 and diffusion of knowledge among men, organized, many years ago, 

 a system of exchanges, for the purpose of more readily distributing 

 its own publications and of receiving returns for its library ; at the 

 same time offering its services to other establishments requiring 

 similar facilities. It has enlarged this system, continuously, until 

 it has become of such magnitude as to require for its maintenance 

 one-fourth of the entire income from the Smithsonian fund. The 

 greater part of this increase is on account of the transmissions of 

 the departments and bureaus of the United States Govei'nment. 

 It is no longer possible for the Institution to meet these expenses, 

 and a small charge will, hereafter, be made on all matter sent by 

 and received for these public offices. For the present no such pay- 

 ment will be required of learned societies or individuals, unless 

 their transmissions are of unusual magnitude, although the right 

 to make a charge is reserved. 



To facilitate the business connected with the system of the Smith- 

 sonian exchanges the following rules have been adopted: 



1. Transmissions through the Smithsonian Institution for foreign 

 countries to be confined exclusively to books, pamphlets, charts, and 

 other printed matter, sent as donations or exchanges, and not to 

 include those procured by purchase. The Institution and its agents 

 will not receive for any address apparatus and instruments, philo- 

 sophical, medical, etc., (including microscopes,) whether purcluiscd 

 or presented; nor specimens of natural history, except where special 

 permission from the Institution has been obtained. 



2. The Departments or Bureaus of the United States Government 

 to pay to the Smithsonian Institution five cents per pound on their 

 packages, which includes all expense of boxing, shipping, and 

 transportation. 



3. A list of the addresses and a statement of contents of each 



