X PREFACE. 



8. Use of Illustrations. 



Copies of the wood cuts used by the Institution are granted to authors or 

 publishers on payment of the actual cost of production of electrotypes, 

 and promise to give proper reference to the article in which they originally 

 appeared. 



9. Size of Editions. 



In the first experiments of the Smithsonian system of publication, the 

 proper magnitude of the editions necessary to meet the immediate and future 

 demand could not be accurately ascertained. The number of copies of the 

 Contributions then fixed upon, has since been found inadequate, although it 

 was larger than that usually issued by other institutions. The edition has, 

 therefore, been augmented, until at the present time 1,000 copies of each 

 article are set aside to be combined into volumes, and an extra number, vary- 

 ing with the probable demand, struck off for separate distribution, and for 

 sale. 



Each article is complete in itself, with separate paging, title, and index, 

 and without any necessary relationship to others combined with it in the 

 same volume. 



Of the early volumes of Smithsonian Contributions, the edition, for reasons 

 already explained, was less than of the succeeding ones, so that complete 

 sets cannot now be furnished. 



In the year 1862, the plan of stereotyping every article printed by the 

 Institution was adopted, the plates being carefully preserved, thus making it 

 practicable at any time to issue new editions except where expensive litho- 

 graphic plates were used, a limited number, only, of impressions from these 

 having been taken. • 



A number of the earlier articles in octavo were out of j^rint before the 

 commencement of the series of " Miscellaneous Collections," and consequently 

 are not included in them. 



The i^rinting of the "Bulletins" and "Proceedings" is authorized by the 

 Department of the Interior and paid for out of its fund. An edition 

 of 1,000 copies is published, of which one-half is distributed by the Depart- 

 ment of the Interior and one-half by the Institution. As the pages are 

 stereotyped, the cost of additional copies is slight ; and for the purpose of 

 making sure that a sufficient number of sets will be accessible forever to 



