146 ANNUAL EEPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1916. 



The publications have been numerous and include many important 

 and authoritative works. There is no restriction as to subject; they 

 consist of memoirs upon aeronautics, archeology, astronomy, astro- 

 physics, ethnology, botany, zoology, geology, paleontology, meteor- 

 ology, magnetism, physics, physiology, philology, and many other 

 subjects. The several series comprise (1) The Annual Report of the 

 Board of Regents to Congress with a general appendix of papers 

 illustrating progress in a wide range of scientific branches; (2) 

 Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, begun in 1850, in quarto 

 form; (3) Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, in octavo; (4) 

 Harriman Alaska Series, on the results of the scientific expedition 

 to Alaska in 1899; (5) Bulletin of the National Museum, including 

 Contributions from the United States National Herbarium; (6) 

 Proceedings of the National Museum; (7) Annual Report of the 

 National Museum; (8) Annual Report of the Bureau of American 

 Ethnology; (9) Bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology; 

 (10) Annals of the Astrophysical Observatory; and (11) a number 

 of special publications independent of the above series. 



There is also communicated to Congress through the Secretary of 

 the Institution the annual report of the American Historical Asso- 

 ciation and of the National Society of the Daughters of the American 

 Revolution. 



The complete collection of Smithsonian publications numbers 

 about 450 volumes, aggregating more than 200,000 printed pages. 



Since it would be impossible through the limited funds of the 

 Institution and printing allotments by Congress to meet the great 

 popular demand for Smithsonian publications, they are necessarily 

 almost entirely distributed to learned institutions and important 

 public libraries, where they are available for general reference. 

 Through this distribution there developed a system of exchange of 

 Smithsonian publications with those of scientific and literary socie- 

 ties of the United States and of other parts of the world and a 

 general interchange of publications of American and foreign institu- 

 tions, which has come to be known as The Smithsonian International 

 Exchange Service. In 1886 a treaty was made in Brussels betAveen 

 the United States and a number of foreign countries providing for 

 the interchange of their governmental, scientific, and literary publi- 

 cations, and the work of carrying out its provisions in the United 

 States was intrusted by Congress to the Smithsonian Institution. 



Under certain regulations the Institution accepts from correspond- 

 ents in this country publications intended as exchanges and donations, 

 and they are shipped by freight, at intervals not exceeding a monthj 

 to about 60 distributing bureaus or agencies abroad, which in turn 

 receive from correspondents in their countries and forward to the 



