REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 31 
The distribution of duplicates has been continued as rapidly as the 
identification and labelling could be accomplished. In this distribu- 
-tion regard has been had to the relative geographical positions of the 
establishments to which the first sets of specimens have been sent as 
well as to their importance as influential centres of higher education. 
According to the statement of Professor Baird, it will be seen that 
already upwards of 16,000 specimens have been distributed during 
the year, and efforts will be made during the season to increase this 
number. The importance of this branch of operations depends more 
upon what the Institution is enabled to distribute than on what it 
accumulates for permanent preservation. 
Museum.—The type specimens of the museum have been gradually 
increased during the past year, not only from the collections made 
by the Institution, but also from donations received from abroad, par- 
ticularly as regards rare birds, eggs, fossils, andanimals. The Euro- 
pean specimens of ornithology were requested for the purpose of 
enabling Professor Baird by comparison to prosecute his work on 
American birds. 
Previous to the fire the large room partly occupied by the Stanley 
collection of Indian portraits had been fitted up with about two hun- 
dred feet of cases around the walls, to receive the ethnological speci- 
mens in possession of the Institution. While engaged in re-arranging 
the pictures above these cases, the workmen, with a view to their own 
comfort, unfortunately placed the pipe of a stove in a ventilating flue 
which opened under the roof, and thus caused the conflagration which 
destroyed the upper part of the main building. Fortunately none 
of the ethnological articles had been placed in this room, and conse- 
quently these specimens, with those of the museum and of the general 
collections, have been preserved. 
Exchanges. —The system of international literary and scientific ex- 
changes has been continued during the past year with unabated 
energy, and on the part of the Institution exclusively, several hun- 
dred sets of its publications, each embracing 1,782 pages, have been 
sent to foreign institutions. 
According to the tabular statement given by Professor Baird it ap- 
pears that, during the year 1864, there have been despatched to 
foreign countries 1,011 packages, each containing a number of articles, 
enclosed in sixty-three boxes, measuring 546 cubic feet and weighing 
20,500 pounds. The number of packages received in return for 
societies and individuals in this country was 2,482 (nearly twice as 
many as in 1863) exclusive of those for the Smithsonian library. 
