ANNUAL REPORT OF LIBRARY COMMITTEE. 65 



The following communication was receired from M. Alexander 

 Vattemare, the founder of the system of International Exchanges. 

 The works he refers to, embracing one hundred and sixteen vol- 

 umes and reports on the subjects of agriculture, manufactures, and 

 the arts, have been received. They form a valuable addition to 

 our library : 



To the Corresponding See']/ of the American Institute: 



"A long and most painful disease, which kept me nearly two 

 years from my office, the overwhelming business accumulating 

 during this long absence, as well as the desire of forming a col- 

 lection of publications of interest to the Institute, and procuring 

 the numbers and volumes wanted to complete your series of 

 French publications, are my apologies for having been so long 

 acknowledging your kind letter, as well as the case containing 

 the nineteen copies of the Transactions of the Institute for the 

 years 1854, '55, '56 and '57, which case reached my office on the 

 23d of March, 1861. 



" These Transactions were presented in the name of the Insti- 

 tute, to their proper destinations, and received by the Imperial 

 Academy of Sciences and the other scientific societies, public 

 establishments, and private individuals with the greatest grati- 

 fication, and all of them requested of me to address to the Insti- 

 tute their grateful acknowledgments for the same. 



'• You will find in the enclosed list the best evidence of the ever 

 increasing popularity of the system of International Exchanges, 

 an intellectual and peaceful link of nations, which ought never 

 to be interrupted, for scientific intercourse in pursuance of its 

 philanthropic aim overleaps the barriers often raised by preju- 

 dices or misunderstanding. 



" Knowing, as they do, my devotion to the welfare of the 

 American people, I trust that the Institute will appreciate my 

 ardent desire, to see the interchanges between our two countries, 

 carried on just now as actively as ever, showing thus to those 

 unacquainted with the inexhaustible resources of your blessed 

 country, that there is no alteration in the progress of America's 

 glorious destinies. 



•' The members of the Institute may, perhaps, take the initia- 

 tive in this patriotic act, by inviting their fellow-citizens to add 

 to the Transactions of the Institute, what they can spare, such 

 as books, pamphlets, maps, charts, &c., enabling me thus to 



[Am. Inst.] E 



