306 BULLETIN or THE 



" This pai't of the system of Smithsonian operations has even'- 

 where received the comuiendatiou of those who have given it 

 their attention or have participated in its benefits. The Institu- 

 tion is now the principal agent of scientific and literary com- 

 munication between the old world and the new. . . , The 

 importance of such a system with reference to the scientific 

 character of our country, could scarcely be appreciated by those 

 who are not familiar with the results which How from an easy 

 and certain intercommunication of this kind. Many of the most 

 important contributions to science made in America have been 

 unheard of in Europe, or have been so little known, or received 

 so little attention, that they have been republished as new dis- 

 coveries or claimed as the product of European research."* It 

 would indeed be difficult to estimate rightly the benefit to science 

 in the encouragement of its cultivators ailorded by this fostering 

 service. Few Societies are able to incur much expense in the 

 distribution of their publications ; and hence their circulation is 

 necessarily very limited. The fructifying interchange of labors 

 and results, dependent on their own resources, would be ob- 

 structed by the recurring expenses and delays of customs inter- 

 ventions, and by unconscionable exactions : and indeed without 

 the Smithsonian mechanism, nine-tenths of the present scientific 

 exchanges would be at once suppressed. Let it be hoped that 

 so beneficent a system will not break down from the weight of 

 its own inevitable growth. 



Astronomical Telegraphy. — Analogous in principle to the 

 system of exchange, is that adopted for the instantaneous trans- 

 Atlantic communication of discoveries of a special order. In the 

 year 1878, in the interests of astronomy (to which Heniy was ever 

 warmly devoted) he concluded " a very important arrangement 

 between the Smithsonian Institution and the Atlantic cable Com- 

 panies, by which is guaranteed the free transmission by telegraph 

 between Europe and America of accounts of astronomical discov- 

 eries which for the purpose of co-operative observation require 

 immediate announcement."t This admirable service to science, 

 so creditable to the intelligence and the liberality of the Atlantic 

 Telegraph Companies, emljraces direct reciprocal communication 

 between the Smithsonian Institution, and the foreign Observato- 

 ries of Greenwich, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and Pulkova. During 

 the first year of its operation, four new planetoids were tele- 



continuprl. anri ppreral otlier lines have been ad'led to ihe number in the 

 course of the year." (Smilhwnian Report for 1867, p. 39.) Notwithstand- 

 ing this unprecedented generosity, the exchange system has reached such 

 proportions as to reqnire for its maintenance one-fourth of the entire 

 income from tlie Smithsonian fund. 



* Smithsoninn Eepo t 'or 18.'i3, p. 2.5, (of Senate ed.) 



t Smithsonian Report for 1873, p. 32. 



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