The Smithsonian Library 293 



he may do justice to those who have preceded him in the 

 same path, and have due regard to his own reputation in not 

 pubHshing facts and principles as new discoveries which have 

 long since been recorded in the annals of science." 



In 1864^ Professor Henry wrote: 



" It was therefore deemed preferable and more consonant 

 with the purposes of the Institution to form a special library, 

 which might constitute, as it were, a supplement to the 

 Library of Congress, and consist, for the most part, of 

 complete sets of the proceedings and transactions of all the 

 learned societies in the world, and of other serials essential 

 for reference by students specially engaged in original scien- 

 tific research. The efforts of the Institution to carry out this 

 plan, which has since been sanctioned by Congress, have been 

 eminently successful. Principally through exchanges, and 

 occasionally by purchase, a more complete collection of the 

 works above mentioned has been procured than is to be 

 found in any library of the United States, or is easily met 

 with even in Europe. The Institution has been assisted in 

 making this collection by the liberality of many of the older 

 libraries abroad, which, on application, have furnished from 

 their duplicates volumes, and even whole sets, to complete 

 series of works long since out of print, and which in some 

 cases could not have been obtained through any other means." 



Mr. Spofford^ wrote in 1876 of this collection that it consists 



"of the publications of more than two thousand societies 

 and institutions without the limits of the United States, 

 besides nearly all American societies whiTi print their 

 transactions or proceedings," 



which, he says, affords 



"a rich repository of scientific results, continua. v increasing, 

 for the reference and use of American scholars.' 



1 "Smithsonian Report," 1S64, page 57. 

 2 " Public Libraries in the United Stales," Washington, 1876, page 684. 



