THE INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE 



SYSTEM 



By William Crawford Winlock 



^1)HE "diffusion of knowledg-e," which, next to 

 its " increase," was so prominently in the 

 mind of the founder of the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution, was provided for in the program of 

 organization, submitted by Professor Henry 

 to the Board of Regents in 1847, by a system of pubHca- 

 tions and their exchange ^ and distribution throughout the 

 world. 



In his report for 1851 Professor Henry describes the ex- 

 change system, organized for the purpose of distributing the 

 first volume of the Institution's publications, as an extension 

 of a system which had then been in operation, on a small 

 scale, for nearly half a century between the American Philo- 

 sophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and 

 Sciences on this side of the Atlantic, and several scientific 

 societies abroad. While the Smithsonian Institution ex- 

 changes had no direct connection with those established 



1 Reference should be made to a "History history of the exchange service with copies 



of the Smithsonian Exchanges," by George of official documents relating to ils develop- 



H. Boehmer, printed in tlie" Smithsonian Re- ment. This manuscript has been consulted 



port" for 1881. Mr. Boehmer had also pre- in the preparation of the following brief ac- 



pared the manuscript for a more complete count of the exchanges. 



26* 397 



