41 B The Smithsonian Institution 



arranged geographically, and including the principal libra- 

 ries, societies, and government offices and journals with which 

 the Institution was in correspondence. To each of these 

 titles an arbitrary number was given for the sake of con- 

 venience of reference. A revision of this " List of Foreign 

 Correspondents of the Smithsonian Institution " was made in 

 1895 by Mr. George H. Boehmer, and it now embraces 

 10,765 libraries and 12,643 individuals — a total of 23,408 

 addresses, distributed in 3771 different cities or places. 



The courtesy of many of the great transportation compa- 

 nies in extending to the exchange service the privilege of 

 free freight has been continued even to the present day, and 

 the assistance that has thereby been rendered to the Institu- 

 tion, and indirectly to libraries and scientific institutions 

 throughout the world, cannot be overestimated. 



The influence that the Smithsonian Institution has exerted 

 through its international exchange service upon other in- 

 stitutions of learning at home and abroad, and how far its 

 aim in the diffusion of knowledge has been accomplished by 

 the methods whose history for half a century has here been 

 sketched, are touched upon elsewhere. The enrichment of 

 its own library has been but incidental. It can safely be said 

 that no large library in the world has not experienced its 

 benefits, while individual workers in science have been 

 reached upon the very outskirts of civilization, and have been 

 afforded encouragement and aid, and the means of communi- 

 cating with their fellow-workers for half a century. 



