Cooperation of the Smithsoniait Institution 809 



might be obtained from a member of Congress, They con- 

 tained suggestive and stimuhiting papers in many branches 

 of knowledge — papers, moreover, that could not be found 

 elsewhere, or translations of articles accessible only to the 

 few. The publications which were printed under the name 

 of " Miscellaneous Collections " were not to be obtained by 

 everybody. They were not meant for general readers, but 

 for students. The scholar, however, whether young or old, 

 who showed a special bent could readily obtain access to 

 such papers in this series as were of interest to him. The 

 quarto "Contributions" were given to libraries of consider- 

 able importance. Many communities were thus stimulated 

 to enlarge their collections of books in order to present a 

 fair claim for the reception of these stately volumes. 



To facilitate the exchange of printed papers among the 

 vast corps of correspondents, a system of international ex- 

 changes was begun in 1852. It must be remembered that 

 when this plan was initiated it was difficult to maintain rela- 

 tions with distant countries, especially beyond the western 

 part of Europe. The opportunities afforded by the book- 

 sellers, the express companies, and the mails were then quite 

 inferior to those now existent. Even to-day great advan- 

 tages are derived from the Smithsonian system, and its 

 curtailment or abolition would be a serious interruption to 

 the maintenance of friendly intercourse between the scientific 

 men of this country and those of distant lands. Some idea of 

 the extent of this work may be formed from the statement 

 that the number of enrolled correspondents is not far from 

 twenty-four thousand, of whom seventeen thousand arc in 

 foreign lands. A million and a half of packages have thus 

 been distributed in forty-three years. All this is to be 

 credited to the account of cooperation. 



Publication is an important function of a scientific foun- 

 52 



