820 The Smithsonian Institution 



The story of the development and progress of the system 

 of international exchanges of the Institution is a very inter- 

 esting one, but it would occupy too much space to include it 

 in a paper of this kind. 



The first volume of the Smithsonian " Contributions to 

 Knowledge," published in 1848, was widely distributed to the 

 libraries and societies of foreign countries, as far as the exis- 

 tence of such institutions was known ; but the total number 

 of copies thus circulated was only 173. At the present time 

 the number of foreign institutions receiving the Smithsonian 

 publications is 2588, and the number of institutions in the 

 United States is 2866. 



In 1867 the Smithsonian Institution initiated another sys- 

 tem of foreign exchange in addition to the one for learned 

 societies and scientific men, which had at that time fully 

 developed. This second system was intended to include 

 everything printed at the expense of the United States gov- 

 ernment, no matter how trivial or apparently unimportant; 

 and a complete set of these publications was to be sent to 

 each government which agreed to make an equally ex- 

 haustive return. By 1879 this work had been fairly begun, 

 and thirty-two sets of documents were being disposed of 

 to as many governments. 



For a number of years this work was done entirely at 

 the expense of the Institution, but finally Congress voted an 

 appropriation for a portion of the sum annually required for 

 this purpose. Under the provisions of the international 

 exchange the United States has sent out a very much 

 greater number of publications of the government than it has 

 received. This was in part due to the much greater amount 

 of matter published by the United States than by any other 

 government, but it also largely depended upon the fact that 

 other governments did not undertake to furnish annual lists 



