4i 6 The Smithsonian Institution 



ments, philosophical, medical, etc. (including microscopes), 

 whether purchased or presented ; nor specimens of natural 

 history, except where special permission from the Institution 

 has been obtained. 



The first volume of " Smithsonian Contributions to Know- 

 ledge " was distributed in 1849 to 173 foreign institutions, 

 virtually representing the Institution's foreign exchange work 

 at its inception. 



In 1852, the first year for which any detailed report of the 

 exchange operations is given, 572 packages were sent out by 

 the Institution and 637 packages were received, though each 

 of the packages sent and received may embrace several " arti- 

 cles." In 1860 a total of 4822 packages passed through the 

 Exchange Office ; in 1870, 5510; in 1880, 20,845; in 1890, 

 82,572; in 1895, 107,118 the entire weight in 1895 being 

 326,955 pounds, or about 164 tons. 



It is difficult, without the actual presentation of statistical 

 tables, to give an adequate idea of the result of this exchange 

 system. Moreover, prior to 1885, when the government 

 exchange may be fairly said to have been begun, and when 

 Congressional appropriations enabled the Institution to em- 

 ploy a force which allowed of the collection of proper statis- 

 tics, 390,488 titles were received from all sources abroad for 

 the libraries of the United States; of which 217,140 came 

 to the Library of Congress, the library of the Smithsonian, 

 and the libraries of the various departments and bureaus of 

 the government, 136,810 to various institutions throughout 

 the country, and 36,538 to individuals. 



During the past decade accurate statistics have been 

 kept not only for the entire country, but for the various 

 States in the Union. If I had space to discuss them, 

 the figures would present some most interesting features. 

 Roughly, it may be said that the number of titles received 



