4 6 The Smithsonian Institution 



foreign libraries and the collection of similar reports in return, 

 and between the years 1851 and 1867 it is estimated that 

 over twenty thousand packages of such government publica- 

 tions were carried by the exchange service, at an approximate 

 cost to the private fund of the Institution of over eight thou- 

 sand dollars. 



The government exchanges, however, were in a chaotic 

 condition until the enactment of a joint resolution, approved 

 March 2, 1867, that fifty copies of all documents printed by 

 order of either House of Congress, or by order of any de- 

 partment or bureau of the government, should be placed at 

 the disposal of the joint committee on library, who should 

 exchange the same, through the agency of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, for similar works published in foreign countries ; 

 these works to be deposited in the Library of Congress. 



Respecting this system Professor Henry said 1 in 1870, in 

 his testimony concerning the expenditure of the Smithson 

 fund, before an English government scientific commission, 

 of which the Duke of Devonshire was chairman and Sir 

 John Lubbock and Professor Huxley members : 



"There is one part of the operations which I have not 

 sufficiently dwelt upon, and that is the system of international 

 exchanges. In order to send the volumes of Smithsonian 

 Contributions over the world, the Institution has agents ; 

 an agent in this city, an agent in Paris, an agent in Leip- 

 sic, an agent in Amsterdam, and another in Norway ; and 

 every year the volumes of the Institution are sent to these 

 agents for distribution, and with them the transactions and 

 proceedings of all the societies of the United States, and 

 also of Canada, and of South America. For example, all the 

 Canadian institutions send copies of their publications to the 

 Institution, and then the Institution distributes them over the 

 world, and receives in return for the several donors the pro- 



1 Rhees, William J. " Journals of the Board of Regents," etc., page 782. 



