806 BULLETIN OF THE 



" This part of the system of Smithsonian operations has every- 

 where received the commeuclatioii of those who have given it 

 their attention or have participated in its benefits. The institu- 

 tion is now the principal agent of scientihc and literary com- 

 munication betvi'een the old world and the new. . . . Th& 

 importance of such a system with reference to the scientitie 

 character of our country, could scarcely be appreciated by those- 

 who are not familiar with the results which How from an easy 

 and certain intercommunication of this kind. Many of the most 

 important contributions to science made ia America have been 

 unheard of in Europe, or have been so little known, or received 

 so little attention, that they have been republislied as new dis- 

 coveries or claimed as the product of European research."* It 

 would indeed be difficult to estimate rightly the benefit to science 

 in the encouragement of its cultivators aiiorded by this fostering 

 service. Few Societies are able to incur much expense in the 

 distribution of their publications ; and hence their circulation is 

 necessarily very limited. The fructifying interchange of labors 

 and results, dependent on their own resources, would be ob- 

 structed by the recurring expenses and delays of customs inter- 

 ventions, and by unconscionable exactions : and indeed without 

 the Smithsonian mechanism, nine-tenths of the present scientific 

 exchanges would be at once suppressed. Let it be hoped that 

 so beneficent a system will not break down from the weight of 

 its own inevitable growth. 



Astronomical Telegraphy. — Analogous in principle to the 

 system of exchange, is that adopted for the instantaneous trans- 

 Atlantic communication of discoveries of a special order. In the 

 year 18*73, in the interests of astronomy (to which Henry was ever 

 warmly devoted) he concluded " a very important arrangement 

 between the Smithsonian Institution and the Atlantic cable Com- 

 panies, by which is guaranteed the free transmission by telegraph 

 between Europe and America of accounts of asti'onomical discov- 

 eries which for the purpose of co-operative observation require 

 immediate announcement. "t This admirable service to science, 

 so creditable to the intelligence and the liberality of the Atlantic 

 Telegraph Companies, emtjraces direct reciprocal communication 

 between the Smithsonian Institution, and the foreign Observato- 

 ries of Greenwich, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and Pulkova. During 

 the first year of its operation, four new planetoids were tele- 

 continued, and several other lines have been added to the number in the 

 course of the year." (Smilhsonian Report for 1867, p. 39.) Notwitlistand- 

 ingtbis unprecndented generosity, the exchange system has reached such 

 proportions as to require for its maintenance one-fourth of the entire 

 income from the Stnithsonian fund. 



* Smhhun-nian Bepo f 'or 1853, p. 25, (of Senate ed.) 



t Smilhtionian Report for 1873, p. 32. 



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