EEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 25 



appendix of scientific papers, communications, translations, &c., of 

 special interest to the meteorological observers, teachers, and scientific 

 correspondents of the Institution. 



Among these articles is a lecture by Prof. A. P. Peabody, on the 

 scientific education of mechanics and artisans ; aboriginal trade and 

 JS^orth American stone implements, by Chas. Ran ; optical mineralogy, 

 byBrezina; the troglodytes of the Vezere, by Paul de Broca; organic 

 bases, by Bauer ; boundary of geology and history, by Suess ; phe- 

 nomena observed in telegraphic lines, by Donati ; nitrogen and its 

 compounds, by Klefczinski; biographical notice of Lartet, by Fischer ; 

 eulogy on ' Ampere, by Arago ; lecture on the meteorology of Eussia, 

 by Dr. Woeikof, and a large number of original communications rela- 

 tive to antiquities in various parts of the United States, &c. In this 

 volume may also be found a full account of the Bache bequestj the 

 Tyndall trust-fund for the advance of science, the Corcoran art-gallery, 

 the Toner foundation, and the Hamilton bequest. 



EXCHANGrES. 



The system of international exchanges, which has now been in opera- 

 tion for upward of twenty years, has been prosecuted during the last 

 year with increased efficiency. It now includes 2,145 foreign institu- 

 tions to which packages of books or specimens are sent and from which 

 others are received. In the case of the system of exchanges, as in all 

 the other operations of the Smithsonian establishment, the tendency is to 

 an enlargement beyond the means at our command. Although, through 

 the liberality of the several steamship companies, the packages are 

 transmitted across the Atlantic free of cost, yet the expense of sending 

 them to ]^Tew York and from the sea-board to the centers of distribution 

 jn Europe, together with the payment of the several agents, has become 

 so great that a much further extension of the system cannot be made 

 without aid from other sources. 



The system is, however, of so much importance, not only in rendering 

 known what is done in the United States in the way of advancing liter- 

 ature and science to the world abroad, but also in diffusing a knowledge 

 extensively through this country of the ]Drogress of science in the various 

 parts of the Old World, that any check in its natural increase would 

 be greatly to be deplored. It has, therefore, been suggested that an 

 appeal be made to the various parties most interested in the contin- 

 uance and enlargement of this system for a small annual contribution 

 toward its future support and still more efficient management. Indeed, 

 the benefit which the Institution is conferring, through this system, upon 

 the parties most interested, appears in many cases to have ceased to be 

 properly appreciated. They receive the advantages which flow from it 

 as a matter of course, as they do those of the free air, and not as a gratuity 



