4 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



is to have charge of the specimens and be ready at all times to give 

 botanical information that may be required by the general public or by 

 the Smithsonian correspondents. Moreover, in return for the specimens 

 transferred to the Medical Museum the Institution receives from the 

 officers of the army all collections made in ethnology and in special 

 branches of natural history. 



Publications. — The publications of the Institution form an essential 

 part of its operations and constitute the principal basis of the great sys- 

 tem of Smithsonian international exchanges. As has been frequently 

 stated in previous reports, they are of three classes : the Contributions 

 to Knowledge, the Miscellaneous Collections, and the Annual Eeports. 

 The first consist of memoirs containing positive additions to science 

 resting on original research, and which are, principally, the result of 

 investigations to which the Institution has in some way rendered assist- 

 ance. The Miscellaneous Collections are chiefly composed of works 

 intended to facilitate the study of ethnology, natural history, and mete- 

 orology. They are designed to facilitate the progress of those who en- 

 gage in special studies, to which, dn their leisure moments, their thoughts 

 may recur, and in connection with which, while contributing to their 

 own pleasure, they may advance the cause of science. The Annual 

 Eeports, besides giving an account of the operations of the Institution, 

 furnish, in an appendix, matter of importance to the meteorological 

 observer and of interest to the general public. The Contributions and 

 Miscellaneous Collections are published at the expense of the Smithson 

 fund, while the Eeports, with the exception of the illustrations, are 

 printed by the government. 



The following is a list of the quarto publications that have been 

 printed during the present year : 



1. On the Gray Substance of the Medulla Oblongata and Trapezium. 

 By John Dean, M. D. 



2. On the Orbit and Phenomena of a Meteoric Fire-ball, seen July 20, 

 1860. By Professor J. H. Coffin, LL.D. 



3. On the Transatlantic Longitude. By Benjamin A. Gould. 



4. The Indians of Cape Flattery, at the Entrance of the Strait of Fuca, 

 Washington Territory. By J. G. Swan. 



5. Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family. By 

 Lewis H. Morgan. 



6. On the Gliddon Mummy Case in the Museum of the Smithsonian 

 Institution. By Chas. Pickering. 



7. A new edition of Brewer's North American Oology. 



Of these Kos, 1 to 6, together with Hildreth's and Cleveland's Meteor- 

 ological Observations, previously described, form the 16th volume of 

 Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, which will be distributed to 

 the foreign correspondents of the Institution in the next invoice, and, 

 as soon as an additional number can be bound, to the public institutions 

 of this country. 



