8 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



Full sets of the publications cannot be given to all who apply for them, 

 since this is impossible with the limited income of the Institution ; and, 

 indeed, if care be not exercised in the distribution, so large a portion of 

 the income would be annually expended on the production of copies for 

 distribution of what has already been published, that nothing further 

 could be done in the way of new publications. It must be recollected that 

 every addition to the list of distribution not only involves the giving of 

 publications that have already been made, but also those which are to 

 be made hereafter. 



At the commencement of the operations of the Institution the publi- 

 cations were not stereotyped, and consequently the earlier volumes have 

 now become scarce, especially the first, of which there are now no copies 

 for distribution, although it can occasionally be obtained at a second- 

 hand book- store in one of the larger cities. 



No copyright has ever been secured on any of the publications of the 

 Institution. They are left free to be used by compilers of books, with 

 the understanding, however, that full credit will be given to the name 

 of Smithson for any extracts which may be made from them. This 

 condition is especially insisted on, because the credit thus required is 

 important as evidence to the world of the proper management of the 

 Smithson fund. In many cases credit is given merely to the author 

 without mentioning the name of the Institution; this is not just, since, 

 as a general rule, the income of the establishment is applied not only to 

 the publication of the article but also to assist in its production. 



Publications in 1874. — During the past year the nineteenth volume of 

 the quarto series of the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge has 

 been published. It contains the following papers : 



1. Problems of Kotary Motion presented by the Gyroscope, the Pre- 

 cession of the Equinoxes, and the Pendulum. By Brevet Maj. Gen. J. 

 G. Barnard. 4to., pp. 74. 



2. A Contribution to the History of the Fresh- Water Algse of North 

 America. By Horatio C. Wood, jr., M. D., professor of botany and 

 clinical lecturer on diseases of the nervous system in the University of 

 Pennsylvania. 4to., pp. 274, 21 colored plates. 



3. An Investigation of the Orbit of Uranus, with General Tables on its 

 Motion. By Simon Newcomb, professor of mathematics, United States 

 Navy. 4to., pp. 296. 



This t volume, of which the several memoirs have been described in 

 previous reports, will not only sustain, but increase the reputation of 

 the Institution for its contributions to the science of the day. The me- 

 moirs which it contains have been received with manifest interest by 

 the scientific world, and recognized as positive additions to knowledge 

 resting on original investigation. 



Besides the nineteenth volume of the Contributions to Knowledge, 

 the eleventh and twelfth volumes of Miscellaneous Collections have been 

 published during the year. 



