44 REVIEWS — REPORT OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



The Report of the (Secretary to the Board of Regents ; the Report 

 of the Assistant Secretary and Curator ; Reports of sub-com- 

 mittees relative to expenditure ; Journals of meetings of the board ; 

 outlines of several lectures delivered in the rooms of the institution ; 

 directions to meteorological observers and various reports and sug- 

 gestions relative to meteorological observations ; correspondence 

 relative to Ethnological and Topographical researches ; and, finally, 

 a long and able report on the present condition of the science of 

 galvanism, by Professor Miiller, of Freiburg, and translated from 

 the German by Mr. Baker, of the Coast Survey. 



SECRETARY'S REPORT. 



Among the memoirs which, in accordance with the announcement 

 in the Secretary's Report, form the eighth volume of the Smithsonian 

 Contributions are the following : along with others, by Major B. 

 Alvord, and Dr. Joseph Jones ; and a record of Auroral phenomena, 

 by P. Force : 



(1). On the progress of information and opinion respecting the archeology of 

 the United States, by Samuel F. Haven, Librarian of the American Antiquarian 

 Society. 



(2). A paper on the recent secular period of the Aurora Borealis, by Professor 

 Olmstead. 



One useful function of the Smithsonian Institution is that of 

 effecting literary and scientific exchanges between individuals and 

 societies. The extent of their operations in this department may 

 be judged of by the fact that in the year 1855, 8585 packages for 

 distribution passed through the hands of the institution. 



The Smithsonian agency is not confined to the transmission of works from 

 the United States, but is extended to those of Canada and Central and South 

 America, and its foreign relations embrace every part of the civilized -world. 

 It brings into friendly correspondence cultivators of original research the most 

 widely separated, and emphatically realizes the idea of Smithson, that " the man 

 of science is of no country;" that " the world is his country, and all mankind his 

 countrymen." 



The system of exchange has found favor with foreign governments, and the 

 Smithsonian packages are now admitted into all parts to which they are sent, 

 without detention and free of duty. 



METKOROLOOY. 



Since the publication of the former report nn arrangement has been made with 

 the Commissioner of Patents, by which the system of Meteorological observations 

 •stablished under the direction of the institution will be extended, and the results 

 published more fully than theSmithsonian in some will allow. 



With respect to the complaints that have been made that but few 

 of the materials collected have been published, the report remarks, 



