REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



47 



For comparison with previous years the following table will represent tlie growth 

 of the service from 1890 to 1896: 



Number of packages received. 

 Weight of packages received.. 



Ledger accounts: 



Foreign societies 



Foreign individuals 



Domestic societies 



Domestic individuals 



Packages to domestic' addresses 



Invoices written 



Cases shipped abroad 



Letters received 



Letters written 



82, 572 

 202, 657 



5,131 



G,340 



1, 431 



3,100 



13,216 



16, 948 



873 



1, 509 



1,625 



1890-91. I 1891-92. 



90, G6G 

 237, G12 



5,981 



7,072 



1,588 



4,207 



29,047 



21, 923 



962 



2,207 



2,417 



97, 027 

 226, 517 



6,204 

 7, 910 

 2,044 

 4,524 

 2G, 000 

 23, 136 

 1,015 

 2,323 

 2, 752 



101,003 

 200, 928 



6,896 



8,554 



2,414 



5,010 



29, 454 



19, 996 



878 



2,013 



2,259 



97, 9G9 

 235, 028 



G,991 



8,619 



1,620 



2, 993 



32, 931 



20, 869 



905 



2, 166 



1,904 



1894-95. 



107, 118 

 326, 955 



8,751 

 9,609 

 2,014 

 3,034 

 29, 111 

 27, 180 

 1,364 

 2,443 

 2,259 



88, 878 

 258, 731 



8,022 

 10, 878 

 2,115 

 3,899 

 34, 091 

 21, 783 

 1,043 

 2,367 

 2,371 



EXPENSES. 



The expense of the exchange system is provided in part by direct appropriation 

 by Congress to the Smithsonian Institution for the purpose and in part by appro- 

 priations made to different Government Departments or Bureaus, either contingent 

 or specific, for repayment to the Institution for a portion of the cost of transportation. 



Even with the close economy necessarily exercised in the disbursement of the 

 direct appropriations in support of the exchange service, the Institution would not 

 have been able to transmit exchanges with requisite promptness or regularity had 

 it not been for the revenue derived, from the charge of 5 cents per pound weight 

 made to Government Departments and Bureaus and to State institutions on their 

 exchanges, both going and coming. This charge was authorized by the Board of 

 Regents as far back as 1878, and has since been maintained. Though the appropria- 

 tions have been increased from time to time, they have not kept pace with the grow- 

 ing demands of the service, and since its inauguration there has never been a time 

 thai the practice could have been abolished or even temporarily suspended. 



The appropriation made by Congress to the Institution for the exchange service 

 dining the fiscal year 1895-96 was in the following language: 



"For expenses of the system of international exchanges between the United States 

 and foreign countries, under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution, including 

 salaries or compensation of all necessary employees, seventeen thousand dollars." 



The receipts and disbursements by the accounting officer of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution mi account of international exchanges for the year immediately preceding 

 I nlv 1, 1896, were as follows: 



RECEITTS. 



Direct appropriation lis Congress 



Repayments from Cnited Stales Government Departments. 



Repayments from State institutions 



Repayments from other sources 



Balance ad\ anced li\ Smithsonian Institution 



Total. 



Congres- 

 sional 

 appropria- 

 tion. 



$17, 000. 00 



Other 



sources. 



$2, 737. 43 



271.00 



461. 29 



98.42 



17,000.00 I 3,568.14 



Total. 



$17, 000. 00 



2. 737. 43 



271.00 



461. 29 



98.42 



20, 568. 14 



