60 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



package not exceeding one-half of one cubic foot in bulk; they should be addressed 

 legibly and as fully as possible without using abbreviations, and if an acknowledg- 

 ment is required a blank receipt should be inclosed. "When a consignment is com- 

 plete all packages should be inclosed in boxes and forwarded by freight to the 

 Smithsonian Institution, carriage prepaid. Before delivering consignments to trans- 

 portation companies a list of names and addresses corresponding to those on packages 

 should be forwarded by mail to the Smithsonian Institution, or to the foreign dis- 

 tributing agent of the Institution, according as the transaction may be of domestic 

 or foreign origin. This procedure not only serves as a means for. verifying each 

 package when received, and enables the Institution to trace consignments if not 

 delivered after a reasonable time has elapsed, but forms a permanent record for 

 future reference. 



Upon the receipt at the Institution of a consignment the entire transaction is given 

 an invoice number, which serves as a basis for all entries made in connection with 

 its distribution, and when debiting institutions or individuals to whom packages are 

 addressed the corresponding invoice number is used, thereby avoiding -the necessity 

 of writing the name of the donor on each card. After all entries are made the books 

 are packed in boxes and are forwarded by freight to the agents of the Institution 

 abroad or to the distributing bureaus in foreign countries that have been designated 

 to act in such capacity. In each package a receipt card is inserted bearing the invoice 

 number assigned to each particular contribution, and when, as is often the case, 

 several individual contributions are assembled in one package bearing a single address, 

 the card inserted bears all the invoice numbers of the contents of that package. It 

 is of the utmost iinjjortance that these cards should be receipted and returned to the 

 Institution without delay as evidence of proper delivery, and as each acknowledg- 

 ment is noted, a habitual failure iu this regard may give rise to a doubt of delivery 

 and subsequent packages may be returned to the contributors as undeliverable. 



Packages received from abroad for distribution in the United States are treated 

 in the same manner, and similar receipts are inclosed in parcels, which arc returna- 

 ble to the Institution under frank. These cards are, for the purpose of preventing 

 confusion, of a color unlike those forwarded with packages for foreign distribution. 



Purchased books, instruments, and natural history specimens (whether purchased 

 or presented) are not accepted for transmission by the Institution or its agents with- 

 out special permission in each instance. 



Respectfully submitted. 



W. W. Karr, 



Acting Curator of Exchanges. 



Mr. S. P. Langley, 



Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 



