44 EEPOET OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 



DETAILS OP THE SYSTEM OF EXCHANGES. 



As the system of international exchange now carried on by the 

 Smithsonian Institution has attained a very great development, a 

 sketch of the mode of conducting it may not be amiss at the present 

 time. The subject may be considered under two heads, one relating 

 to the parcels received from parties in the United States for transmis- 

 sion to foreign countries, and the other having reference to receipts 

 from abroad for institutions and individuals in America. In con- 

 nexion with this subject, it may be stated that a large room in the 

 Institution, measuring 70 feet by about 25, is devoted to the depart- 

 ment of exchanges, and, besides containing the stock on hand of 

 Smithsonian publications and of miscellaneous documents, is fitted up 

 on one side with a series of large binns, each one devoted to a partic- 

 ular portion of the world, and appropriately labelled. The floor of 

 the room is occupied by a series of long tables, five feet wide, on which 

 parcels are made up or unpacked. Printed addresses are arranged in 

 small pigeon holes, and include nearly all the correspondents of the 

 Institution, domestic and foreign, amounting, at the present time, to 

 nearly one thousand names. 



Operations connected loitli transmissions from the United States . — The 

 transmissions of the Smithsonian Institution are regulated, in a mea- 

 sure, by the time when the annual volume of Smithsonian Contribu- 

 tions is completed. One or two months before this time, a circular 

 letter of advice is transmitted to all the institutions and individuals 

 in the United States and the Canadas known or supposed to have 

 a desire to avail themselves of the facilities of the Smithsonian sys- 

 tem of exchanges, and the conditions stated upon which parcels will 

 be received. If any society or individual have published a work 

 likely to be of interest to the scientific and literary world abroad, and 

 no indication is given of an intention to distribute copies, a special 

 application is made for them, and no effort left untried to secure to 

 the foreign investigators the benefit of all original and useful Ameri- 

 can material. Such appeals are generally responded to very favor- 

 ably, and very many publications of the different bureaus of the gov- 

 ernment, of States, and of State agricultural and historical institutions, 

 of societies, and of individuals, have thus been obtained. 



In nearly all cases, in the first instance, at least, the Smithsonian 

 Institution is called on to furnish lists of suitable foreign recipients 

 for the publications just referred to, or the volumes are sent in bulk, 

 to be addressed here. After the first sending, the exchange is usually 

 more directly between the parties corresponding, the Institution pre- 

 ferring to have the parcels properly addressed before forwarding to 

 Washington. In all cases great care is taken to secure the credit of 

 the donation to the proper party, and to prevent it being supposed to 

 come directly from the Institution. 



To facilitate the selection of suitable recipients for donations or ex- 

 changes, the Institution publishes once in two years a carefully pre- 

 pared list of foreign institutions for general distribution. The last 

 one issued contains over 570 names, but manuscript additions bring 



