38 EEPOET OF THE SECRETARY. 



that the great work has actually been commenced at the expense and 

 under the direction of the Koyal Society of London. It is estimated 

 that the whole number of titles will amount to 250,000, the cost of 

 printing which will probably exceed even the income of the endow- 

 ment of the Royal Society ; but the hope is entertained that other 

 institutions of Great Britain, as well as those of other countries, will 

 contribute towards defraying the expense. 



At the last session of Congress a bill* passed the House of Repre- 

 sentatives in reference to the present copyright law, which was in ac- 

 cordance with the views presented in the several reports of the Board 

 of Regents. 



The requirement that three copies of every original work secured by 

 copyright should be forwarded to Washington, to be deposited respect- 

 ively in the Libraries of Congress, the Department of State, and this 

 Institution, has been found as oppressive to the author, in the case of 

 valuable and costly works, as it was burdensome to the libraries in- 

 tended to be benefited, in the case of trifling and ephemeral ones. 

 The change in the law, by which this requirement will be in future 

 limited to the archives of the Interior Department at the Patent Office, 

 while it affords relief on the one hand, will on the other furnish ample 

 security in case of contested title ; and, being more easily and con- 

 stantly complied with, will insure to those who feel an interest in the 

 progress of American literature at least one entire and connected series 

 of these publications. 



The additions to the library of the Smithsonian Institution by 

 exchange during 1858 have been large and important, the total being 

 considerably greater than in 1857. They consist of the following 

 items, viz: 553 octavo volumes, 156 quarto, 14 folio; also, 1,695 pam- 

 phlets and parts of volumes, and 122 charts and maps, making in all 

 2,540 ; being an excess of 780 volumes and parts of volumes over 1857. 

 Many of the receipts for the year consist of series of transactions of 

 societies more or less complete, tending to add greatly to the resources 

 of the library. Among these may be mentioned the Memoirs of the 

 Academie des Sciences of Dijon, 30 volumes; of the Haarlem Society 

 of Sciences, 41 volumes; of the Royal Netherlands Institute at Am- 

 sterdam, 14 volumes quarto; of the Academy of Sciences of Montpe- 

 lier, 9 volumes quarto; a full series of the publications of the Hydro- 



° Since the date of this report, the bill referred to having passed the Senate also, has 

 become a law, and henceforth it will be requisite for the author to deposit only a single 

 copy with the clerk of the district ccuit from whom the certificate of copyright is obtained. 



