REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 45 



our packages free of cost on account of freight, and that the New 

 York and Hamburg line has also generously rendered us a similar 

 service. Adams' Express Company has transmitted our packages to 

 and from different parts of the country at reduced rates. This ap- 

 preciation of the objects of the Institution is as creditable to these 

 companies as it is gratifying to the friends of the Institution. 



Library. — Since the date of the last report the plan adopted in 

 regard to the library has been steadily acted upon, namely: to obtain 

 as perfect a series as possible of the transactions and proceedings of 

 the learned societies which have existed, or now exist, in every part 

 of the world. During the past year nearly 3,000 articles from societies 

 abroad, and copies of nearly everything which has been published by 

 societies in this country, in Canada, and South America, have been 

 added to the list of scientific works previously in the library. 



We have received no definite information since the date of the last 

 report as to the progress which has been made, under the direction 

 of the Royal Society, in the preparation of the classified index of 

 all the papers contained in the transactions of learned societies, and 

 in the scientific serials of different parts of the world. The work, 

 however, is still going on, and will, without doubt, be completed as 

 soon as so extensive an undertaking can be properly accomplished. 



The second and concluding volume of the catalogue of zoological 

 literature from 1750 to the present day, by J. Victor Carus, of Leip- 

 sic, which was mentioned in the last two reports, has been published; 

 and we would again commend it to the patronage of naturalists as the 

 best compilation which has yet appeared of the titles systematically 

 arranged of isolated papers on zoology published in American as well 

 as foreign journals. 



Among the more important donations since the date of the last 

 report are the following : 



130 volumes from T. Einhorn, of Leipsic; 



18 from the Institut de France; 



27 from the Academy de Stanislas, Nancy; 



13 from the Agronomical Society, of Poland; 



21 from the Royal Swedish Society of Sciences; 



11 from the Koniglich Preussische Technische Bau-Deputation; 



10 from Oberlausitzische Gesellschaft at Gorlitz; 



30 from the University of Chile; 

 8 from the Imperial Printing Office, Vienna; 



