REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 31 



The distribution of duplicates has been continued as rapidly as the 

 identification and labelling could be accomplished. In this distribu- 

 tion regard has been had to the relative geographical positions of the 

 establishments to which the first sets of specimens have been sent as 

 well as to their importance as influential centres of higher education. 

 According to the statement of Professor Baird, it will be seen that 

 already upwards of 16,000 specimens have been distributed during 

 the year, and efforts will be made during the season to increase this 

 number. The importance of this branch of operations depends more 

 upon what the Institution is enabled to distribute than on what it 

 accumulates for permanent preservation. 



Museum. — The type specimens of the museum have been gradually 

 increased during the past year, not only from the collections made 

 by the Institution, but also from donations received from abroad, par- 

 ticularly as regards rare birds, eggs, fossils, and animals. The Euro- 

 pean specimens of ornithology were requested for the purpose of 

 enabling Professor Baird by comparison to prosecute his work on 

 American birds. 



Previous to the fire the large room pai tly occupied by the Stanley 

 collection of Indian portraits had been fitted up with about two hun- 

 dred feet of cases around the walls, to receive the ethnological speci- 

 mens in possession of the Institution. "While engaged in re-arranging 

 the pictures above these cases, the workmen, with a view to their own 

 comfort, unfortunately placed the pipe of a stove in a ventilating flue 

 which opened under the roof, and thus caused the conflagration which 

 destroyed the upper part of the main building. Fortunately none 

 of the ethnological articles had been placed in this room, and conse- 

 quently these specimens, with those of the museum and of the general 

 collections, have been preserved. 



Exchanges. — The system of international literary and scientific ex- 

 changes has been continued during the past year with unabated 

 energy, and on the part of the Institution exclusively, several hun- 

 dred sets of its publications, each embracing 1,782 pages, have been 

 sent to foreign institutions. 



According to the tabular statement given by Professor Baird it ap- 

 pears that, during the year 1864, there have been despatched to 

 foreign countries 1,011 packages, each containing a number of articles, 

 enclosed in sixty-three boxes, measuring 546 cubic feet and weighing 

 20,500 pounds. The number of packages received in return for 

 societies and individuals in this country was 2,482 (nearly twice as 

 many as in 1863) exclusive of those for the Smithsonian library. 



