REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 59 



tion. This it was supposed would be the means of securing im- 

 portant additions to the library. It was found, however, in practice, 

 to impose a burden on the funds of the Institution for which no 

 adequate compensation accrued ; copies of the most valuable works 

 were not presented, because there was no penalty imposed for the 

 neglect to comply with the requirement, and the expense of clerk- 

 hire in recording and furnishing certificates was greater than the 

 value of the articles received, consisting, as they did principally, of 

 sheets of music, labels of patent medicines, novels, and element- 

 ary works of instruction. The law was, therefore, on special appli- 

 cation, so modified that authors were required in future only to send 

 a copy of their works to the copyright bureau of the Department of 

 the Interior and to the Library of Congress. 



A special library of the character above described, consisting of 

 serials, must of necessity constantly increase with the additions made 

 to the series of the existing associations which annually publish their 

 transactions. The Smithsonian library, therefore, comprises a prin- 

 ciple of indefinite augmentation, both as regards extent and value ; 

 and although this increase will result mainly from the exchanges 

 produced by the active operations, yet additional accommodations 

 will be constantly acquired. Hence it may become a matter of consid- 

 eration, hereafter, whether, since Congress has appropriated $160, 000 

 to the enlargement of the accommodation for its own library, it may 

 not be expedient to request that the Smithsonian collection be re- 

 ceived and arranged as one of its departments, while the free use and 

 general control of the same shall still be retained by the Institution. 



Museum. — -The same remarks which have been made in regard to 

 the library may, with little modification, be applied to the museum. 

 The portion of the funds of the Institution which it is practicable to 

 devote to the museum is not sufficient to support an establishment of 

 this kind worthy of the seat of government of the United States. 

 Indeed, it is generally now conceded by those who have critically ex- 

 amined the subject, that the accommodation and perpetual mainten- 

 ance of a large collection of objects of nature and art intended for 

 popular exhibition, or even for educational purposes, ought not to have 

 been imposed upon the Smithsonian fund. It has been seen from the 

 foregoing statement how much can be done in the way of advancing 

 natural history independent of a costly edifice, and the support of 

 a popular museum in which are to be continually exhibited even 

 type specimens. It is true that specimens of this diarajter ought 



