70 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



tions have been given to our agents to transmit nothing in the boxes 

 to the Institution which is not a donation, all purchases being exclu- 

 ded on account of the present tariff regulations. 



For the statistics of the exchanges see the annexed tables in the 

 report of Professor Baird. 



Library. — The library has received during the past year, through 

 our system of exchanges, 547 octavo, 201 quarto, and L9 folio vol- 

 umes, 3,256 pamphlets and parts of volumes, and 183 maps and charts, 

 making a total of 4, 206. 



The work on the catalogue of transactions of learned societies and 

 of scientific journals has advanced so far that all those of foreign 

 countries have been finished, while those of America are now in the 

 hands of the printer. 



The suggestion has been made in previous reports that consid- 

 erable relief might be afforded to the Institution by the transfer of 

 its library, under certain conditions, to the new and spacious halls 

 which Congress is providing for its own library, and the importance 

 of the proposition has been much enhanced by considerations con- 

 nected with the recent disaster. The west wing of the building, in 

 which the library is now contained, is not fire-proof, and is already 

 filled to overflowing. To provide another depository for it, which 

 shall render it entirely secure from fire and be sufficient for its con- 

 tinued increase, will far exceed the means of the Institution, and, 

 although some inconvenience would be experienced in regard to 

 ready access to the books, yet, in consideration of the great value 

 of the collection, by far the most perfect of its kind in the United 

 States, it has been thought proper to ask Congress to allow the de- 

 posit of this library to be made in one of the new fire-proof rooms 

 preparing for the extension of its own collection of books. 



I am informed by Mr. Spofford, the librarian of Congress, that 

 these two new rooms will be sufficient to accommodate the Smithson- 

 ian library and to furnish space for the growth of the Congressional 

 library for the next fifteen or twenty years. The object of the 

 transfer is, of course, not to separate this unique and highly prized 

 collection of books from its relations to the Smithsonian Institution, 

 for it must still bear its name and be subject to its control, but merely 

 to deposit it where its preservation will be more certain and its use- 

 fulness more extended.* 



* Since the preparation of this report an act of Congress has been passed authorizing the 

 deposit of the library in one of the new rooms of the Capitol. This arrangement, while it 

 secures the safety of the books, will facilitate the researches of the student, since, in the same 

 suite of apartments, he will have free access to two libraries. (See Proceedings of the Board 

 in this volume.) 



