22 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



to smaller libraries, where a whole State or large district would be 

 otherwise unsupplied. 



Institutions devoted exclusively to the promotion of particular 

 branches of knowledge receive such articles published by the Insti- 

 tution as relate to their objects. Portions of the series are also given 

 to institutions of lesser grade not entitled, under the above rules, to 

 the full series; and also to the meteorological correspondents of the 

 Institution . 



The Reports are of a more popular character, and are presented — 



1. To all the meteorological observers and other collaborators of 

 the Institution. 



2. To donors to its library or museum. 



3. To colleges and other educational establishments. 



4. To public libraries and literary and scientific societies. 



5. To teachers or individuals who are engaged in special studies, 

 and who make direct application for them. 



In consideration of the growing expenses of the Institution, and the 

 increasing demand for its publications, it may become necessary to 

 restrict the gratuitous distribution, and to take measures to secure a 

 larger sale by the usual methods adopted by publishers. 



Reports. — The usual number of extra copies of the Report for 1865 

 was ordered by Congress, and, as has been the case for several years 

 past, was stereotyped, so that future editions may be printed if re- 

 quired. 



This volume contains, in addition to the report of the Secretary 

 and the proceedings of the Board, the folloAving articles: 



A eulogy on General Joseph G. Totten, late Chief Engineer of the 

 United States army, and a Regent of the Smithsonian Institution from 

 its organization, delivered by Major General J. G. Barnard before 

 the National Academy of Sciences; a Memoir of De Blainville, by 

 Flourens, translated from memoirs of the the French Academy of Sci- 

 ences; a report of the transactions of the Society of Physics and Natural 

 History of Geneva for 1863 and 1864; an original article on the aurora 

 borealis, with illustrations, by Professor E. Loomis; a translation from 

 the German of an article on the senses of feeling and smell; a translation 

 of a course of lectures by Professor Matteuci on electro-physiology; 

 an essay on the palafittes or lacustrian constructions of the Lake of Neu- 

 chatel, by Professor E. Desor, of Switzerland, with notes and illus- 

 trations furnished by the author; a continuation of Plateau's re- 

 searches on the figures of equilibrium of a liquid mass withdrawn 

 from the action of gravity; an outline by Professor W. Lilljeborg, of 

 Upsala, of the latest views of ornithologists in reference to the 



