48 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



was decided that out of the edition of 1,200 copies, 100 should be de- 

 livered iu signatures as fast as printed, and 300 in extras or reprints, 

 in paper covers, of which 50 are to be given to the authors and the 

 remainder distributed to specialists in the various departments to which 

 the papers relate, who are not otherwise provided with the publica- 

 tion; while the 800 remaining volumes are to be bound previous to dis- 

 tribution. 



"In special instances, where a given paper in the Proceedings is be- 

 lieved to possess great general interest, it has been customary to print 

 a considerable number of extra copies. 



" The publication of the Proceedings and the Bulletin was at first 

 paid for from the printing fund of the Interior Department, with which 

 the Museum was at that time in close relations in respect to financial 

 matters. Subsequently it was paid for from the fund for the printing 

 of Museum labels, estimates for which were annually submitted by the 

 Secretary of the Institution. The amount asked for was usually $10,000. 

 In the Book of Estimates the Museum appeared as asking a certain sum 

 for printing, though the money was actually included in the gross sum 

 allotted to the Interior Department as a printing fund. 



" In 1882, a separate appropriation was made for the first time, in 

 these words: 'For the National Museum, for printing labels and blanks 

 and for the Bulletins and annual volumes of the Proceedings of the 

 Museum, ten thousand dollars.' 



" In 1888 the appropriation for the fiscal year 1888-9 was made in the 

 same words, but was not included, as heretofore, in the appropriations 

 for the Department of the Interior. 



" The edition of the earlier volumes of the Proceedings and Bulletins 

 was usually only 1,000, of which a portion was distributed by the De- 

 partment of the Interior and a portion by the Museum. The number 

 received by the Museum being sometimes 500 and sometimes as few as 

 250. The edition placed at 'the disposal of the Museum being so small, 

 and withal so uncertain as to extent, the distribution was always of 

 necessity informal, and no effort was made to supply a regular list 

 of institutions and specialists. A considerable number was expended 

 in the work of the Museum, and the remainder were sent to corres- 

 pondents of the Museum in exchange for publications, for specimens, 

 and incidentally to such institutions as might apply for copies, as well 

 as to individuals, especially students who made it evident that they 

 were in a position to make good use of the books. 



" Formal publication was undertaken by the Smithsonian Institution, 

 it being the intention that the first cost of composition and electrotyping 

 having been provided for by the special Congressional appropriation, 

 the Smithsonian Institution should avail itself of the electrotype plates 

 and use them in making up certain volumes of the Miscellaneous Col- 

 lections. The papers published in the Proceedings and Bulletins of 

 the Museum were of precisely the same character which, since 1862, 

 had made up the great majority of the most important papers in 

 the Miscellaneous Collections. The Institution undertook to print 

 an edition of 1,200 copies in the form of volumes of the Miscellaneous 

 Collections and to distribute them to the principal libraries of the 

 world. This was, at the time, regarded as advantageous, since the 

 cost of composition and electrotyping made up at least two-thirds of 

 the cost of the edition of 1,200, while the miscellaneous distribution, 

 for which the Institution, in the case of similar publications printed 

 at its own expense, had been accustomed to provide, was now already 

 arranged for out of the preliminary issue of several hundred copies 

 paid for from the Museum fund. 



