Copy. 
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 
Washington, U. S. A. 
January 24, 1912* 
Dear Sir: 
Replying to your inquiry of January 5, I beg leave 
to say that this Institution has under its direction the 
United States Exchange Bureau which acts, under the Convention 
concluded at Brussels, March 15, 1886, as the forwarding and 
distributing agency for scientific and literary publications 
which may be sent as donations, or exchanges between the United 
