Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub

APPENDIX.

Report on the International Exchanges of the Smithsonian Institution.

Introductory.

Sketch of early reports of international exchange.

In 1694, between France and Germany.

In 1697, between France and China..

In 1800, the American Philosophical Society

the American Academy of Arts and Sciences..

In 1832, M. Vattermare, of Paris...

In 1841, the National Institution of Washington.

Smithsonian exchanges..

Exchanges suggested in the original programme of organization..
Operations commenced in 1850.

Remission of duties and free entry of Smithsonian exchanges in all parts
of the world..

Co-operation of Royal Society of London with the Smithsonian Institution in the system of exchanges....

Different branches of the system of exchanges..

Foreign exchanges

Offers by the Smithsonian Institution to learned societies to act as agents of exchange.

Page.

37

37

37

37

40

42

[ocr errors]

43

Request made from foreign countries for certain works of education, &c. 45 Co-operation of government bureaus.

Acknowledgments for favors in connection with foreign exchanges.

Liberality of transportation companies.

Consuls forwarding Smithsonian exchanges.

Centers of distribution abroad.

Extent and cost of exchanges..

Domestic exchanges.

45

46

47

Tabular statement of shipments.

Assistance by publishing and book-houses

Tabular statements of the receipts for domestic exchanges for the Smithsonian Institution and other institutions in the United States.

Government exchanges.

Acts of Congress, July 20, 1840, authorizing an exchange of public docu

ments

Exchange of government documents urged by the Smithsonian Institution
in 1852..

Act of March 2, 1867, providing for an exchange of official publications..
To be carried on through the agency of the Smithsonian Institution..
Circular sent by the Smithsonian Institution relative to exchanges of gov-
ernment documents...

Governments responding favorably to the proposed exchanges of official
documents

First transmission of government exchanges.
Companies granting free freight.....

Shipping agents of government exchanges..

Governments in exchange with the United States Government

Tabular statement of transmission...

List of official publications received under the system from the Public Printer between the years 1868-1881.....

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][subsumed][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, EXCHANGE OFFICE,

Washington, D. C., February 28, 1882.

SIR: Agreeably to your request, I have the honor herewith to submit a report on a system of international literary and scientific exchanges organized in various countries as one of the results of the geographical congress which met at Paris, France, during the months of August and September, 1875.

To this paper is appended a report on the history and development of the system of literary and scientific exchanges established by the Smithsonian Institution in the year 1850, together with a sketch of early experiments at international exchange, which will tend to show the originality of the Smithsonian system.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Prof. SPENCER F. BAIRD,

Secretary Smithsonian Institution.

IMER

GEO. H. BOEHMER.

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT.

The Smithsonian Institution, which has for the third of a century undertaken, as one of its fields of activity, a system of free international exchanges of the scientific and literary productions of all countries, has now achieved a magnitude of operations beyond which it finds a further extension impossible with its present limited resources. A full account of the growth of this beneficent system, now favorably recog nized in all parts of the world, is herewith respectfully submitted, together with an introductory account of the proceedings which have taken place in late years among various governments, directed to the establishment of such a system upon a truly international basis.

During the months of August and September, in 1875, an international congress of geographical science was held at Paris, consisting of several hundred delegates from all parts of the globe, and representing the following national governments: Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Chili, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Norway, Portugal, Roumania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Swiss Confederation, Turkey, and the United States of America. A prominent result of this conference was a unanimous resolution to enlist the co-operation of the respective goverments there represented in securing the free interchange of official and other publications, in accordance with the following:

PROPOSED PLAN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE OF SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS TO BE SUBMITTED TO THE CONTRACTING POWERS.

The undersigned delegates propose to request their respective governments to or ganize in each country a central bureau whose duty it shall be to collect such carto

8

graphic, geographic, and other publications as may be issued at the expense of the state, and to distribute the same among the various nations which adopt the present programme.

These bureaus, which shall correspond directly with each other, shall serve to transmit the international scientific communications of learned societies.

They shall serve as the intermediate agents for the procurement, on the best possible terms, of books, maps, instrutients, &c., published or manufactured in each country, and desired by any of the contracting countries.

Each country shall transmit at least one copy of its national publications to the other contracting countries.

In order to accomplish this project, the Baron de Vatteville, who was charged by his colleagues with the formation, at Paris, of a central commission of exchanges, convoked a meeting of those signers of the convention of August 12, 1875, who reside at Paris, at the ministry of public instruction.

The commission thus formed, desirous of securing the exchange of publications and official documents relating to the sciences which tend to promote a knowledge of the globe, such as, first, astronomy, geodesy, cartography, geography, topography, geology, mineralogy, botany, anthropology, hygiene, zoology, entomology, explorations and travels, history, archæology, linguistics, numismatics, &c.; and secondly, statistical information of all kinds, has prepared, discussed, and adopted the regulations mentioned below, which its members will submit to their. respective governments for approval.

SECTION I.-General arrangements.

ARTICLE 1. Each high contracting party shall designate in its country a bureau as the center for international exchanges and shall communicate its exact title and address to the other governments.

ART. 2. Each bureau shall prepare a bibliography of the official works published within late years and which they are inclined to exchange. It shall transmit at least one copy of this list to the foreign bureaus, and shall engage to notify these same bureaus of all new official publications as they may appear.

ART. 3. The bureau of each country may (subject to the ratification of its government) make use of the opportunity to include in the list of proposed exchanges such publications as are not, strictly speaking, comprised in the category of the sciences above mentioned.

SECTION II.-Exchanges between governments and departments.

ART. 4. All official documents, that is to say publications issued at the expense of the state, shall be exchanged gratuitously. With regard to these each high contracting party engages to transmit to the foreign bureaus at least one copy of each of its publications, excepting, however, those which relate to the national defense.

ART. 5. If any country shall desire for any purpose to receive more than one copy of the official publications of any other country, the number thereof shall be fixed by a previous arrangement through means of the bureaus of exchange, on the basis of an equitable reciprocity.

SECTION III.-Exchanges between governments and learned societies.

ART. 6. If any scientific society or institution, whether receiving a subsidy from the state or not, shall desire to receive directly official publications from any foreign country, it shall address the bureau of its country, which shall serve as agent for obtaining the most favorable conditions.

ART. 7. Any modifications of these conditions of the exchanges, agreed upon by two countries relative to the suppression of a document or the transmission of additional copies, must pass through the bureaus of the countries interested.

SECTION IV.-Exchanges between learned societies.

ART. 8. The bureau will serve as intermediary between scientific societies, whether subsidized or not, which may desire to make exchanges between themselves, by giving all the information at their disposal. It will also act officially in regard to authors, publishers, or manufacturers of instruments, whose publications or produc

tions may be desired by either a state or a foreign scientific society, in order to procure the advantage of the greatest possible reductions in favor of the applicants.

ART. 9. The bureau is not to take any part in exchanges between clubs or associa tions which do not have a well-defined scientific literary character, nor in exchanges between manufacturers, publishers, or authors.

SECTION V.-Transmissions and payment of carriage.

This section remains to be prepared in accordance with the reply which shall be received from the postal union, in reference to the request for free transport which has been addressed to the same on behalf of the commission by the Baron de Vatteville. This is also the case with regard to the protocol, the terms of which can only be determined upon by the different governments in pursuance of a previous arrangement.

Done at Paris, January 29, 1876, council chamber of the ministry of public instruction, &c., division of science and letters, first bureau, under the authority of the minister of public instruction, by the assistant secretary and director of the bureau of sciences and letters.

BARON DE VATTEVILLE, President of the Commission for International Exchanges.

CORRESPONDENCE.

The following communications relative to international exchanges will sufficiently explain themselves.

On the 25th of April, 1876, the Hon. Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State, communicated to the Hon. Benjamin H. Bristow, the Secretary of the Treasury, the "proposed plan of international exchange" promulgated by the Paris commission January 25, 1876.

Copies of these communications were transmitted by the honorable Secretary of the Treasury to Professor Henry, the President of the National Academy of Sciences, and Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, with the following letter:

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, May 2, 1876.

SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith for the consideration of the National Academy of Sciences a copy of a letter of the 25th ultimo, from the honorable the Secretary of State, inclosing a copy of a communication dated Paris, the 15th of March, 1876, addressed to that department by Dr. W. E. Johnston, in relation to the establishment of a bureau of international exchanges of works of science, together with copies of a letter of February 23, 1876, from Baron de Vatteville, president of the Commission of International Exchanges at Paris, and a plan adopted by the commission, which it is proposed to submit to the contracting powers.

The department would be pleased to be favored with the views of the Academy of Sciences upon this subjeet, and any recommendations it may see fit to make.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

Prof. JOSEPH HENRY, LL.D.,

President National Academy of Sciences.

B. H. BRISTOW,

Secretary.

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION,
Washington, D. C., May 4, 1876.

SIR: Your letter of the 2d instant, relative to the establishment of an international bureau for the exchange of works of science, &c., with the accompanying documents, has been received, and in behalf of the National Academy of Sciences, and also of this Institution, I respectfully submit the following as an answer:

From the earliest period of the establishment of scientific societies in America, it has been customary to exchange their publications for those of similar institutions in all parts of the world.

About thirty years ago, as stated by Dr. Johnston, Alex. Vattemare attempted to establish a system of international literary and scientific exchange between France and the United States, and succeeded in in. teresting in his project several of the States of the Union. The enter prise, however, was an individual one, and fell into disuse principally on account of want of adequate means for carrying it on.

In 1846 the Smithsonian Institution was organized by the bequest of an English gentleman for the "increase and diffusion of knowledge

11

« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »