Library of Congress 300,000 " House of Representatives 125,000 " Surgeon General 40,000 " State Department 29,000 " Senate 25,000 " Patent Office 23,000 " War Department 13,000 " Attorney General 12,000 " Treasury 8,440 " Solicitor of Treasury 6,000 " Post Office 6,301 " Hydrographer's Office 7,000 " Dep't. Agriculture 7,000 " Bureau Statistics 6,000 " Naval Observatory 7,000 " Coast Survey 6,000 Many of these are scientific collections and the only large ones of their kind in the country. Their presence, in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution, has made Washington one of the most active scientific centres in the country. Government publications are sometimes referred to as mere trash, but aside from the remarkably thorough and admirable reports which the several public surveys have produced within a few years, and aside from such notable publications as the reports of Wilkes, Perry, and Kane, the ordinary issues of the Government printing office are anything but undeserving documents. They are in most cases necessary, useful, and interesting to some one. As special reports, made to cover some field that is narrow, however necessary it may be, and limited to that range by the law which authorizes them, they cannot possibly often be publications of general interest. In fact it is their extremely special character that gives them value. We are sometimes told that a government may be obliged to publish its State papers as matter of record, but it is noticeable that these volumes of documentary history are less inquired for than almost any others. The surveying, engineering, geological, astronomical, and other scientific reports published by the Government are in much greater request, and bring the highest prices in old bookstores. The explanation is, of course, that the scientific reports are useful to a larger class than the others. They appeal to "bread-winners" in several important professions, to students of pure science the world over, and to the already large and increasing body of teachers. For the "Smithsonian Contributions" one hundred and fifty dollars, or more than first cost, is demanded, and the first volume brings twenty dollars, or two and a half times its original price. The Mining Industry volume of the Fortieth Parallel Report brought forty dollars in the shops (whenever it could be found) even while the Engineer Corps was still gingerly distributing its limited edition _gratis_. Many more examples could be adduced, but these are sufficient to show that the Government