In 1850 Spencer Fullerton Baird, a distinguished naturalist, was elected assistant secretary of the institution. To him the great activity in natural history work was due, and by him the museum was fostered, he being greatly aided from 1875 by a young and enthusiastic naturalist, George Brown Goode. Secretary Baird initiated in the Smithsonian Institution those economic studies which led to the establishment of the United States Fish Commission.
first secretary of the smithsonian institution, 1846-1878.
As another means of diffusing knowledge there was early established the bureau of international exchanges, originally intended simply for the proper distribution of the Smithsonian's publications, but which gradually assumed very wide proportions, becoming no less than an arrangement with learned societies throughout the world to reciprocally carry free publications of learned societies, or of individual scientific men, intended for gratuitous distribution. This system was after-
