(iv) PREFACE. 



the limited space to which an annual like the present must 

 be restricted.* 



As now presented, the " Record ' : has two distinctive 

 parts : (1) the historical summaries of progress during the 

 past year; and (2) the paragraphs communicating in brief 

 the results of investigations by special scientists or respect- 

 ing certain subjects. The advantages of the paragraph 

 method, so generally in vogue in analogous publications in 

 the English and other languages, are combined with the 

 more consecutive and eliminating characteristics of the 

 historical ; the latter is a much more prominent feature in 

 the present volume than in any of its predecessors, and 

 special attention will be devoted to it in future. 



A list of some of the more prominent publications on 

 scientific subjects which have appeared during the past 

 year is added in this volume for the first time: the deter- 

 mination to introduce it was, however, carried into execu- 

 tion too late to render it as complete or critical as could 

 be desired. The labor attendant on the preparation of 

 such a list is very inadequately represented by its length, 

 and the co-operation of the book fraternity is necessary for 

 its thoroughness. It is proposed to make the Bibliography 

 of succeeding volumes an instructive guide for the selection 

 of works, and the views of the collaborators of the editor 

 will be accordingly invoked for the appreciation of their 



merits. 



Spencer F. Baird. 



Smithsonian Institution, Washington, February 10, 1875. 



* Among those who have taken part in the preparation of the historical 

 Summaries, or of abstracts of articles belonging to their respective specialties, 

 or who have supplied early reports of their own original researches, may be 

 mentioned : Professors Simon Newcomb, Cleveland Abbe, Edward S. Hol- 

 den, Theodore Gill, and O. T. Mason, of Washington ; Professors G. F. Bar- 

 ker, E. IX Cope, and Dr. William Wahl, of Philadelphia ; Professor C. P. 

 Himes, of Carlisle, Pa. ; Dr. Charles Rau, of New York; Professor A. M. 

 Mayer, of Hoboken ; Professor A. E. Verrill and Dr. E. S. Dana, of New 

 Haven; Professor W.O. Atwater, of Middleto\vn,Conn. ; Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, 

 of Boston ; Dr. A. S. Packard, Jr., of Salem ; Dr. W. G. Farlow and Mr. 

 Sereno Watson, of Cambridge; Professor Hamilton L. Smith, of Geneva, 

 N.Y. ; Professor F.W. Clarke, of Cincinnati; Mr. A.W. Bennett, of London, 

 and other gentlemen who prefer to remain unnamed for the present. 



