SKETCH OF SPENCER F. BAIRD. 553 



ploration and travel. In them all, 361 new species are described. 

 The earliest contribution in the list is the description of two new 

 species of the genus Tyrannula, Swainson (1843), which he pre- 

 pared in conjunction with his brother. An application of bichro- 

 mate of potassa to photographic purposes, published in 1844, was 

 employed by him in taking leaf photographs, a collection of 

 which, preserved in the National Museum, has been one of the 

 standard resources of American palaeophytologists, and has been 

 used in the preparation of many of the works on the fossil bot- 

 any of the United States. In a "Summary of Suggestions in 

 Regard to Future Operations of the Smithsonian Institution in 

 the Department of Natural History" (1851), the purpose is out- 

 lined not to attempt collections of all natural objects, but rather 

 to gather up such materials for investigation as have been com- 

 paratively neglected by others. In the same paper occurs a state- 

 ment in reference to Japan which sounds curiously now when the 

 activity and co-operation of the Japanese in scientific matters are 

 so conspicuous. After speaking of Japan as a region in some 

 respects more closely allied to our country than even Europe, the 

 author remarks : " Unfortunately, there are at the present time 

 almost insuperable difficulties in the way of procuring Japanese 

 specimens, the Dutch naturalists being the only ones who have 

 succeeded in exploring even the shores of this country. Little 

 can be done, therefore, except by exchange with the museums of 

 Holland." In 1851 he translated from the German and edited the 

 " Iconographic Encyclopaedia," an elaborately illustrated diction- 

 ary of physical facts and art, of unquestioned merit, which had 

 great currency till it was superseded by later works reflecting the 

 progress of science. The volume on " Birds," in the series of the 

 Reports of the Explorations and Surveys for a Railroad Route 

 from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean (1858), was pre- 

 pared by Prof. Baird, with the co-operation of John Cassin and 

 George N. Lawrence. Prof, Coues says, respecting it, that " the 

 appearance of so great a work, from the hands of a most method- 

 ical, learned, and sagacious naturalist, aided by two of the lead- 

 ing ornithologists of America, exerted an influence perhaps 

 stronger and more widely felt than that of any of its predecessors, 

 Audubon's and Wilson's not excepted, and marked an epoch in 

 the history of American ornithology. . . . Such a monument of 

 original research is like to remain for an indefinite period a source 

 of inspiration to lesser writers, while its authority as a work of 

 reference will always endure." " The Annual Record of Science 

 and Industry," which was published for several years under Profl 

 Baird's editorial supervision, was made up from the items and 

 articles that had been published during the year in the Harpers' 

 weekly and monthly periodicals. Many of them were original 



