Mis. No. 48. * * 45 



cnltivators; 4. The journals which contain tl.e record of its progress. 

 Thus, in the department of natural history, would be included Ciu-icr's 

 History of the Natural Sciences^ Engelmann's Bibliography of Natural 

 History, Callisen's Biographical Dictionary of Naturalists, and the Annals 

 of the Natural Sciences; and inasmuch as neither of these is pcifect of its 

 kind, there must be many others of each description. 



With regard to the third class of books, viz: the memoirs and transac- 

 tions of learned societies, I have made, and herewith present a list which 

 I believe to be nearly complete, of all the publications of learned societies 

 in actual operation throughout the world. Doubtless these publications 

 possess various grades of merit-. But it is difficult, and I think undesira- 

 ble, to reject any of them. Papers of the greatest importance are some- 

 times published in the. transactions of the most obscure provincial acade- 

 mies. 



The Department of Public Instruction of the French government pub- 

 lished in the year 1847 the first volume of a work intended to be continued 

 annually, entitled " Annuaire dcs Societds Savantes dc la Prance ct de 

 I'Etranger." The volume for the first year, an octavo of more than 1 ,0U0 

 pages, contains historical sketches of all the learned societies in France, 

 the regulations of the institutions, an account of their various publications, 

 and other works, and the names of their members. A similar account of 

 the academies of other countries was promised for the second year, but 

 I cannot learn that it has yet appeared. The labor upon it was probably 

 interrupted by the revolution of February, and has not yet been resumed. 



The lists which I now present are made from the Rev. Dr. Hume's 

 "Learned Societies and Printing Clubs of the United Kingdom" for Great 

 Britain, the '' Annuaire" for France, and from various other sources, prin- 

 cipally from the first volume of the catalogue of the printed books in the 

 British Museum for other countries. 



The remaining duty assigned me was the systematic arrangement for 

 purposes of comparison of the printed catalogues of the principal libraries 

 in the United States. This, also, is a part of the plan for rendering the In- 

 stitution a centre of bibliographical knowledge. 



I have commenced the v/ork in the following manner: Taking the 

 printed catalogue of the library of Harvard University, I separate the tides 

 and paste each one upon a card about six inches long by four wide. This 

 size of card was selected in order to allow room for long tides widi the 

 annotations which may be necessary. The letters " H. U." are to be 

 stamped upon the card to denote that the book belongs to Harvard Uni- 

 versity. When the tides of the Harvard catalogue are finished it is pro- 

 posed to begin upon the catalogue of the Philadelphia Library. When- 

 ever the tides are the same it will be sufficient to stamp upon the card 

 in addition to the letters '<H. U." the letters '' l\ L. C," thus deno- 

 ting that the book belongs also to the Philadelphia Library Company. 

 When new titles are found, they should be placed upon cards like the 

 others. The catalogues of all the other libraries are to be treated in 

 like manner. When the arrangement of the printed catalogues is com- 

 pleted, it will be necessary to obtain manuscript continuations. 1 hese 

 must be copied on the same kind of cards. It will then be easy to arrange 

 the titles in alphabetical or other order, and to preserve them in such order, 

 however frequent and numerous the accessions which may be made. 

 It is hardly necessary to enlarge upon the great value of such a cata- 



