Author's Introduction 



A SUBJECT-BIBLIOGRAPHY is al- 

 , most inevitably out of date before 

 it can reach publication. Yet in another 

 sense a bibliography is unique among pub- 

 lished works since it can never be out of 

 date — for the period of years covered — 

 provided, of course, it is sufficiently well 

 executed and the literature is sufficiently 

 well searched. With a few exceptions, no 

 works are included here which were pub- 

 lished after the beginning of 1939. 



The present volume is Part I of a pro- 

 jected bibliography embracing all fields of 

 primate biology. Included in this volume is 

 the literature of the morphological sciences 

 (anatomy and its subsidiary branches of 

 embryology, histology, etc.), and the liter- 

 ature of the functional sciences (physiology, 

 pharmacology, and experimental and ob- 

 servational psychobiology), and certain his- 

 torical and miscellaneous bibliographies. 

 Part II will include the literature of the 

 pathological sciences (pathology, bacteriol- 

 ogy and immunology, and parasitology), 

 and probably as well the taxonomic litera- 

 ture of the extant primates. The materials 

 for the second volume are largely gathered 

 and the analysis of them is considerably ad- 

 vanced. The amount of overlapping be- 

 tween the two parts is deemed insufficient 

 to warrant delay in publication of the pres- 

 ent volume. 



The completeness attained in the present 

 work is difficult to assess. We have in- 

 cluded many papers in which primate forms 

 constitute only a fraction of the vertebrate 

 or mammalian series studied; yet no at- 

 tempt has been made to record every ob- 

 lique reference to the primates. On this 

 score we feel that we have occasionally 

 erred on the side of over-inclusiveness. Many 

 articles of a "popular" character, especially 

 in psychobiology, have been included, but 

 again no attempt at absolute completeness 



has been made. In addition to searching 

 year by year the bibliographical sources 

 listed in the Acknowledgments, many jour- 

 nals have been scanned for primate litera- 

 ture; and the bibliographies or footnotes 

 of many articles and books have been 

 searched. That this has not sufficed to 

 render the bibliography complete is proved 

 by the fact that occasionally a previously 

 unrecorded reference comes to light. This 

 is especially true for literature of recent 

 years which has not yet found its way into 

 bibliographical journals and for works pub- 

 lished in the Asiatic and Eastern European 

 countries. We have become convinced that 

 no single person can hope to uncover all the 

 literature of the primates; that can be ap- 

 proximated only if specialists in the various 

 fields will call our attention to omissions so 

 that they can be included in a supplement 

 or in the second volume of the bibliography. 

 Similarly, checking and even double check- 

 ing seems not to have eliminated all errors, 

 so that notations for an errata list will be 

 greatly appreciated. 



ARRANGEMENT OF THE 

 BIBLIOGRAPHY 



The first decision which must be made 

 in compiling a bibliography is what feature 

 common to all studies will take precedence 

 over all others in determining the order in 

 which the items are printed. Shall the bibli- 

 ography be arranged according to author, 

 to subject, to date of publication, or to the 

 taxonomic position of the species of pri- 

 mates studied? Perhaps the most common 

 procedure is to list the items alphabetically 

 by authors and to analyze them according 

 to subject in an index, alphabetic or system- 

 atic. This practice, in the opinion of the 

 authors, ignores one of the principal values 

 of the printed page, the opportunity to 



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