A CENTURY OF ZOOLOGY IN AMERICA 417 



Biological Periodicals. 



Perhaps in no better way can the progress of biology in 

 America be illustrated than by a brief survey of the 

 origin and development of the more important biological 

 journals. For it will be seen that these publications have 

 become more numerous and more specialized as the sci- 

 ence has advanced in specialization. 



The early publications which as is well known, treated 

 mainly of the birds, mammals and other vertebrates, and 

 of insects, Crustacea and shells consisted mainly of sep- 

 arate books or pamphlets, published by private subscrip- 

 tion. After the establishment of the so-called Academies 

 of Science, or of Arts and Sciences, toward the end of 

 the eighteenth and in the first quarter of the nineteenth 

 century, the reports of the meetings began to be pub- 

 lished as periodical Journals, supported by the acade- 

 mies. In these publications, and in the Journal which 

 was founded at the same time, appear papers on all 

 branches of science, including zoology. As soon as 

 zoology in America assumed its modern aspects through 

 the influence of Louis Agassiz and his followers the 

 earliest strictly zoological journals were established. 



It should be noted, however, that the journals of the 

 scientific and natural history societies were more or less 

 fully devoted to zoological topics according to the nature 

 of the activities of the members and correspondents. 

 After the establishment of the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology by Louis Agassiz came the founding in 1863 of its 

 Bulletin and later its Memoirs. These publications have 

 continued to the present day as a standard of excellence 

 for the reports of zoological investigations. In con- 

 nection with the systematic work on mollusks, the Amer- 

 ican Journal of Conchology was established in 1865. 

 The American Naturalist was founded in 1867 by four of 

 Louis Agassiz 's pupils, Hyatt, Morse, Packard and Put- 

 nam. It was later edited by Cope as a leading periodical 

 for the publication of biological papers, particularly 

 those relating to evolution, and is at present devoted to 

 evolutionary topics. It is now in the 52d volume of its 

 new series. 



