PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 303 



bounds of human knowledge, should injustice to himself as well 

 as to the public, be acquainted with what has previously been 

 done in the same line; and this he will only be enabled to accom- 

 plish by tlie use of iudexes of the kind above mentioned."* 



At the time, and for years afterward, one-half of the Smith- 

 sonian income was diverted by the requirements of Congress 

 to the local objects of the Lyceum: and the hopelessness of 

 attempting a work — additional to that already mapped out, 

 which would require the united labors of a large corps of well- 

 trained and educated assistants for many years, and the subse- 

 quent devotion of the whole available income for many years 

 following, to complete its publication, was fully realized. The 

 project however was not abandoned : and in 1854, Henry con- 

 ceived the plan of taking up the more limited department of 

 American Scientific Bibliography ; and by the persevering ap- 

 plication of a fi.xed portion of the income annually for a suc- 

 cession of years, of finally producing a thorough subject-matter 

 index, as well as an index of authors, for the entire range of 

 American contributions to science from their earliest date. In- 

 spired with tiiis ambition, he sought to enlist the co-operatiou 

 of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, in 

 procuring with its large resources, a similar classified index for 

 British and European scientific literature. 



The favorable reception of this project, was officially announced 

 to Henry by the Secretary of the Association, in the transmis- 

 sion of the following extract from the proceedings of that body 

 for 1855. "A communication from Professor Henry of Washing- 

 ton having been read, containing a proposal for the publication 

 of a catalogue of philosophical memoirs scattered throughout the 

 Transactions of Societies in Europe and America, with the offer 

 of co-operation on the part of the Smithsonian Institution, to 

 the extent of preparing and publishing in accordance with the 

 general plan which might be adopted by the British Association, 

 a catalogue of all the American memoirs on physical science, — 

 the Committee approve of the suggestion, and recommend that 

 Mr. Cayley, Mr. Grant, and Professor Stokes be appointed a 

 committee to consider the best system of arrangement, and to 

 report thereon to the council."! The report of this committee 

 dated 13th June, 1856, was presented to the succeeding Meeting 

 of the British Association ; in which they take occasion to say: 

 " The Committee are desirous of expressing their sense of the 

 great importance and increasing need of such a catalogue. 

 The catalogue should not be restricted to memoirs in Transac- 

 tions of Societies, but should comprise also memoirs in the Pro- 

 ceedings of Societies, in mathematical and scientific journals:" 



Smityoninn Report inr 1851. p. 225 (of Sen. ed.). p. 217 (of H Rep. ed.) 

 Report Brit. Ansoc. Glasgow, Sept. 18 5, p. Ixvi. 



77 



