which might reasonably be expected to appear. The brief 

 characterizations attached to the names have sometimes given 

 difficulty because of the varied aspects of some men's work, 

 but the endeavor has been to choose the field in which each has 

 made his most important contributions to science. A man's 

 birthplace has been considered as determining his nationality. 



The original intention was to include only books about in- 

 dividuals and collections of biographies, omitting references 

 to the periodical press. This plan has been modified by the 

 inclusion of references to the publications of some societies 

 which print obituary notices of members and a few scientific 

 and technical journals which contain numerous biographical 

 sketches. No references to general periodicals are given ex- 

 cept a few from Poole's Index to additional material on men 

 already in the list. The names of those who appear in the Dic- 

 tionary of National Biography are indicated by asterisks. 



A list of books systematically indexed is given below, also 

 a list of biographical dictionaries and some other works useful 

 for reference in this connection. Among the latter may be 

 especially mentioned the Indexes to the Proceedings of the In- 

 stitution of Civil Engineers, which contain references to some 

 2,500 names. 



The plan, compilation and annotation of this list are the 

 work of Miss Marion Knight and Mr E. H. McClelland. 



Harrison W. Craver, 



October 20, 191 4. Librarian. 



