PREFACE. 



It has been impossible for the working naturalist or physicist to 

 keep track of the rapid growth of scientific serial literature during the 

 past twenty-five years. It has grown to such proportions that the 

 barest list of titles requires a volume, and a bibliographical hand- 

 book, like the present, has become a necessfty. 



The scope of the present work is indicated in a general wa} r upon 

 the title page, but adherance to the original plan has been not a little 

 difficult. It was intended to include the pure and exclude all the ap- 

 plied sciences ; but their more or less intimate union in many periodi- 

 cals has compelled the admission of mam' titles which should no doubt 

 be properly classed with the applied sciences. Some of the minor 

 divisions of the latter were also so limited, both in scope and in liter- 

 ature (e. g. apiculture, fish-culture, etc.), that it was' deemed beet to 

 admit them : but publications dealing exclusively with Medicine, 

 Pharmacy, Agriculture, Horticulture, Technology, Manufactures, Phi- 

 1 (logy and History have been omitted, and such minor divisions of the 

 applied sciences as have been included may be readily determined by 

 an inspection of the last index in the volume. It should be added, 

 however, that Antiquities, as dealing with historic periods, have been 

 omitted : while Archaeology, as including pre-historic times, and 

 thus allied to Geology, has been admitted. As is well-known, a large 

 number of historical and antiquarian societies and magazines discuss 

 archaeological material relating to the pre-historic period; and where 

 this was known to be the cast' they are introduced ; but otherwise, or 

 unless their titles indicate a broader scope than history only, they 

 have been excluded. It is impossible that mistakes should not have 

 arisen in this part of the work, and in this particular it is somewhat 

 unequally treated, a greater latitude being allowed in the latter than 

 in the early part of the volume. In attempting to separate the 

 sciences and their applications, or historic and pre-historic papers, 

 much must be left to the compiler's judgment, and that of any two 

 persons must necessarily conflict. 



It is not, however, the, compiler's purpose to disarm criticism, for 

 it is hardly likely that any one will see the faults and omissions in his 

 work more clearly than himself. Indeed, in the interest of future 

 work of this kind he would point out one error of judgment into which 



