692 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



a score of similar indexes to special topics have been produced. 

 In 1876 he published an Index to the Literature of Manganese. 



At the Montreal meeting of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science (1882) he chose for his vice-presidential 

 address the subject Chemical Literature, and suggested the for- 

 mation of a committee on indexing chemical literature; as the 

 chairman of this committee he has prepared ten annual reports to 

 the association, and has done much to encourage the production 

 of special chemical bibliographies by American chemists. 



One of the most important bibliographical works by Dr. Bol- 

 ton is his Catalogue of Scientific and Technical Periodicals, 1665- 

 1882, published as vol. xxix of the Smithsonian Miscellaneous 

 Collections in 1885. This comprises full titles of over five thou- 

 sand, scientific technical journals in about twenty languages, to- 

 gether with chronological tables showing the year of issue of 

 each volume of five hundred periodicals, and a library check-list 

 indicating in what American libraries sets of these journals are to 

 be found. This undertaking was a labor of love on the part of Dr. 

 Bolton, who, in the words of an eminent writer, acquired thereby 

 " a place in the foremost rank of those little-appreciated and hard- 

 worked men, bibliographers." Dr. Bolton has just completed a 

 still more extensive work of a kindred nature, A Select Bibliog- 

 raphy of Chemistry, 1492-1892. This general bibliography of 

 chemical science comprises over twelve thousand titles in twenty- 

 four languages, yet is a " select " catalogue, and makes no claim 

 to completeness. The titles are arranged under seven groups, as 

 follows : I, Bibliography ; II, Dictionaries ; III, History ; IV, Biog- 

 raphy ; V, Chemistry, pure and applied ; VI, Alchemy ; VII, Peri- 

 odicals. The volume contains 1212 pages, and forms No. xxxvi in 

 the series of Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. 



Parallel with his original researches and bibliographical com- 

 pilations Dr. Bolton has given much attention to the history of 

 chemistry, contributing many notes to current scientific journals, 

 of which the following is a partial list : 



Contributions to the History of Chemistry. Historical Notes 

 on the Defunct Elements, American Chemist, 1873. Views of 

 the Founders of the Atomic Philosophy, American Chemist, 1873. 

 Notes on the Early Literature of Chemistry, several papers in 

 American Chemist, 1873-79. Papyrus Ebers, the earliest medical 

 work extant, Quarterly Journal of Science, London, 1876. Ancient 

 Methods of Filtration, The Popular Science Monthly, 1879. Early 

 Practice of Medicine by Women, The Popular Science Monthly, 

 1880. History of Chemical Notation (two papers), Transactions 

 of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1883. Recent Progress in 

 Chemistry, Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences, 

 1886. The Lunar Society of Birmingham, Transactions of the 



