The International Scientific Series. 293 



harness and trot quite smoothly. They took hold of work 

 as a matter of course, and are going to make a pretty good 

 committee. It seems to be universally agreed that we have 

 a great thing in prospect and well under way, and which 

 can hardly fail to result in large advantages to many au- 

 thors and to the public also. I am glad I came now, and 

 glad I stayed it out. It has been rough and tough, and 

 will fitly wind up with a winter passage home. Oh, how I 

 will sleep when I get on that ship ! 



Before sailing for home Youmans had not only 

 arranged for simultaneous publication in New York, 

 London, Paris, and Leipsic, but also opened negotia- 

 tions which in the future extended his plan to Milan 

 and St. Petersburg. The International Scientific 

 Series, launched with so much labour, amply justified 

 its projector's anticipations. In it the master hands of 

 science have written the latest word on themes whose 

 special study has won them their distinction. There 

 are many topics of importance for which no single 

 nation provides a sufficiently large circle of readers 

 for remunerative publication. Several such topics 

 have been treated in the^ series with reward to the 

 authors concerned. And not the least service of the 

 series was its proot that liberal private enterprise 

 could find its account in outrunning the tardy coun- 

 cils of a great nation in doing justice to authorship. 

 When the days of the projector of the series were 

 drawing to a close its fifty-seventh volume had ap- 

 peared Mr. Heilprin's Geographical and Geological 

 Distribution of Animals. The first volume was Tyn- 

 dall's Forms of Water, which drew forth, among other 

 encomiums, one from Thomas Carlyle. The most 

 successful volumes have been Draper's Conflict be- 



