Bibliography 789 



scheme for a " General Catalogue " was never accomplished, 

 though a beginning was made. Jewett further published 

 "Notes of Public Libraries in the United States" (1851), a 

 work which, though admittedly incomplete, excited great 

 interest ; and the distribution of the volume brought into the 

 Institution a large amount of statistical information pertinent 

 to the subject. 



HENRY AND THE ROYAL SOCIETY 



THE monumental work of the Royal Society of London, a 

 "Catalogue of Scientific Papers, i8oo-'83," had its origin 

 in a communication addressed by the first Secretary of the 

 Smithsonian Institution to the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science. 



As early as 1854, Henry conceived the plan of preparing 

 an " American Scientific Bibliography," and sought to enlist 

 the cooperation of the British Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science in procuring, with its large resources, a 

 similar classified index for British and European scientific 

 literature. Henry's proposal was favorably received by the 

 British Association and referred to a committee comprising 

 Fellows of the Royal Society ; this committee approved the 

 suggestion, presented a general outline of the proposed work, 

 and eventually succeeded in interesting the Royal Society 

 itself in the undertaking. Ten years later, the Royal So- 

 ciety, aided by a government grant, published the first part 

 of its splendid " Catalogue of Scientific Papers." In the 

 preface occur the following words: "The present under- 

 taking may be said to have originated in a communication 

 from Doctor Joseph Henry, Secretary of the Smithsonian 

 Institution." The eleven quarto volumes, covering the period 

 1800 to 1883, form one of the greatest tributes to Henry's 



