ADORE 
A CARD recently sent out by the director of the United States 
Geological Survey contains this announcement: ‘The follow- 
ing provision was included in an act of congress, approved 
March 2, 1895: ‘Provided, That hereafter the report of the min- 
eral resources of the United States shall be issued as a part of 
the report of the director of the Geological Survey.’ ”’ 
This change in the form of the mineral resources serves as an 
excuse for some reflections upon the subject of the sizes of geo- 
logical publications in general. It is to be presumed that the 
reasons for changing the form of this particular publication are 
good and sufficient: this is not questioned; and the specific 
mention of these books must not be regarded as personal, but 
simply as illustrations of what we believe to be a general princi- 
ple, applicable to all, or nearly all, geological literature alike. 
It may be added that the forms of all the publications of the 
United States Geological Survey are prescribed by statute, and 
the determination of their sizes is not an individual function of 
the director. | 
Our plea is for smaller books. We look upon bookmaking, 
not as an end or an art, but simply as a means—as a method of 
recording and conveying information. From the point of view 
of the bookmaker and the book fancier this may be all wrong, and 
the rankest of Philistinism for anything we know, but with their 
view of the matter we have but little to do. No doubt the sizes 
of books on geology as upon other subjects have been handed 
down to us. Parkinson’s Organic Remains, published in three 
volumes from 1804 to 1811, and Buckland’s Reigue Diluriane, 
were quartos printed in ‘‘English’—the size larger than pica. 
The Zransactions of the Geological Soctety of London, the first vol- 
ume of which was published in 1811, were big quartos. Murchi- 
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