PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON. 93 



(abstract.) 



The Library of the Surgeon-General's Office may be considered 

 as the Medical Section of the National Library, and is catalogued 

 and conducted upon the same plan as the Cotigressional Library. 

 It contains about 25,500 volumes and 18,000 pamphlets. One 

 of the most valuable sections of a medical library is that of the 

 Journals and Transactions. This library contains about 7000 

 volumes of Journals, of which about 1850 volumes are American, 

 2700 German, 1250 French, 1050 English, and the remainder 

 Russian, Italian, and Spanish. The first American medical 

 journal began in 1798, and since that date 451 medical journals 

 have been commenced in this country. 



Attention was then called to some of the old and rare books 

 of the collection, including a MS. of the Lilium Medicine of 

 Bernard de Gordon, dated 1349; copies of the works of Gersdorff 

 and Braunschweig, and a number of books dated prior to 1500. 



The Library contains a large number of medical theses and 

 dissertations, and the best mode of binding these was referred to. 

 They will be bound by Universities where complete sets can be 

 obtained, otherwise by subjects. Pamphlets of especial rarity or 

 value are bound single, but on the ground of economy, conve- 

 nience, and to prevent loss, most of them will be bound in vol- 

 umes by subjects. An Alphabetical Catalogue of Authors has 

 just been printed, and the pi-eparatiou of a subject catalogue is 

 to be commenced at ouce. 



59th Meeting. December 20, 1873. 



The President in the Chair. 



The President announced the death of Professor Louis Agas- 

 siz, and on motion of Hon. Peter Parker, a committee was 

 appointed to draft appropriate resolutions, of which the President 

 was, on motion, made the chairman. 



Mr. J. J. Woodward communicated portions of a letter from 

 Dr. Jackson, of Boston, detailing some of the results of the 

 autopsy of Professor Agassiz. 



The same gentleman then made a short communication 



ON MICROMETRIC WRITING ON GLASS, 



