June 6, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



877 



These were, of course, condensed in the ar- 

 rangement, all the page references to a given 

 name being placed under a single entry so 

 that the printed result is much curtailed. 



During the first five years of the academy's 

 life it maintained a sort of chrysalis existence 

 without much communication with the out- 

 side world. Of the six men who attended the 

 initial meeting but one, the Dutchman Gerard 

 Troost, later elected the first president, had 

 any scientific training. At the next meeting 

 Thomas Say was " adopted " by the others as 

 one of the founders and he has since been 

 regarded as one of the seven to whom the 

 academy owes its existence. The communi- 

 cations to the meetings were at first confined 

 almost solely to selections from Eees's En- 

 cyclopedia and certain text-books of science, 

 but original observations soon became more 

 frequent and by 1817 a sufficient amount of 

 such material was in possession of the society 

 to warrant the belief that an avenue of pub- 

 lication would be desirable. Through the in- 

 terest and zeal of William Maclure, a Scotch 

 philanthropist, the first number of the Jour- 

 nal was placed before the meeting held May 

 20, 1817. The volume contained contribu- 

 tions from Chas. A. Lesueur, Geo. Ord, 

 Thomas Say, Thomas Nuttall, and William 

 Maclure. Its interest and value were much 

 enhanced by the beautiful engravings by 

 Lesueur. It was at the time the only avenue 

 of communication with the scientific world 

 possessed by the working naturalists of 

 America. 



This series staggered on with intervals of 

 quiescence until 1842, when it was decided 

 that the Proceedings, which had been begun 

 the previous year for the purpose of giving 

 prompter publicity to the current business of 

 the academy, supplied all that could be se- 

 cured by an octavo publication. 



To provide for papers requiring more elabo- 

 rate illustrations than could be supplied in 

 the octavo form, a quarto journal was started 

 in 1847 and has been continued to the present 

 time, the superb fifteenth volume having been 

 published last December as the chief memento 

 of the celebration held in March. Inciden- 



tally it may be mentioned that the prompt 

 issue of that volume, within nine months of 

 the event it records, has been regarded all over 

 the world as a record-breaking achievement. 

 The illustrations to the quarto series were 

 from the first of a high order of artistic merit. 

 Special mention may be made of the colored 

 illustrations of Cassin's birds, supplied by the 

 liberality of Thomas B. Wilson; the really 

 beautiful lithographs by Ibbotson of Isaac 

 Lea's Melanians and Unios; and more re- 

 cently the superb chromoplates of prehis- 

 toric pottery furnished by Mr. Clarence B. 

 Moore in illustration of his monographs. 



Access to the scientific contents of the 

 eighty-three volumes, constituting one of the 

 most important agencies in the advancement 

 of science, will be greatly facilitated by the 

 issue of the index which will undoubtedly be 

 highly valued by students. 



A few pages are devoted to a record of the 

 time of publication of the several parts and 

 volumes. The minutes, correspondence, and 

 accessions lists of the academy were consulted 

 to determine as many such dates as possible, 

 and it is to be regretted that the result is not 

 complete, the requisite data not being at hand, 

 after the most careful search, to make it so. 

 As far as the record goes, however, it will 

 establish dates of publication of many re- 

 searches of the first importance and help to 

 determine many questions of priority, a matter 

 to which the working naturalist is apt to at- 

 tach much more importance than do those who 

 value results without caring greatly as to who 

 attains them. Edw. J. Nolan 



SPECIAL ABTICLES 



FACTORS INFLUENCING THE SURVIVAL OF BACTERIA 



AT TEMPERATURES IN THE VICINITY OF 



THE FREEZING POINT OF WATER' 



It has been held by some bacteriologists 

 that, while temperatures about the freezing 

 point of water are less destructive of bacter- 

 ial life than those about the boiling point, 

 low temperatures are not only unfavorable to 

 the growth and multiplication of bacteria, but 



" Preliminary communication. 



