January 29, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



187 



SCIENTIFIC LITER ATUBE. 

 Catalogue des bibliographies giologiques. R6dig6, 

 avec le concours des membres de la Commis- 

 sion bibliographique du Congres. Par Emm. 

 DE Makgbeie. Paris, Gauthier-Villars et 

 Fils. 1896. Pp. XX + 733. 

 The International Geological Congress, at its 

 Washington meeting in 1891, appointed a stand- 

 ing committee on bibliography. The original 

 membership was ten, but provision was made for 

 enlargement by the committee itself, and there 

 were eventually fourteen members, representing 

 the principal countries or regions having geo- 

 logic literature. North America was represented 

 by Mr. Gilbert, and South America by Dr. Stein- 

 mann, of Freiburg, Baden. The duties of the 

 committee, as instructed by the Congress, were : 

 (1) to prepare and publish a list of existing par- 

 tial bibliographies of geology ; (2) to promote the 

 preparation by geologic societies and surveys of 

 bibliography pertaining to their respective terri- 

 tories, and (3) to study the problem of the sys- 

 tematic centralized publication of the current 

 bibliography of geology. The first of these 

 works was immediately undertaken and has 

 resulted in an imposing volume of 750 pages. 



When a cooperative work of such magnitude 

 is carried to a successful conclusion there is 

 usually some one individual to whose skill and 

 energy the success is due, and in this instance 

 that person was M. Emm. de Margerie, of Paris, 

 the Secretary of the Committee. Under his 

 guidance the other members of the committee 

 gathered material from their respective coun- 

 tries or districts, but the whole was classified, 

 unified, and eventually in large part verified 

 through comparison with original sources by 

 him. He, moreover, made a systematic search 

 of libraries and was thereby enabled to make 

 large additions to the list. 



The whole number of entries is 3, 918 and these 

 are groupt under two ' parts ' and many head- 

 ings. The first part, with various subdivisions, 

 includes bibliographies whose geographic scope 

 is either the whole earth or one of its greater 

 divisions. The second part includes the bibli- 

 ographies of regions or countries, arranged 

 alphabetically by regions. The regional en- 

 tries are also classified according to scope and 

 subject, and there are abundant of cross refer- 



ences. This elaborate classification adds greatly 

 to the convenience of the book, enabling the user 

 to find in one place, or at most in two or three 

 places, all references to any special subject of in- 

 quiry. His convenience is further consulted by 

 the addition of three indexes, referring sever- 

 ally to authors, places and topics. The scope and 

 method of each work listed, when not described 

 in its title, are explained in the annotation. 



A summary of the part pertaining to North 

 America (United States and Canada) will at 

 once illustrate the scope of the list and its mode 

 of classification. General bibliographies afford 

 12 titles ; catalogues of publications of official 

 surveys, 33 ; general indexes of transactions 

 and journals, 10 ; annual bibliographies, 9 ; 

 library catalogues, 3 ; personal bibliographies 

 and biographic notices, 51 ; bibliographies of 

 special districts, 61 ; subject bibliographies, 70, 

 of which 52 pertain to special formations, 1 to 

 paleontology and 9 to petrography. 



While the primary purpose of the committee 

 was to take an account of stock in the field of 

 geologic bibliography, and thus pave the way for 

 the most intelligent undertaking of systematic 

 and comprehensive work for the future, their 

 catalogue has an immediate value to the inves- 

 tigator as a directory to the places where the 

 literature he wishes to examine is listed. 



The chief cost of publication was met by the 

 local committees of the Washington and Zu- 

 rich Congresses, and copies of the volume have 

 been forwarded to the geologists who attended 

 those meetings. This distribution has not en- 

 tirely exhausted the edition, and the remaining 

 volumes are placed on sale, the price for the 

 United States and Canada being $5.00. The 

 Secretary of the Washington Congress permits 

 me to add that the Compte Rendu of that meet- 

 ing will be forwarded without cost to the 

 American purchasers of the Catalogue. Cor- 

 respondence should be addrest to 

 Geological Suevey, ^- ^- Gilbeet. 



Washington, D. C. 



The Principles and Practice of Teaching. James 

 JoHONNOT. Revised by Sarah Evans Johon- 

 NOT. International Education Series, Vol. 

 XXXIX., 12mo., pp. xx+334. D. Appleton 

 & Co., New York. 1896. 



