May 25, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



809 



ceums, throughout the world, with whom a 

 profitable literary exchange could be at 

 once instituted. The Library would be in 

 this way fed and increased. It is difficult, 

 or impossible, without a very considerable 

 expenditure of money to obtain these pub- 

 lications, but in the wide fraternity of sci- 

 entific workers, their efforts at different 

 stations to solve scientific questions, is mu- 

 tually appreciated and instantly required. 

 Thus a scientific commerce with the rest 

 of the world would become established. 

 Then it formed naturally the only way in 

 which the Museum's own possessions could 

 be presented to the scientific world, while 

 the inevitable development of expeditions 

 in connection with the institution could 

 only find, by such an avenue of commu- 

 nication, general recognition. A letter 

 from Professor R. P. Whitfield to President 

 Jesup was written urging the usefulness 

 of a scientific publication. 



The President accepted the suggestion, and 

 a small appropriation was made for printing 

 some papers, then in Professor Whitfield's 

 hand. At first it was deemed wise that all 

 papers should be submitted to one or two 

 scientific men outside of the Museum who 

 should determine the eligibility of the paper 

 for reproduction. This plan was followed 

 for a short time, but was abandoned as in- 

 convenient and unnecessary. The Curators 

 were made the judges of the character of 

 their own papers, and, as they expected 

 criticism upon the broad impartial stage of 

 the general and special scientific world, they 

 were led to exercise great caution in their 

 judgment. Finally a ' Committee on Pub- 

 lication ' was formed by the President, of 

 which officially all curators were members. 

 Their deliberations determine to-day the 

 nature, contents, extent of, and all details 

 connected with the Museum publications. 

 Appropriations of money for this work come 

 under the control of the President of the 

 Executive Committee. With the creation 



of new departments, new curators, and the 

 extraordinary accession of material from 

 expeditions, the number of papers pressing 

 for publication increased, and a subsidiary 

 outlet for this overflow was provided in 

 scientific journals, a relief now used by 

 the department of Archaeology particularly. 

 A restriction upon this scientific matter had - 

 early been instituted by limiting it to mu- 

 seum material, so that, except incidentally, 

 all abstract discussions and scientific po- 

 lemics, were excluded. 



Besides the scientific publications there 

 had been always printed by the Museum, 

 the Annual Report, and occasional Guides 

 to various departments, as the Guide to In- 

 vertebrate Paleontology, Guides to Birds 

 and Mammals, and List of Birds found 

 within 50 miles of New York City. 



The Guides disappeared as failing in some 

 ways to meet popular needs, but the Annual 

 Reports have increased in size steadily, and 

 are now illustrated reports on the condition 

 of the various departments of the Museum 

 in general, its aims, resources, and needs, 

 being partially composed from the quarterly 

 and annual reqorts repuired from the Cura- 

 tors, giving the condition, prospects, and 

 requirements of their various interests. 



It was an interesting coincidence that 

 the appearance of the Bulletin was almost 

 synchronous with the beginnings of the De- 

 partment of Public Instruction. These two 

 features certainly quite effectively give the 

 Museum an educational character, and, in 

 the two fields of popular instruction and 

 scientific work, place its guarantee of good 

 faith in its first pretensions, in the hands of 

 the public. 



In giving any epitomization of the con- 

 tents of the Bulletins the most direct and 

 succinct treatment will be a separation of 

 their contents under the general classes of 

 subjects represented in the various depart- 

 ments of the Museum, as Paleontology 

 (vertebrate and invertebrate) , Ornithology 



