84 



the stores of historical material relating to the early years of 

 American biologic and geologic science. It deals only with the 

 period termed by the author the "pioneer century," from the 

 formation of the American Philosophical Society in 1769 to the 

 close of the Civil War in 1865. This period is of course the most 

 important one for treatment in this way, and the present pub- 

 lication supplies a solid foundation upon which to build similar 

 work relating to the progress of American natural history in 

 later years. 



The importance of this undertaking can perhaps not be stated 

 any more clearly than by these words from the preface defining 

 its scope: "During this century the pioneers . . . laid the 

 foundations for the great achievements in American natural 

 history with which we are so familiar today. . . , The Biblio- 

 graphy aims to record the natural history contents of the pub- 

 lications of nearly ninety societies; of twenty-five journals; 

 of thirty-six state geological and natural history surveys ; of fif- 

 teen natural history museums and botanic gardens; and of 

 over seventy federal exploring expeditions and surveys." 



Mr. Meisel, who has been engaged in this undertaking for 

 nearly ten years, has done his work thoroughly and presented his 

 results clearly. The preface to this first volume outlines the 

 scope of all three, and the table of contents includes the second 

 and third volumes. The author assures me that there is rea- 

 sonable hope that the two remaining volumes will appear with no 

 serious delay. Their appearance, however, is in part contingent 

 upon the sale of the first volume, and libraries that need a work 

 of this kind should lose no time in securing this volume, thus 

 encouraging the publication of the remainder. 



The present volume is wholly historical and biographical. 

 Seventy-three pages are devoted to an annotated list of the pub- 

 lications relating to the history, biography, and bibliography of 

 early American natural history and its institutions which have 

 been published up to 1924; thirty-seven pages to a subject index 

 and fifteen pages to a geographic index to the annotated list; 

 and eighty-nine pages to a selected list of biographies and biblio- 

 graphies of the principal early American naturalists. 



It is needless to say that it is impossible, in a work of this 

 character, to avoid, occasional clerical or typographical errors, 

 but in the present instance these are remarkably few. It could 



