510 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. LVI 



riod from 1910 to 1918, were also included. The first 

 edition of * ' American Men of Science ' ' contains more 

 than 4,000 men of science, of entire North America, the 

 second edition about 5,500 names. ^'Appleton's Cyclo- 

 pedia of American Biography (1887-88)" contains 

 "above 15,000 prominent native and adopted citizens of 

 the United States, including living persons, from the earli- 

 est settlement of the country." In the appendix of 

 1899-00 ''will be found nearly 2,000 notices of Ameri- 

 cans who won renown in the war with Spain . . . and of 

 persons of the New World who have become prominent 

 in the peaceful activities of life during the decade," be- 

 tween the appearance of the two publications. The ten 

 volumes of "Who's Who in America" contain 36,915 

 biographical sketches. The first volume contains 8,602 

 biographies, while Volume 10 has 22,968. It is evident 

 that the three publications have varying standards of 

 selection, and it becomes necessary to get some statement 

 of the degree of fineness of selection represented by each. 



If the reader doubts the validity of any one of the three 

 measures he may disregard those found in that handbook 

 because the lists of names and tables are arranged to that 

 end. That there are biographies of persons included 

 that are out of place is likely and that omissions of others 

 quite deserving occur is also likely, but inclusion repre- 

 sents unusual performance that is a reality. 



There is given below the biographical account of one 

 of the persons in the study as it is given in the three dif- 

 ferent handbooks. Besides adding reality to the data in 

 the lists it will afford a comparison of the characteristic 

 methods employed by the editors of the different publi- 

 cations. The accounts give some idea of the interesting 

 and voluminous records that would be necessary if no 

 more than a brief history of each individual were given. 

 The histories of the men of science and their relatives, 

 if abbreviated in the most careful manner, would make a 

 fair-sized volume. One need only imagine the size of the 

 volume necessary to give an account of the unusual per- 



