401 
KEVIEWS. 
AMERICAN RECORD OF SCIENCE/ 
T he Americans are attempting in their own country what has been 
attempted with the most signal failure in this. They are trying 
to publish, with successful results, an annual work recording the progress 
made, not only at home, but throughout the entire world, in the whole 
field of scientific research. The only book of the kind which our own 
literature possesses is that production . which is known as the YeaivBook 
of Facts,” a volume which we need hardly add is absolutely worthless as a 
scientific record. The present American work is got up on a larger scale ; 
and is, so far as selection of paragraphs is concerned, edited with a certain 
selective skill, which renders it much more valuable as a scientific volume. 
But in saying this we are giving it all the praise within our power. For 
most assuredly it is unyepresentative, as of course every such volume must 
be. It is, as a matter of course, interesting to the mere dabbler ” in 
science ; and we doubt not there are sufficient of this class alone in America 
to render its publication successful ; but as a purely scientific book it has no 
real value whatever. Let us take an example in order to prove the force 
‘of what we say. Chemistry alone is not one of the most widely diffused 
branches of knowledge, yet the monthly journal which is published by the 
Chemical Society,” and which consists almost exclusively of condensed 
paragraphs showing the work that is being done, would in two of its num- 
‘ hers fully equal in bulk the present volume. That is to say, the progress of 
chemical science alone, in a single year, would, if recorded, occupy six times 
the space that is covered by the present work. When, then, we take the 
numerous other branches of science into consideration — such, for instance, as 
Anatomy, Physiology, Botany, Zoology, Geology, Palaeontology, Mineralogy, 
Physics, Mechanics theoretical and practical, Astronomy, Ethnology, 
Meteorology and Microscopy — we see how utterly impossible is such a book as 
the present one if it really be intended as a record of science for the scien- 
tific worker. If, on the other hand, it is addressed, as is our own brief 
summary, to the man of general scientific tastes, then we must regard it as 
a very excellent volume ; and most probably it is in this light that the 
editor, Mr. Spencer F. Baird, views the work. Examined under this aspect 
* ‘^Annual Record of Science and Industry,” for 1872. Edited by 
Spencer F. Baird, with the Assistance of Eminent Men of Science. New 
York : Harper Brothers, 1873. 
VOL. XII. — NO. XLIX. 
D D 
