1879-1 
Notices of Books . 
649 
Annual Record of Science and Industry for 1878. Edited by 
Spencer F. Baird, with the assistance of eminent men of 
Science. New York : Harper Brothers. London : Triibner 
and Co. 1879. 
The eighth issue of this useful compilation is fully equal to 
those which have preceded it. The volume is divided into six- 
teen sections — Astronomy, Physics of the Globe, Physics in 
General, Chemistry, Mineralogy, Geology, Hydrography, Geo- 
graphy, Microscopy, Anthropology, Zoology, Botany, Agriculture, 
Engineering, Technology, and Industrial Statistics. The Ap- 
pendix contains a necrology and the bibliography of the year. 
One of the best sections in the book is the first, Astronomy, 
edited by Prof. E. S. Holden, of the Naval Observatory, Wash- 
ington. The great solar eclipse of July 29th, 1878, of course 
occupies the largest amount of space, the American observers 
naturally getting the lion’s share. The transits of Mercury and 
Venus, also, come in for a large share of attention. Professor 
Holden gives an interesting bibliographic raisonnee of his own 
particular subjedt, and it would have been as well if all his col- 
leagues had followed his example instead of relegating the 
matter to an Appendix. So much trash in a scientific way is 
published now-a-days that one wants to know briefly, but ho- 
nestly, what a book is worth, and not merely its name, author, 
size, and price. An interesting Report on American Observa- 
tories is given in this section. 
The sedfion edited by M. Clement Abbe and Prof. Rockwood, 
and devoted to Physics of the Globe, is also well treated, taking 
up no less than 118 pages, or a fifth of the whole book. The 
subjedt is well arranged, being divided into three broad headings 
— the Earth, the Ocean, and the Atmosphere. The value of the 
sedtion is however, greatly impaired by the paucity of biblio- 
graphical references. Such books as the present are not bought 
merely as a matter of scientific curiosity, but as works of refer- 
ence, and neither names, discoveries, nor researches should be 
mentioned without giving every particular that is necessary for 
obtaining a perfedl knowledge of the matter. 
These remarks apply with more or less justice to many of 
the other sedfions, especially to that on Physics, by Professor 
Barker, which is the most deficient of them all in bibliographical 
references. 
The very unequal amount of space given to the different sec- 
tions is apparent in the meagre account given of the year’s 
chemical research, also by Prof. Barker. 
Setting aside the defedts we have mentioned, Mr. Baird’s 
work is most valuable. 
