EVOLUTION OF SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 
225 
ship, and both local and migratory meetings, maintains two 
serials (or, rather, two editions of the same serial): the first 
consisting only of a series of preliminary issues of the records 
of research (printed in the Engineering and Mining Journal 
for some years, but now printed and distributed by the In¬ 
stitute) ; and the second, or Transactions, comprising these 
records of research in their final form, together with the ad¬ 
ministrative records o'f the Institute. 
The National Academy of Sciences, with a home office 
but with a national membership and partly migratory meet¬ 
ings, leads the list in the number of its serials and in the 
editions in which they appear. Of the seven nominally 
regular serials and the additional two resulting from in¬ 
constancy in nomenclature, the first, or Annual, is chiefly 
an administrative record; the second, or Report (including 
the Annual Reports and Reports of Proceedings) are also 
administrative records primarily, but embrace records of 
research in the appended reports of committees, etc.; the 
Bulletin and the Proceedings are essentially records of ad¬ 
ministration ; the Memoirs and the special reports are records 
of research; wdiile the Biographical Memoirs stand alone 
midway between the two classes into which the records of 
scientific societies may be most conveniently divided. So 
there are four distinct records of administration (one prob¬ 
ably defunct) and two of research, besides a vigorous one of 
intermediate character. Of this long list of serials, some are 
published in divers and sometimes enormous and widely 
distributed editions. 
The most completely national scientific society of the 
country, the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science, with a large membership and migratory annual 
meetings, now records its work in a single serial. This serial, 
the Proceedings, comprises moderately full administrative 
records and greatly condensed records of research, and is 
issued in annual volumes as soon as may be after meetings. 
The Memoirs, established in 1875 as a vehicle for publishing 
in extenso the results of elaborate investigations, are practi- 
