EVOLUTION OF SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 
231 
A third tendency, which is explained in part by the first 
two, is toward publication in 8vo rather than 4to: The 
oldest of the eight societies (the Geological Society of London) 
has completely abandoned the 4to form. The next oldest 
society (the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia) 
nominally maintains a folio, but its importance, both abso¬ 
lute and relative to the 8vo publications, has declined of late, 
and only two small parts have appeared in eight years ; of 
the leading 4to serial of the Boston Society of Natural His¬ 
tory, only one number has appeared in 18 years; the 4to 
serial of the American Association may be regarded as 
abandoned after a single issue; and the younger societies, 
the Philosophical Society of Washington, the American 
Society of Civil Engineers, and the American Institute of 
Mining Engineers, have again profited by the experience of 
the older and have not adopted the 4to form, though the last 
two frequently introduce plates so large as to require folding. 
It is evident from inspection of the publications of scientific 
societies that the quarto serials cannot maintain a leading 
rank in the race for success, and indeed that, like the great 
herbivores of the Tertiary ages, they are doomed to extinction 
save under especially favorable conditions. 
A fourth tendency, which is manifestly connected with the 
second, is toward publication in small units or fractions: 
This tendency is vigorously opposed by the plans of publica¬ 
tion in several societies and evidently by editors and pub¬ 
lishing committees generally, and it sometimes fails or even 
appears to be reversed; but it crops out in the issue of the 
Abstracts of the Geological Society of London and the advance 
publication of extracts from the Proceedings of the Boston 
Society of Natural History and of the Academy of Natural 
Sciences of Philadelphia under special serial titles, in some 
of the minor publications of the latter society, in the sepa¬ 
rate signatures issued by both of these societies, and in the 
multifarious publications of the National Academy; while 
it finds full expression in the Bulletin of the Philosophical 
Society of Washington under its new form, in the prelimi- 
