so equal in qualification for the stern tasks set them, and so splendid in their efficiency. That they can have such a character collectively is clearly attributable to their having been selected for their posts solely on professional and moral grounds, without the slightest reference to their politics. The constant purpose of the officers in charge has ever been to obtain for station duty the ablest and trustiest surfmen. Previous reports of the Service have made apparent how difficult it was, for years, to limit the choice of these agents to the simple tests of their ability and trustworthiness, and how great and absolute a help in this regard has been the statute of 1882, peremptorily exempting the selection from political influences. It can be safely said that in no instance have the requirements of that statute been disregarded, either in spirit or letter."
A Catalogue of Scientific and Technical Periodicals (1665 to 1882). Together with Chronological Tables and a Library Check-List. By Henry Carrington Bolton. Washington: Published by the Smithsonian Institution. Pp. 776.
The mass of periodical literature has become stupendous; and the real importance it has attained is hardly less striking than its magnitude. The literature in some departments embodied in periodicals has nearly overtaken in value that which has been collected in books, and in the present course and tendencies of publication bids fair, before long, to pass it. In science, especially, is that which is comprehended in periodical publications indispensable to the investigator who would make real progress. A large proportion of the experiments of the past and of the details of results attained can not be given in books, but must always be sought for in the periodicals in which the records first appeared. A perfect index to this literature would lead the inquirer directly to every experiment; but such an index can hardly be hoped for at present, and would be of inconvenient bulk, if it existed. We must take it in parts. In this work Professor Bolton has given a very important part—a list of scientific periodicals, alphabetically arranged, with the cross-references so necessary in every work of the dictionary class; classified according to the subject; with a chronological table showing the date when each volume of each periodical was published; and an alphabetical index to that; and a partial list—as complete as it could be made for the first issue—of the libraries in the United States and Canada where the several periodicals may be found. This catalogue and the "Catalogue of Scientific Serials," published by Mr. Scudder in 1879, complement one another. Mr. Scudder's catalogue includes the transactions of learned societies in the natural, physical, and mathematical sciences, and technical journals only to a limited extent; the present work is confined to scientific and technical "periodicals" proper, excluding society proceedings and transactions, but including periodicals devoted to the "applications" of science. Medicine has been excluded, but anatomy, physiology, and veterinary science, being related to zoölogy, have been admitted. Of the category of included subjects, it contains the principal independent periodicals of all branches published in all countries, from the rise of the literature in question to the close of the year 1882. The effort has been made to give full titles and names of editors. In some debatable cases titles have been admitted, on the ground, as enunciated by Buchold, that "in a bibliography it is much better that a book should be found which is not sought, than that one should be sought for and not found." The cross-references are from the later to the first title of a periodical which has suffered changes in title; from short titles in common use to the accurate designations; from the names of the principal editors to the journals conducted by them; and, in the case of astronomical publications, from the places in which the observatories arc situated to the titles of the periodicals issued therefrom. The library check-list has been prepared from the data afforded in the answers to circulars which were sent out to two hundred libraries, of which one hundred and twenty librarians responded. The material for the work was gathered from all available bibliographies, personal examination of the shelves and the catalogues of many libraries in the United States, as well as of important libraries in England, France, and Germany, and from the answers to circulars
