Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/569

Rh and travel. In them all, 361 new species are described. The earliest contribution in the list is the description of two new species of the genus Tyrannula, Swainson (1843), which he prepared in conjunction with his brother. An application of bichromate of potassa to photographic purposes, published in 1844, was employed by him in taking leaf photographs, a collection of which, preserved in the National Museum, has been one of the standard resources of American palæophytologists, and has been used in the preparation of many of the works on the fossil botany of the United States. In a "Summary of Suggestions in Regard to Future Operations of the Smithsonian Institution in the Department of Natural History" (1851), the purpose is outlined not to attempt collections of all natural objects, but rather to gather up such materials for investigation as have been comparatively neglected by others. In the same paper occurs a statement in reference to Japan which sounds curiously now when the activity and co-operation of the Japanese in scientific matters are so conspicuous. After speaking of Japan as a region in some respects more closely allied to our country than even Europe, the author remarks: "Unfortunately, there are at the present time almost insuperable difficulties in the way of procuring Japanese specimens, the Dutch naturalists being the only ones who have succeeded in exploring even the shores of this country. Little can be done, therefore, except by exchange with the museums of Holland." In 1851 he translated from the German and edited the "Iconographic Encyclopædia," an elaborately illustrated dictionary of physical facts and art, of unquestioned merit, which had great currency till it was superseded by later works reflecting the progress of science. The volume on "Birds," in the series of the Reports of the Explorations and Surveys for a Railroad Route from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean (1858), was prepared by Prof. Baird, with the co-operation of John Cassin and George N. Lawrence. Prof, Coues says, respecting it, that "the appearance of so great a work, from the hands of a most methodical, learned, and sagacious naturalist, aided by two of the leading ornithologists of America, exerted an influence perhaps stronger and more widely felt than that of any of its predecessors, Audubon's and Wilson's not excepted, and marked an epoch in the history of American ornithology. . . . Such a monument of original research is like to remain for an indefinite period a source of inspiration to lesser writers, while its authority as a work of reference will always endure." "The Annual Record of Science and Industry," which was published for several years under Prof. Baird's editorial supervision, was made up from the items and articles that had been published during the year in the Harpers' weekly and monthly periodicals. Many of them were original