x896.]
have been engaged upon the given line of thought or who are
found to have taken part in the discussion.
Special attention must be called to the recent issuance of a
serial index to Government publications, for in the Senate and
House documents is buried an extremely valuable mass of engi
neering information. (The reprints of these should be secured by
the student as rapidly and as abundantly as his friends can pro-.
cure them.) Of these may be mentioned the professional papers
of the corps of the U. S. Army Engineers, the reports of the
Bureau of Steam Engineering; of the Chief of Engineers; of the
Department of Agriculture; of the U. S. Coast and GeodetiF Sur
vey; of the Geological Surveyor of the Bureau of South Ameri•
can Republics, and of the foreign and domestic, State and Pederal
officials, and the mineral resources of the U. S. These contain
more than mere perfunctory announcements of past history. A
careful perusal of any of these public docuthents will usually re
ward the examiner with rich finds. They certainly will furnish
an excellent relish for the " half hour after dinner or after supper."
Again, there is a bibliography of geodesy published in the Report
of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey for 1887, and P. P. Dewey
has issued a descriptive catalogue of the publications of the Geo
logic Survey. Dr. Hasser has prepared a list of the works of the
U. S. Department of Agriculture and " The Electric Power " has
given during 1895 a synopsis of the current electric literature.
(This letter has since been reproduced with additions by Van Nos
trand & Co., with an alphabetic list of authors and titles.) The
record of progress in aerial locomotion has its catalogue, and in
zoology, too, a card and index catalogue is to be had.
Of current literature, including periodicals as well as proceed
ings and books, there is not now a general index extant. Neither
private enterprise nor Governmental system is likely to supply the
need, and unless the happy hope of the present co-operative
movement for an international index is realized each weary
plodder must find his own salvation. With few exceptions
each technical journal issues an annual index of its own publica
tions, and a few publish a general catalogue, covering a more ex
tended period. An important feature of the " American Engi
neering Magazine "is not to be overlooked in this connection. It
appends a discriminating list of technical and scientific articles
selected from wide fields. The Engineering News, London, main
tains a similar department for European fields. Poole's index,
Utilizing the Library