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                       CHAPTER VII. 
        SCIENTIFIC LIBRARIES IN TILE UNITED STATES. 
               BY PROF. THIEODORE (ILL, M.D., 'HID., 
                         Of the Smith.'onian lnstitution. 
ITritODUCTION - FACIILITIES FO R SCIENTIFIC INV ESTIGATION IN T11E NI TEL)
SFrATES - 
  zrEcoiDs OF PROlGRiEiS -PutYsICS - (ENERA L MATHEIA.TICS- CH[EMIS'IItY
- ZO6L- 
  oGy - ANATOMY - ANTrInHROILoGY -o BOTANY - GEOLOGiY. 
                           INTRODUCTION. 
  In every general library, as a matter of course, are works on science,
and usually a section devoted to science or its different subdlivisions.
Very few, however, have collections that are of much importance; and 
even in libraries of quite large size (e. g., over 50,000) volumes) the stu-
dent may apply in vain for many works, that are the standard manuals 
in their departments. The rich literature involved in the publications 
of learned societies and other scientific periodicals also is almost wholly
unrepresented. Even as a rule, judging from personal knowledge and 
the examination of a large number of catalogues, the scientific works in
general libraries are, or at least have been, mostly school books, pre- 
pared in many eases by men unrecognized as scientific experts, and 
often far behind the dates of their title pages in information as to the
status of the science. This fault has to some extent been rectified 
since the publication and popularity of the works of Huxley, Tyndall, 
Hielmholtz, and a few others, but is still in a large degree perceptible,.
Among those general libraries in which more or less attention has been 
paid to the selection and acquisition of scientific works may be espe- 
cially mentioned the Library of Congress at Washington, (with which 
the Library of the Smithsonian Institution is incorporated,) the Boston 
Public Library, the Astor Library of New York, and the Peabody Insti- 
tute of Baltimore.' Each of these is, however, deticient in many stand- 
ard works, and an active investigator who should' wish to become ac- 
quainted with the literature of any subject would soon be arrested in his
researches if obliged to depend on any one of theam. The libraries of a 
few learned societies are, then, the chief sources of information, and 
to these the student must necessarily resort, if engaged in extensive 
  'These several libraries are especially mentioned because their contents
are best 
knowU to the writer, and in any case they are pre-eminent in wealth of scicntilic
liter- 
ature. 
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