APPENDIX No. 16.-1887. A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF GEODESY. By J. HOWARD GORE, B. S., Ph. D. INTRODUCTION. Although the restricted popular demand for a work peculiarly designed for the uses of the student and scientist rarely induces its author or compiler to forego its preparation, it is nevertheless likely to be a matter of serious consideration in connection with the question of publication by private enterprise. It is especially the case that, beyond the gratification of his own scientific tastes and the undemonstrative approbation of the worthy few who appreciate the value of appliances which lessen the labor of learning, the compiler of so complete and exhaustive a Bibliog raphy of Geodesy as that of Professor Gore can have had little to inspire his zeal and sustain his prolonged labor in an undertaking which, at the outset, involved the thorough exploration, in person, of thirty-four of the principal libraries of America and Europe, the exploration of the minor libraries by proxy, and, in addition, a searching inquiry by correspondence with all the geodesists or mathematicians of both continents. That Professor Gore has not lacked, during the preparation of his work, such inspiration as was derivable from the approbation of the competent, is attested by the courteous action of Colonel Herschel, R. E., in placing at the Professor's service his own manuscript contribution to Pendulum Bibliography, as well as by the generous overtures from various institutions, among them being the International Geodetic Association at Berlin, offering to undertake the publication of his book-a most gratifying recognition of his fitness for the work and of its anticipated value. The propriety of the reason, assigned in his preface, for declining to place the publication of his book in foreign hands, will hardly be disputed by any save those who are indifferent to the just fame of American scientists and to the continued honorable identification of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey with the best work, and the successful promotion of the highest interests, of Geodesy. My own conviction of the propriety of Professor Gore's attitude was so clear that I could not, without a conscious disregard of duty, have declined the proffer of his manuscript to this Survey, for preservation and publication among the scientific Appendices to its Annual Report, and so assuring, without cost for preparation or compilation, appropriate association of the recognized American Bureau of Geodesy with a complete Bibliography of Geodesy, American in inception and authorship and the first work of its kind. COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY, Washington, May 23, 1889. F. M. THORN, 313 |