424 



SCIENCE PROGRESS 



mechanics. Besides these invaluable works the Jahrbuch iiber 

 die Fortschritte der Mathematik has been published yearly since 

 1 871. This journal gives a short abstract of papers published 

 in each year beginning with 1868, and is arranged in subjects 

 and indexed. In addition the Revue semestrielle des publica- 

 tions mathematiques was commenced in 1 893 by the mathe- 

 matical society of Amsterdam. It is more up-to-date than 

 the German periodical, being not three years, but only three 

 months, behind the publications which it reviews : in it the 

 titles of papers in the various serial publications is given, 

 together with short abstracts, and it is, as its title indicates, 

 published twice a year. But though from one or other of these 

 works information is readily accessible as to new work which 

 is published, yet it is not possible except in London, Oxford, or 

 Cambridge to have access to the greater part of the seventy 

 journals which constitute the magi channels in which new 

 work is communicated to the mathematical world. 



In 1906 Sir Thomas Muir investigated the supply of mathe- 

 matical journals available in the South of Scotland and pub- 

 lished in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh a 

 valuable paper on Library Aids to Mathematical Research. 

 In this paper he takes sixty-seven important serials and tells 

 us that just about half are to be found in the libraries of 

 the South of Scotland, Edinburgh possessing thirty-one, and 

 Glasgow twenty-three, and of these twenty-one are duplicated. 

 Without pursuing the problem which Sir Thomas Muir dis- 

 cussed at length, it may be stated that in his paper he placed 

 before Scottish mathematicians, or rather mathematicians 

 residing in Scotland, most valuable information with regard to 

 accessible periodical literature. Now the editor of this cata- 

 logue has elaborated and extended Sir Thomas Muir's pious 

 labours. Here, in the brief compass of forty pages, we have 

 most valuable information with regard to the mathematical 

 periodicals which are to be found within the United Kingdom. 



The Catalogue is divided into various sections : thus 

 following the title page, preface, and list of abbreviations we have 

 the section (22 pages) of current mathematical journals, which 

 constitutes the kernel of the pamphlet ; then follows a general 

 alphabetical index of the journals, a society index, and a geo- 

 graphical index. 



The list of journals is far more extensive in this catalogue 



