426 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



not go to the British Museum for it, but will turn to the Royal 

 Society or the University College. The importance of such a 

 service as this will be readily appreciated. The more one dips 

 into the Calalogue the more curious are the facts discovered 

 concerning the libraries which have and the libraries which have 

 not certain journals. Thus if the Catalogue is correct there 

 are only eight libraries which contain sets of such an important 

 journal as the Transactions of the American Mathematical 

 Society ; again, over twenty journals are only in a single library. 

 A further point of interest is that the only Public City Library 

 mentioned is Nottingham ; it was with some disappointment 

 that further search discovered that the journal owned by 

 Nottingham is the Journal of the Institute of Actuaries and 

 Assurance Magazine and that the library possessed only an in- 

 complete set of this journal. 



An object which the editor of the Catalogue had in view was 

 the establishment of exchange between different libraries ; 

 certainly the Catalogue renders this feasible, as librarians can 

 see at a glance the libraries which have defective sets of any 

 particular journal. But whether it is likely that librarians will 

 be ready to give up their incomplete sets is another matter ; 

 they may deem it a sounder policy to fill up in the open market 

 the gaps which exist in their own sets. 



Without doubt there are omissions in the Catalogue, and 

 the editor probably knows them better than any one else ; 

 it would be a thankless and a difficult task to hunt for them. 

 Even a superficial study convinces the reader of the general 

 completeness of the Catalogue and of the marvellous care and 

 labour which have gone to its compilation. The task is, however, 

 one which is never complete ; the Mathematical Association, 

 under whose auspices it is undertaken, has in its continuation 

 at regular intervals a field of useful service to the subject in 

 whose interest it is founded. Further, the Catalogue is a record 

 of the progress of peace ; some of us know already how serious 

 are the breaches in continuity of many of the journals which 

 figure in this catalogue ; it is a sad thought to reflect upon the 

 additional labours of a future editor which will be caused by 

 the terrible year 1 9 1 5 . When however peace is happily restored , 

 leading scientific societies may well address themselves to the 

 task of compiling similar catalogues in their special subjects. 



