84 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



Bodies such as the Chemical Society in the near future will 

 need to be more alive to their responsibilities to their members 

 and no longer confine themselves to the perfunctory performance 

 of their duties as publishing organisations. The practice which 

 prevails in several academies of submitting the more important 

 communications they receive to the opinions of referees and of 

 publishing the reports that are given, might with great advantage 

 be extended ; such reports would serve to guide readers, and 

 inform them to what extent the opinions advanced were open 

 to criticism at the moment. We are now undertaking tasks 

 of extraordinary difficulty and it behoves us collectively to 

 discover some means of promoting the efficiency of our in- 

 dividual efforts. 



