BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



Tasker, Arthur N., Army Medical Library, Washington, District of Columbia. 

 Preparation and publication of the Index Medicus. (For previous reports 

 see Year Books Nos. 2-21.) 



The second volume of the third series of the Index Medicus (for 1922) 

 comprises 1,050 pages of actual titles; 111 pages constitute the author index. 

 The previous volume contained 1,126 pages and an author index of 116 pages. 

 This slight decrease in size as between the two volumes was made possible 

 by a more critical examination of all articles whose titles were to be printed, 

 with a view to eliminating those that were either so short as not to give infor- 

 mation in sufficient detail to be of outstanding value, or that offered nothing 

 really new. This does not mean, however, that the actual volume of the 

 world's medical literature has decreased, for such is not the case. In the 18 

 months that have elapsed since the beginning of 1922 the number of current 

 periodicals (to say nothing of annuals, transactions, proceedings, etc.) indexed 

 for the Index Medicus has increased from 1,608 to 1,875. 



Very numerous testimonials have been received bearing witness to the 

 favor in which users of the Index Medicus hold the new system of alphabetized 

 classification. A few correspondents have expressed a preference for return 

 to former methods. Editorial difficulties encountered in connection with 

 that system in former days still exist, and would certainly present themselves 

 anew were a reversal of policy to take place. One of the most impressive 

 examples of the particular variety of problem referred to has already been 

 described in the introduction to the present volume, but will nevertheless 

 easily bear repetition. Of two men who had been asked for their views on 

 the general classification of medical literature, one (a surgeon) was very 

 insistent that all cancer should appear under the general caption of "Surgery," 

 since early use of the operator's knife remains still the best hope for cure of 

 that condition; the other (a pathologist) was equally definite in his conviction 

 that all articles relating to cancer should appear in the Index Medicus under 

 "Pathology," his argument being that the most important phase of cancer 

 research is concerned with its etiology, and that this is preeminently the 

 field of the pathologist. To satisfy both these petitioners would be mani- 

 festly impossible. All cancer is therefore classified under "Cancer," which 

 thus constitutes for the surgeon and pathologist a sort of neutral zone. 



The table of contents of each individual number continues to indicate 

 the relations existing between the major and subsidiary subdivisions of 

 medical science. A rapid survey of this table should be always introductory 

 to the exaniination of each succeeding quarterly issue. 



The primordial purpose of the Index Medicus has undergone no change 

 in concept. It seeks to present, as compactly as possible, for those who have 

 recourse to it the largest number of references to that portion of the world's 

 literature having real value and dealing with medicine and surgery, their 

 various disciplines and specialties, and their allied and associated sciences. 



278 



