1913] Editoriais 497 



of each Journal would mean at least an average of $700 to $9CXD — for 

 each Journal — and the higher figure would probably be the only safe 

 average one, since many of these Journals publish more than one volume 

 per year. This alone would add $i5,o<X).oo to the expense of publi- 

 cation, and make a deficit of $5000.00 on the Journal scheme alone, 

 leaving nothing for the salaries of ofiicers, and office expenses of the 

 association as a whole or of its constituent societies. 



It may be a contribution to the question to say that of the Journals 

 listed I subscribe at present to two, the annual cost of these being ap- 

 proximately $25 per year. At times in the past I have subscribed to 

 four others, but have discontinued these subscriptions because I had 

 to use that money to get foreign physiological Journals zvhich onr Uni- 

 versity lihrary does not supply. I imagine that many members of these 

 societies are in the same position as myself ; $25.00 or $30.00 per year 

 is all that they can afford on American Journals. They cannot sub- 

 scribe to those outside their own line of work, because they must have 

 the foreign Journals in that line of work and their universities do not 

 furnish them a complete set. I may add that my own expenditure for 

 physiological Journals (including the Ergebnisse) exceeds $120.00 per 

 year, and of the assumed 2000 members I doubt whether 200 could 

 afford this expenditure. If this is at all representative, the dues cannot 

 be placed at a higher figure and, as I have shown above, these dues do 

 not seem to cover the cost of publication which would be required. 



May I add that it seems to me that there is presented here a most 

 attractive field to men of means who desire to aid in the advancement 

 of American science ; namely, that of furnishing to the libraries of the 

 universities of the country the Journals in the subjects studied in those 

 universities. Many of the great universities of course have these Jour- 

 nals ; many others doing good work, and subscribing to all they can 

 afford, are unable for lack of means to subscribe to all. The university 

 subscription might be supplemented so that each American university 

 could offer its faculty and students the original work done in the past. 

 Such a gift would have permanent value as few others would ; it would 

 advance science, and it would make the results of scientific work ac- 

 cessible to a far greater number of students. 



W. H. HowELL, Johns Hopkins Univ. I have read the Mathews 

 plan for the Organization of the Amer. Biolog. Soc'y with great interest. 

 The plan to publish a Biolog. Abstract Jour. seems to me well worth 

 while, but I should think that this end might be accomplished without 

 constructing the machinery of a new society with annual meetings, 



