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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



school. It would be good business pol- 

 icy for school boards to send their teach- 

 ers to the summer schools, except that 

 the benefit might not be reaped locally, 

 as each teacher would soon deserve a 

 better position than he now has. It is, 

 however, not only for teachers that uni- 

 versity sessions during the summer are 

 needed. The long vacation is largely a 

 tradition from the time when boys were 

 most usefully occupied on the farm dur- 

 ing the summer. It is doubtful whether 

 students now come back to college in 

 the autumn in an improved physical 

 or moral condition. They might spend 

 their time to advantage, but are not 

 likely to do so at the ordinary summer 

 resort. It is admitted by everyone that 

 young men are too old when they leave 

 college and the professional schools. 

 Reforms are needed in various direc- 

 tions, but an obvious one is not to take 

 four years for three years' work. 

 Though university professors, who for 

 the general good need freedom from 

 routine teaching for other work, should 

 be allowed leave of absence for a part 

 of the year, it does not follow that they 

 should all be away at the same time. It 

 seems probable that the example set by 

 the University of Chicago, which holds 

 four sessions extending through the 

 year, will be followed by all our uni- 

 versities. 



The third International Conference 

 on a Catalogue of Scientific Literature 

 was held in London on June 12th and 

 13th. It will be remembered by those 

 who are interested in the organization 

 of science that a conference on this sub- 

 ject was called by the Royal Society in 

 1896 at which it was proposed to under- 



take by international cooperation a 

 catalogue of contributions to science. 

 Certain details were arranged and others 

 were left to a committee of the Royal 

 Society. Under the auspices of this 

 committee schedules of classification 

 were drawn up and estimates of the cost 

 secured. A second conference was held 

 in 1898, and after various changes in 

 the plans for the catalogue it was at 

 the recent Conference definitely decided 

 to proceed with its publication. It is 

 estimated that the cost will be covered 

 by the sale of three hundred sets, and 

 different governments or national agen- 

 cies have made themselves responsible 

 for a certain number of sets, Germany 

 and Great Britain for example, sub- 

 scribing for forty-five sets, each cost- 

 ing £17. The Catalogue will be published 

 in seventeen volumes devoted to as 

 many sciences, and will be both an au- 

 thor's and a subject index. The collec- 

 tion of material is to commence from 

 January 1, 1901. While all scientific 

 men welcome improvements in cata- 

 loguing scientific literature, the arrange- 

 ments proposed by the Royal Society 

 and by the different conferences have 

 met with some criticism. The serious 

 mistake has been made of entirely ig- 

 noring the catalogues and bibliographies 

 already existing for most of the sciences, 

 and it is not certain that the elaborate 

 and expensive machinery proposed will 

 be as useful as some plan would have 

 been for unifying the existing agencies. 

 Still in the end there must be some 

 international and uniform method for 

 cataloguing scientific literature, and it 

 is to be hoped that our Government will 

 do its share toward supporting the pres- 

 ent undertaking. 



