1919] i:m rOB] U . 



tenancc of this class of publications, thai the auspices under which 

 they are issued are of more importance than has Bometimee been 

 realized, and that much more is involved than thai somewhere and 

 somehow the abstract journal and up-to-date compendium should 

 exist. 



One aspect of the matter was touched upon by Dr. !'.. M. Dugj 

 at the Baltimore meetings last December. Dr. Duggar pointed out 

 that the extent to which American workers had had to depend upop 

 the abstract journals of foreign countries in bringing their work 

 to the attention of the scientific world had inevitably resulted in 

 considerable delay. Furthermore, it was suggested that the foreign 

 abstracts have not always presented this work in sufficient fullni 

 to reflect satisfactorily the significance of its result-. These diffi- 

 culties, in his judgment, could best be met by the maintenance of 

 American abstract journals. 



Another and very important consideration has been brought out 

 by Professor E. B. Wilson of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 

 nology in a communication to Science. Profe or Wilson shows 

 quite forcefully how dependent scientists have been upon German 

 sources for obtaining much of their information as to existing knowl- 

 edge. He points out that any scientist must have the means where- 

 with to look up readily the literature on his subject, and "that the, 

 great compendiums of science, the great yearly reviews of scientific 

 urogress, are made by Germans, and published in the German lan- 

 guage." This magnifies the position of that country as a scienti 

 center and a source of both original and compiled information in 

 science. It also lends prominence to the language as a vehicle for 

 the dissemination of scientific work. He queries whether the English 

 speaking people of the world will continue thus dependent upon 

 : manv for their standard reviews and handbooks of science. 



Another writer who has contributed several article- on the general 

 subject of the handling of scientific literature is M. Paul ( >tlet, <:< n- 

 eral secretaiy of the Institut International de Bibliographic since its 

 organization at Brussels in 1895. M. Otlet likewise deplores the pre- 

 dominance of German influence through Centralblatter ami Jahr 

 beriehte, and maintains that the Allied nation- should henceforth 

 give more attention to the various methods through which the results 

 of scientific investigations can be made widely known. Very natur- 

 ally he emphasizes the opportunities for international cooperation 

 in the publication of periodicals, abstracts, bibliographies, diction- 

 aries, and textbooks. He draws particular attention to what is hemp 

 done along these lines by the International Institute of Agriculture 

 at Rome, whose activities, it will be recalled, were described in these 

 pages some months ago. 1 He look- forward to the foundation of a 



^Experiment Station Record, 38 (1918), pp. 701-707). 



