NATURAL SCIENCE: 



A Monthly Review of Scientific Progress. 



No. 4. Vol. I. JUNE. 1892. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



The Organisation of Science. 



PROBABLY the two features in our social organisation of which 

 the average EngHshman is proudest are the historical continuity 

 in the development of our institutions and the minute division of 

 labour which condemns thousands of our countrywomen to spend their 

 lives tying knots in broken threads. Every now and then, however, 

 some iconoclast makes the startling discovery that the two are incon- 

 sistent, and that a rigid acceptance of the commercial system would 

 enable our social and scientific institutions to carry on their work 

 with less unnecessary waste and fewer unsatisfied wants. A very 

 weighty protest against the existing confusion has just been issued 

 under the above title, by a writer who, we regret to say, hides 

 himself behind the nom de plume oi "a Free Lance."' This essay is 

 suggestive and interesting, and is obviously written by a man who 

 knows a good deal about the inner working of our scientific societies, 

 and feels deeply the necessity for radical, or, rather, revolutionary 

 reform. He maintains that the conditions of affairs have so much 

 altered since the principal scientific societies were founded that at 

 present their main use is as co-operative publishing companies ; 

 their libraries, and the opportunities they afford of social union, are 

 (or ought to be) valuable secondary aids. Since he regards publishing 

 as their main function, he has, of course, little difficulty in showing 

 that the work is done extravagantly and badly : numerous societies 

 and journals cover the same ground, and, hence, a person studying 

 a particular subject is compelled to use many journals, whereas our 



1 The Organisation of Science. By a Free Lance. London: Williams and 

 Norgate, May, 1S92. Price is. net. 



