XLVI THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



This undertaking, which will cost about $100,000, while prim- 

 arily under the direction of an American committee which will be 

 charged with complete responsibility, both editorial and financial, 

 will nevertheless be conducted on an international basis, with assist- 

 ant editors and collaborators in the principal nations of the union. 

 The majority of the delegates felt strongly that in nearly all cases 

 where a programme of work was adopted by the union, the most 

 efificient manner of accomplishing it was to centre the responsibility 

 for each part in a given country, rather than to form a central inter- 

 national committee with a consequent distribution of the responsibility. 



The plans of the British to prepare compendia of Inorganic and 

 Organic Chemistry are about complete. These will include the subject 

 matter of the great German works, but with many improvements as to 

 arrangement of subject matter, etc. 



The magnitude of this undertaking will be appreciated when we 

 are told that the Organic section will consist of 18 volumes of 1,000 

 pages each, and the Inorganic of 16 similar volumes, and, at prices 

 ruling last January, the total cost will be at least £130,000. It is to 

 be issued in separate volumes and will be a complete record of the 

 literature of Chemistry up to 1920. 



The French chemists, under the direction of Dr. Charles Marie, 

 will continue the preparation of the annual tables of constants, etc., 

 and have already organized to bring the tables through 1919. 



This effort on the part of the Chemistry Union to emancipate 

 chemists and the universities from the domination of German refer- 

 ence books has every promise of success, and has met with the cordial 

 approbation of the other unions which are preparing to take similar 

 action. 



The question has been asked, especially on this continent, why 

 duplicate books of reference ? The German books, while leaving 

 much to be desired, are cheap and available. There are several 

 reasons for this course of action. The domination of the reference 

 shelves in the scientific libraries of the world by Germany has been an 

 important factor in attracting graduate students to German uni- 

 versities, and thus inoculating to a certain extent the universities, 

 especially of this continent, with the German method. Many ex- 

 amples have been quoted, especially in Chemistry, where the charac- 

 teristic Chauvinism of the German editors has been so strong as not 

 only to lessen their appreciation of the work of other nations, but 

 also their accuracy in recording achievements of the "Auslander." 



That we should be in possession of summaries of the chemical 

 literature of the last seven years at the earliest possible date is a 



