156 Report S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



In some cases the names of the serials are similarly deait 

 with. 



6. There is no single library in existence which contains all 

 the writings included in the three lists, or even in the last of rhe 

 three; and, what is still more to be regretted, there is apparently 11 ) 

 single library in the United Kingdom which contains full sets of all 

 the societies' serials referred to, none which contains full sets of all 

 the mathematical magazines, none which contains all the separate 

 books and pamphlets, and none which contains all the degree-dis- 

 sertations and school-programm.s. The English mathematical socie- 

 ties, to whose libraries one naturally turns for full sets of the purely 

 mathematical serials, leave their members in ignorance as to what 

 they possess of this kind. They publish, it is true, in irregular instal- 

 ments the names of the serials which they receive in exchange f«r 

 their Proceedings, but nowhere any complete list of all the serials 

 which are accessible in their rooms. St'il less effort do they make 

 to inform their members of the wheieabouts of libraries where 

 sets of serials are kept which they themselves do not possess. The 

 current mathematical serials of the world are not above eighty in 

 number; they, therefore, could be catalogued on two pages of either 

 society's Proceedings, and bv doubling the space it would be possible 

 to indicate fully not only the volumes actuall) possessed by the 

 society, but also possessed by any important libraries within' 

 the same city. In the case of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society,, 

 the catalogue might easily and with advantage include all the larger 

 libraries of Scotland within its purview : and in the case of the 

 London Mathematical Society certain libraries at Cambridge and 

 Oxford could not well be omitted. The printing of such four-page 

 catalogues would at lea.st make evident to members " the nakedness 

 of the land,'" and might stir them up to make an effort to supply the 

 more important wants.* 



8. To increase the usefulness of the three lists, and, so to sjjeak. 

 complete the work connected with them, there has been appended to 

 the present list an index of all the authors" names appearing in anv 

 one of the three. This is arranged alphabetically, and the lists 

 having been designated (A). (B), (C) in order, each paper is fully 

 indicated by gi\ing one of these letters to show the list to which 

 the paper belongs, and printing after it the \ear-date of the paper- 

 Thus the entry 



Noether. M. a 1876. 79(2): C 95. 



intimates that the author in question has a paper under the vear 

 1876 in the first list, two papers under the year 1879 in the same 

 list, and a paper under the year 1895 in the third list. 



*The new University of London has a splendid heritage in the Graves 

 Library of University College. Present and future graduates could do a noble 

 work by keeping all the sets of serials in the library up-to-date and in other 

 ways maintaining its original high character for completeness. 



