4 NATURAL SCIENCE. Jan.. 



which has been started by the University of Minnesota. We pointed 

 out the great value of such a work, but at the same time could not 

 help regretting that the undertaking seemed likely to suffer from 

 having its headquarters at so remote a city as Minneapolis, where so 

 very few of the almost innumerable zoological publications are to be 

 found. From this and from other points of view, it would be perfectly 

 legitimate to criticise the scheme more severely than we cared to do; 

 the one thing on which we laid stress was that a beginning had at last 

 actually been made, and in this as in other matters, " Once begun is 

 half done." 



It seems, however, to judge from the letters which our advocacy 

 of the scheme has brought us, that we were unintentionally and most 

 excusably unjust to a very perfectly conceived plan that has been 

 incubated in certain quarters for some time, and that will, it is 

 expected, very soon be hatched in a full-fledged state. The plan 

 concerns a central zoological bureau, and with it the name of Dr. 

 H. H. Field is intimately connected. Had we been aware, as we 

 now are, that this plan was something more than a castle in the 

 air, we should certainly have recommended our readers to await 

 its completion before sending their dollars to Mr. Clarke Barrows. 

 Knowing, however, the extreme apathy of the public in matters that 

 are everybody's business, we do not suppose that a single dollar has 

 yet crossed the Atlantic on this errand, so that no great harm will 

 have been done. 



We are now able authoritatively to inform our readers that those 

 associated with Dr. Field have been laying their foundations broad 

 and deep, and that it is this alone which has prevented them from 

 premature self-advertisement. Among other preparations that have 

 been made are the following. All the journals for the last ten years 

 have been gone through, with the view of finding out exactly what is 

 needed; thus details have been ascertained with regard to 160 

 German periodicals, 150 French, 100 English, 44 Italian, and so on, 

 in somewhat striking contrast to the list of 42 submitted by Mr. 

 Clarke Barrows. Correspondents have already been secured in 

 nearly all the countries of the civilised world, in which we are glad 

 to see Japan included. On the Russian portion of the bureau especial 

 stress should be laid, as it promises to supply the entire national 

 literature free of expense. Similar cooperation is hoped for from the 

 equally difficult countries, Poland, Hungary, and Bohemia. In 

 France, a national committee binds itself to provide either all the 

 French journals, or at least titles and abstracts of all papers. A like 

 help is expected from Italy and Germany. Many other arrangements 

 that are approaching completion need not be referred to. Enough to 

 say that no pains are being spared to find out the precise needs of 

 zoologists, which term naturally is assumed to include palaeontologists, 

 and to meet those needs with all possible completeness. 



Now in this gigantic and increasingly important matter of 



