+ TRANSACTIONS OF THE [OOP 2, 
tongue these abstracts are undoubtedly useful, perhaps invalu- 
able; but it rarely happens that they can be entirely relied 
upon for the details needed by chemists practically interested, 
and the originals must eventually be consulted. It has seemed 
to me that if the same amount of energy expended by abstrac- 
tors of the societies named could be exerted in indexing, greater 
practical results would be obtained and at far greater economy 
of space. Moreover, these societies generally confine their 
abstracts to publications issued in other countries than their 
own, and consequently a large amount of good material pub- 
lished at home in Government reports, transactions of learned 
societies, and periodicals devoted to general science, escapes the 
eyes of all except a few industrious readers. 
It has further occurred to me that the Chemical Societies of 
Germany, France, Italy, Russia, England and the United States, 
instead of filling their official organs with abstracts of papers 
foreign to each, might well devote their energy to indexing the 
wealth of material produced each in its own nation. 
And this brings me to the statement of a plan which I have 
the honor to propose to this Congress for a Codperative Inter- 
national Index. 
I suggest that this Congress, in which are representatives of 
the six leading Chemical Societies of the world, recommend to 
these societies the preparation of an annual index to current 
chemical literature, each society to care for the productions of 
the country in which it is situated. These annual indexes to 
chemical literature could be published in the journals (Berichte, 
Bulletin, Journal, etc.) of the respective societies, which, fortu- 
nately for our purpose, are all in octavo form; and when all the 
indexes are issued for a given year, they could be bound to- 
gether for convenience. The bibliographies would, of course, 
be compiled on the same or similar plans, this uniformity being 
secured by conference between the Index-Committees of the 
several societies. This plan would necessitate the consultation 
of six alphabets at least in each annual volume, but this incon- 
venience would be counterbalanced by the greater accuracy and 
fullness attained by the subdivision of labor proposed. 
What reception this plan may receive by the several societies 
is uncertain, but I believe that no more important work can be 
undertaken by the American Chemical Society. This newly re- 
organized association now numbers over 700 members and is a 
truly national society. The Journal could not present to its 
members and subscribers a more welcome contribution than a 
subject-index to the publications of American chemists. This 
might be done half yearly, or better quarterly, and should em- 
