110 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1916. 



war in Europe, but it is a matter of congratulation that the prepara- 

 tion and publication has been continued with comparatively little 

 change. As was pointed out in the last report the finances of the 

 catalogue had been seriousl}^ affected on account of the inability to 

 collect the subscriptions from Germany, Austria, Hungary, Belgium, 

 and Poland. 



Before the beginning of the war the receipts and expenditures of 

 the London Central Bureau approximately balanced and therefore 

 as the delinquent remittances from the five subscribing countries 

 above mentioned amounted to almost $G,000 a year it was necessary 

 to obtain this sum in order to continue the publication. 



The Royal Society of London very generously offered to make 

 good this loss of income and made a grant of £1,100 to enable the 

 thirteenth annual issue to be published. The Royal Society has sub- 

 sequently granted additional sums aggregating £3,750 to enable the 

 Central Bureau to continue the publication of the catalogue without 

 interruption. 



A request having been made for assistance from the United States 

 the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution became so interested in 

 the subject that he was enabled to obtain a grant of $6,000 from the 

 Carnegie Corporation of New York for the purpose of aiding 

 American students by making it possible for the Central Bureau to 

 publish the fourteenth annual issue of the catalogue. 



The value and service to science of the work done by the catalogue 

 is so universally recognized that any lapse in its regular publication 

 would be a serious calamity. 



The great need for a Catalogue of Scientific Literature was felt as 

 far back as 1855 when Prof. Joseph Henry brought the subject to 

 the attention of the British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science. The idea resulted in the Royal Society's Catalogue of 

 Scientific Papers which will, when completed, be a catalogue of 

 periodical scientific literature from 1800 to 1900. 



Though this catalogue is simply a list of titles by authors' names, 

 including only periodical literature, it soon became evident that its 

 production was too great a task for one society or even one nation 

 to continue; therefore in 1893 a council of the Roj^al Society was 

 held and a committee was appointed to consider the question. It 

 was agreed that international cooperation should be obtained for the 

 production of a complete subject and author catalogue of science 

 beginning with 1901. 



The value of such a catalogue as then proposed may be estimated 

 when it is considered that some of the most eminent scientific men 

 of the day were members of the committee. Among the members 

 were Lord Kelvin, Lord Rayleigh, Sir Michael Foster, Sir Joseph 

 Lister, and Dr. Ludwig Mond. At the first meeting Prof. Armstrong 



