Forty-first Annual Meeting 25 



as time will permit. I shall be very glad to consider any 

 suggestions of changes or improvements offered by mem- 

 bers who have used, or tried to use, the Society's publica- 

 tions for reference purposes. 



The first question is : Shall the titles of the papers pre- 

 sented at the different meetings be indexed under the first 

 word not an article? For example, the paper, "Some of 

 the Difficulties Encountered in Collecting Pike Perch Eggs" 

 would ordinarily be put under the head of Pike Perch. 



Professor Dyche: It seems to me that the rules that 

 are followed in ordinary library indexing might very well 

 be followed in indexing these reports. 



Secretary : In my opinion the ordinary principles of in- 

 dexing- should be applied. Poole's Index or any standard 

 index would be a good pattern. Take, for instance, the 

 paper referred to on "Some of the Difficulties Encountered 

 in the Collection of Pike Perch Eggs," it would be rather 

 unusual to index it under the letter "S" simply because it is 

 the first letter of the title. The subject matter should be the 

 guiding factor, and thus in the present case "Pike perch" 

 would be the natural heading. There should, of course, be 

 appropriate cross references. 



I think that the general principles of indexing with 

 cr< »ss-references should apply in Mr. Fearing's index. Care 

 should be taken not to make the affair too cumbersome. 



Mr. Fearing: With the permission of the Society I will 

 go ahead and do the indexing the way I have started it. 



Dr. Bean : I would like to say that if Mr. Fearing should 

 index the paper mentioned under "Pike perch," and then 

 have a subhead "Difficulties of taking eggs," he would 

 cover the ground very satisfactorily. 



Secretary : It would hardly be necessary to make a 

 reference under so general a heading as "Fish culture," for 

 this would merely make the index cumbersome rather than 

 suggestive. It is about the last place one would look' in such 

 an index for information on pike perch eggs. 



