[From Britith Attociation Report.] 



C. Report* on Special Branches of Science. 



KcroBTB on special branches of science may be of several different types, 

 to every stage of organisation, from the catalogue up to the 



When a person is engaged in scientific research, it is desirable that he 

 be able to ascertain, with as little labour as possible, what has been 

 written on the subject and who are the best authorities. The ordinary method 

 is to get hold of the most recent German paper on the subject, to look up 

 the references there given, and by following up the trail of each to find out 

 who are the most influential authors on the subject. German papers have the 

 most complete references because the machinery for docketing and arranging 

 dentine papers is more developed in Germany than elsewhere. 



The " Fortachritte der Physik" gave an annual list of all papers, good 

 and bad, arranged in subjects, with abstracts of the more important ones. 

 Wiedemann's "Beiblatter" is a more select assortment, given more in full. 



I think it doubtful whether a publication of this kind, if undertaken by 

 the British Association, would succeed. Lists of the titles of the proceedings 

 of Societies and of the contents of periodicals are given in Nature. These 

 are useful for strictly contemporary science, and I do not think that a more 

 elaborate system of collection could be kept up for long. 



The intending publisher of a discovery has to examine the whole mass of 

 science to see whether he has been anticipated, but the student wishes to 

 read only what is worth reading. What he requires is the names of the best 

 authors. The selection or election of these is constantly done by skimming 

 individual authors, who indicate by the names they quote the men whose 

 opinions have had most influence. But a report on the history and present 



