926 



NATURE 



[December 29, 1923 



At no time could H.M. Government have been 

 charged with a lavish or even generous distribution of 

 the scientific fruits its workers have culled. It now 

 appears that even the meagre distribution of former 

 years is to be curtailed, and u false notion of economy 

 threatens practically to abolish the free circulation of 

 government publications of scientific interest. The 

 new policy affects the three types of publications 

 already mentioned in various ways. 



In Kill years, the annual reports of the Museums 

 have dwindled until they have become dry skeletons, 

 scarcely worthy of distribution, and quite unworthy of 

 the great national institutions they represent. Com- 

 pare them with the beautifully printed and illustrated 

 reports of the American State Museums. Surely this is 

 not the way to encourage the free giving of the public, 

 on which the American Museums and our own so largely 

 depend. 



The leaflets of the English and Scottish Depart- 

 ments of Agriculture were formerly sent gratis on 

 publication, from a standing list, to gardeners, farmers, 

 and others interested in the checkmating of pests or 

 the improvement of cultivation, and the wide dis- 

 tribution of these concise and generally up-to-date 

 publications played a great part in combating local 

 pests, and possibly in preventing the local pest from 

 becoming a national pestilence. Now, to be received 

 free each leaflet must be applied for in writing, and 

 only one copy of any one leaflet is supplied gratis : 

 the free circulation as a matter of routine has ceased. 



As regards research publications, the position is no 

 less serious. Here also free distribution to workers 

 interested in like fields has ceased, and scientific 

 societies no longer receive copies in exchange for their 

 own publications. Yet, curiously enough, the scien- 

 tific worker in foreign countries is to be given a pre- 

 ference denied to his British colleague, for foreign 

 societies making exchanges are not to be placed under 

 the ban. 



A still further restriction has been brought into force. 

 The circulation of the records of scientific discovery 

 has always been greatly aided through the strictly 

 discriminate distribution, by the discoverer himself, 

 of author's separates ; and most scientific journals 

 are still willing to present an author with twenty-five 

 copies or so of an original contribution. But personal 

 application to government scientific workers for a 

 particular separate has disclosed the fact that, at any 

 rate in certain important scientific departments, the 

 allowance of author's reprints granted by Government 

 is limited to three copies, though indeed if the published 

 price of the pamphlet be less than one shilling he may 

 have six. A joint author, provided he has contributed 

 more than a third of the research, is entitled to one- 



NO. 2826, VOL. 112] 



third of this normal allowance. Could cheese-porin: 

 be more ridiculous ? 



It would seem that, in the desire to save a mite, tl • 

 Government u in danger of losing a mountain 

 cost of a relatively small number of oflf-prints, once tr 

 type has been set up, can scarcely be compared witli 

 the gain likely to accrue from a wide circulation <<! 

 scientific matter of practical and economic important* ; 

 and in this respect the Government lias duties to the 

 public and the scientific world other than those of a 

 publisher controlling a purely commercial undertaking. 

 As the matter stands, government researches will 

 continue to be made, and the results laboriously gained 

 by trained and expert workers will be printed at vers 

 considerable cost — and then consigned to oblivion in 

 the cold storage chambers of H.M. Stationer}' Office 

 or some other department. 



There is no suggestion here that the Government 

 should undertake wasteful distribution. It has always 

 seemed to us unnecessary that when an allotment- 

 holder applied for agricultural leaflets, having in mind 

 garden pests, he should receive also instruction in pig- 

 and poultry-keeping, in the values of farm manures, 

 or in the financial affairs of agricultural co-operative 

 societies. But this danger might be avoided by, let us 

 say, grouping the leaflets for free distribution in dis- 

 tinctive and homogeneous sections for particular classes 

 of inquirers, rather than by the drastic step of abandon- 

 ing altogether the method of free routine distribution. 

 Perhaps, short of the generous distribution of scientific 

 papers with which the United States have made us 

 familiar, something might be done by the wide circula- 

 tion of the periodical H.M. Stationer)' Oflice lists of 

 Government publications, from which scientific societies 

 or interested individuals might select and apply for 

 such works as concerned their own field of activity. 



In any event, the distribution of Government publica- 

 tions dealing with matters of scientific interest cannot 

 remain as it stands at present ; it is based upon a 

 narrow idea of the importance of the spread of scientific 

 knowledge, even upon a mistaken computation of the 

 pecuniary value of science. How diametrically opfwsed 

 it is to the trend of enlightened opinion in Great Britain 

 is indicated by a recent decision of the Carnegie United 

 Kingdom Trustees to increase still further their free 

 circulation of expensive books to whatsoever individuals 

 care to take up any serious study. What is wanted 

 is not less facilities for making scientific knowledge 

 and achievement widely known, but more. It is to 

 be hoped that scientific societies will not permit the 

 recent restrictions to pass unchallenged, and will unite 

 to secure for the public and for scientific workers the 

 fullest publicity for information of service to them as 

 stimulus or as guidance. 



