254 



NATURE 



\Jan. 1 6, 1879 



library should not be available for use at the Museum till 

 a year after publication. But the case is very different 

 with the class of scientific publications now referred to. 

 Of the foreign and colonial publications not many copies 

 of each issue reach this country, and in some cases they 

 can be seen only by the courtesy of an officer of a society 

 that has received a copy. Then, again, not only the 

 amount of interest taken in any particular communica- 

 tion, but sometimes its value, is changed in twelve 

 months. It has been already said that perhaps the 

 question may be raised whether the British Museum is 

 the place to expect to see recent scientific publications, 

 but it would be well if. its present state were in any case 

 known. 



Then (3) as to the method of cataloguing. The' use of 

 the catalogue is of course to enable a reader to find the 

 press mark of the books he wants with the least possible 

 delay. There may be differences of opinion as to the 

 extent to which a catalogue should help a reader, but the 

 facts as regards the British Museum are these. Scien- 

 tific publications which are not books, magazines, or 

 newspapers, are for the most part grouped under 

 " Academies." The majority of those which do not fall 

 under this head are to be found under the titles of the 

 government departments by which they are issued. In 

 order not to waste time over the catalogue the reader 

 must know certain particulars about the work he wants. 

 If it is issued by a British government department he 

 must know whether it has or not been presented to Par- 

 liament. For example, the pathological researches of 

 Dr. Sanderson and Dr. Klein were addressed, through 

 the Local Government Board, to the Lords of the Privy 

 Council ; the geological work of the Survey is through 

 the Science and Art Department of the Committee of 

 Council on Education, also under the Privy Council. 

 The pathological researches are, however, presented to 

 Parliament, and the volume containing any particular 

 part of them must be, therefore, looked for under " Par- 

 liamentary Papers," while the geological work is not pre- 

 sented to Parliament, and must therefore be looked for 

 under " Great Britain and Ireland — Geological Surveys." 

 In the former case it is requisite to know beforehand in 

 what year the papers were included ; in the latter case 

 the memoir to a map may be obtained in this way, but no 

 clue is given as to how to obtain the map itself. (If the 

 press mark for the map is searched for in the map cata- 

 logue, cross-references lead to " World — miscellaneous 

 — see geographical and geological"). The difficulty of 

 knowing whether a work has or has not been presented to 

 Parliament is sometimes great. For example, some of Mr. 

 Simon's Cholera Reports are included under the Regis- 

 trar-General's returns and are therefore to be looked for 

 among " Parhamentary Papers ; " while the celebrated 

 1848 Report, which seems somehow not to have been 

 presented, has to be found in the general catalogue under 

 the name Simon, John. This is, of course, quite con- 

 sistent with the method adopted. As it is with the 

 British so with the foreign publications of departments, 

 it is requisite to know to what department a report is 

 sent. An entomologist may be surprised that to get at 

 some of the United States' publications giving mono- 

 graphs on certain groups, he has to get his press-mark 

 from the catalogue under United States— Department of 

 the Interioi- — Geological Surveys of the Territories — yet 

 such is the case. And this, too, is quite consistent with 

 the method of cataloguing adopted. 



If the work to be consulted is issued by a learned 

 society it will probably be found entered under "Aca- 

 demies." In order to find it in the catalogue the exact 

 title must be known. For example, it is no use to look 

 for a Society of Arts' publication under " Society of Arts." 

 it is requisite to go in the catalogue from "of" to "for|' 

 as the full title is " Society for the Promotion," &c. It is 

 also essential to Vnow whether a society has the prefix 



kaiserliche or kaiserHche-konigliche, or konigliche, or 

 Imperiale, or Royal, or British, or the title of any nation- 

 ality or town. It is also requisite to know where the 

 work is published, as the grouping is according to the 

 plan. Academies at so and so. That a reader should 

 first have all this information about a work he wants to 

 consult may be very reasonable, for perhaps the collec- 

 tion at the Museum is too extensive to admit of printing, 

 as the Patent Office library does, a compact and conve- 

 nient "list of the scientific and other periodicals and 

 transactions of learned societies in the free library." 



But it is after a reader has found in the catalogue the 

 title of the society that his real trouble begins. It might 

 reasonably be supposed that the first entry under the 

 name of the society would bo the memoirs, transactions, or 

 journal, as the case may be, of the society. That is not the 

 British Museum plan. First are given the press marks 

 of charter, laws, bye-laws, notices of annual meetings, 

 lists of members, and such like things, and page after 

 page has to be turned over to get to the publications of 

 the' society. If there are two sets of publications, such 

 as quarto transactions and an octavo journal, these are 

 generally separated .by some pages of other references. 

 To take a very familiar case, the memoirs of the French 

 Acaddmie are of course frequently referred to. After the 

 reader has found the right volume of the catalogue con- 

 taining "Academies at Paris," and has found Acaddmie 

 des Sciences, he will have to look on one page for vols. i. 

 to xi., then, eight pages further on, for vols. xii. to xxiv., 

 and then, further on again, xxv. onwards. It is difficult 

 to imagine what principle is supposed to be followed, 

 or what is gained to a reader by such a plan. If 

 it should happen that the reader does not know 

 that one series of the memoirs contains the com- 

 munications of members and another series the com- 

 munications of " Savans Etrangers," he will still have 

 more trouble in obtaining what he wants. Or take 

 an English case. Suppose a reader wishes to refer to anj 

 account of a paper communicated to the Ashmolear 

 Society. He will find, under that heading, entries ot 

 an account of the Society, old notices of meetings to 

 be held (handbills), rules, &c., but no intimation of 

 whether the Society issues any transactions. 



In short, with all the societies, the entries of the regular 

 publications are so mixed up with rules, list of members, 

 bye-iaws, iS:c.,that it takes some time, after the right volume 

 and right page have been found, to turn out their press 

 mark. Again, it is not always easy for a reader to know 

 what is classed as an academy and what is not. An 

 account of a communication given before the Royal In- 

 stitution in Albemarle Street must be sought in the jour- 

 nal catalogued under academies, while one given before 

 the London Institution in Finsbury Circus, though equally 

 a chartered society, must be sought under "London." 

 Or again, how should the records of observations be 

 catalogued 1 under periodical publications ? under acade- 

 mies, or in the general catalogue. The practice differs 

 in different cases. 



Were it not for the kind and ready assistance given im 

 cases of need by the reading-room superintendent and 

 his assistants, a reader would be often quite unable to see 

 what he needs. 



THE " GRAHAM " LECTURE AND MEDAL 



SOME time ago the Chemical Section of the Philoso- 

 phical Society of Glasgow had under consideration 

 the propriety of raising a fund for the encouragement of 

 original research. The movement soon began to assume 

 practical shape, and in course of time the fund was found 

 to have reached to nearly 300/., the subscribers being chiefly 

 well-known chemical manufacturers and merchants in 

 Glasgow and the west of Scotland. For a time there was 



