May 29, 1879] 



NATURE 



95 



more than 360,000 titles among 3,750,000, fillinor, -nhen printed 

 alone, 4'32, or in round numbers, 5 volumes of the 45, while 

 he must undergo the trouble of using all the 45, or of this work, 

 \\, i.e., 89 per cent, is useless and annoying for him, and ^V. 

 or n per cent, only is useful ; the space needed for the catalogue 

 is about 4 metres, 44 centimetres of which are useful, and 3m. 

 S6cm. disturbing ; and, last but not least, he pays 36/. instead 

 of 4/. 



But with all this superfluous work, still no complete catalogue 

 is acquired, but a very deficient one ; for of periodical journal 

 articles there are about 3,000,000, separate works about 

 6,000,000 in a rough estimation, or together, 9,000,000, i.e. 

 (no main titles or cross-references being herein comprised), 

 about six times the number possessed by the British Museum 

 library. 



Supposing, in the same proportion as above, these 9 millions 

 of publicaiions to be accompanied by 12 millions of main titles, 

 &c. ; supposmg, then, these 21 millions of entries to be composed 

 of 4'2 millions of old and l6'8 millions of new ones, the pub- 

 lication of these could be effected as follows : — 



The titles of old books, being used much seldomer than new 

 ones, and belonging mostly to fifteen to twenty different branches, 

 could form a special catalogue of fifty volumes, whose price 

 would be 40/. ; each great city might content itself with a single 

 copy accessible to all men of science. 



The remaining l6'8 millions of modern publication title', 

 divided mto fifty branches, would give 360,000 entries for each 

 of them, or five volumes for 4/., so that even private libraries 

 would be enabled to possess a complete catalogue of all modern 

 publications of a single branch. 



As to the construction of such catalogues, the following would 

 perhaps be a practical melhod : — 



At first a committee for the defining of branches and the limit 

 between old and modern publications should be appointed, to 

 which all greater libraries should send copies of their catalogue 

 classifications ; by means of these copies exact rules for the 

 extent of branches and the method of working could be drawn 

 up in six mouths. 



This work done, a numerous catalogue committee should be 

 formed, to which all greater library catalogues should be sent 

 in Copies ; where such copies are wanting the library should be 

 examined by members of the committee, using the thitherto ready 

 part of the catalogues. 



The periodical publications before 1800 and after 1S73, should 

 be registered in the same manner as those in the " Royal Society 

 Catalogue," and then subdivided into single branches by the 

 committee. In this way complete catalogues for great groups 

 could be formed, care being taken not to restrict the limits of 

 these too much in order to hasten the publication of the work. 

 This publication would be the first and hardest step to a manage- 

 able mdex of literature. 



Buring the next ten years after its publication the completion 

 ;ould be carried out by putting beside each title a short classifi- 

 cation of its contents, not an extract— contained in a single word 

 or phrase, like " elcctrostat." or "relat. age mortal.," for "elec- 

 trostatics" or "relation between age and mortality," or a few 

 single words when different matters are treated ; these classifica- 

 tions, made simultaneously by different persons and compared, 

 together with all corrections, could be printed about twelve 

 years after the first catalogue, and form the final work, which at 

 short intervals of five or ten years should be completed by 

 appendices. Aristides Brezina 



Custos of the Imperial Mineralogical 

 Museum, Vienna 



specimen of decumanus, the latter, apparently, being less 

 numerous. A. B. Mkyer 



Dresden, Royal Zoological Museum, May 20 



Distribution of Mus rattus 



I AM able to-day to complete my note in NATURE, vol. xx. 

 p. 29, as to the exact habitat of the black rat in Thuringia. 

 ProN Liebe, of Gera, kindly wrote to me that it occurs in East 

 Tliurin;iia and the Voigtland in single elevated side-valleys of the 

 rivers Weisse El-terand Roda, as well as in single lurking-places 

 of the Frankenwald. Here it occurs in isolated forest-houses, 

 in the valleys, in whole partly large villages, for instance, 

 St. Gangloff. In this place for a long time past Mus rattus and 

 M. decutnanushave occurred together among each other, not one 

 above the other, on different floors, as might be supposed, 

 though rattus now and then rather prefers the upper floors, and 

 the latter >loes not appear to be decreasing in number. In those 

 villages ab lut three specimens of rattus are always killed for one 



Insect Galls Buds 



I WAS much interested in Mr. A. Stephen Wilson's letter upon 

 this subject (Nature, vol. xx. p. 55). I must, however, demur 

 to his statement that " all insect-galls are in reality leaf-buds or 

 fruit-buds," as too sweeping to be accurate. I can hardly 

 include in the above category the numerous galls which make 

 their appearance on the growing leaves of trees, such, for 

 example, as the oak -spangles (of Neuroterus malpighii) or the 

 galls of the Spathegaster baicarum, Andricus curvator, &c. , 

 several of which may be placed on the veins of a single leaf. 

 These examples cannot assuredly be classed as pathologically deve- 

 loped leaf or fruit buds only so far as woody growth usually 

 takes place through buds. In a short paper I once read at the 

 Linnean Society, an abstract of which appeared in NATURE 

 during the early part of the year 1875, I drew attention to the 

 fact that the growth of galls took place coincidently with the 

 growth of the tissues in which they were placed; thus the 

 development of the bud-galls of Cynips kolleri, Teras terminalis, 

 and Aphilothrix gemma:, is to be seen in the spring, summer, and 

 early autvman, but not in winter time when the tree growth is 

 arrested. My observations at that time led me to suppose that 

 the currant galls of the oak and others of the same class only 

 grow during the growth of the leaf to which they were attached. 



I trust Mr. Wilson will give your readers the benefit of his 

 further researches on this subject. W. Ainslie Hollis 



Brighton, May 16 



Effects of Lightning 



A REMARKABLE electric discharge occurred on Sir Robert 



Gordon's estate of Letterfourie in a small wood about four miles 



to the south-east of this place on November 16 last about 12.45 



A.M. The accompanying sketch (scale ij\" = one yard), where 



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the trees (common fir and larch) struck are represented by black 

 dots, will give you an idea. The soil and trees were slightly 

 covered with snow, which had been falling at intervals since sun- 

 set on the 15th. On that night I observed two or three flashes 

 of lightning accompanied by thunder, and a few days afterwards 



