Oct. 9. 1879] 



NATURE 



555 



\ 



their own special studies. Men of science, we may be 

 certain, are fully aware of the importance of the under- 

 taking, which is indeed designed for their special benefit ; 

 and although they are a hard-worked race, I do not 

 question that a sufficient number of volunteers would be 

 forthcoming. When one looks, for example, at the im- 

 mense labour of costly and unremunerated research 

 undertaken by a man like the late Mr. Carrington, one 

 cannot doubt that men will be found to undertake the 

 humbler but scarcely less useful and infinitely less 

 onerous task of making the discoveries of the Carringtons 

 generally available. I am sure, for instance, that such 

 men as Mr. Knobel and Mr. Carruthers would most 

 readily undertake the classification of the astronomical 

 and the botanical departments respectively, provided that 

 their other engagements allowed, as to which, of course, 

 I cannot affirm anything. Supposing our scientific editors 

 found, they would proceed exactly in the same manner as 

 the editor who had already accomplished the classification 

 in the rough. Each would take the cards belonging to 

 his own section, and would write opposite to the general 

 subject title written by the first classifier the heading of 

 the minor sub-section to which he thought it ought to be 

 referred ; thus, opposite Botany— Lichen, and so on. He 

 would then put the title into the box or drawer belonging 

 to its sub-section, and when the work was complete we 

 should have the whole catalogue in a classified form, 

 digested under a number of sub-headings. Some pre- 

 liminary concert among the scientific editors would, no 

 doubt, be necessary, and a final revision in conformity 

 with settled rules. It might be questioned, for example, 

 whether a dissertation on camphor properly belonged to 

 botany, chemistry, or materia medica ; whether the sub- 

 ject of the gymnotus was ichthyological, anatomical, or 

 electrical ; whether in such dubious cases a paper should 

 be entered more than once. It would save time and 

 trouble if these points could be determined before the 

 classification in the rough was commenced; in any case 

 considerable delay from unavoidable causes must be anti- 

 cipated. It is to be remembered, on the other hand, that 

 the work could, under no circumstances, be completed 

 until the publication of the Royal Society's alphabetical 

 index of papers from 1865 to 1873 was finished, which, I 

 suppose, will not be the case for two or three years. 

 There will,therefore, be sufficient time to meet unforeseen 

 causes of delay. If the classified index could be ready 

 shortly after the alphabetical, if we could show the world 

 that the work was not merely talked about as desirable, 

 but actually done in so far as depended upon ourselves 

 and the representatives of science ; that it already existed 

 in the shape of a card catalogue, and needed nothing but 

 money to be made accessible to everybody — then we 

 should be in a very different position from that which we 

 occupy at present. I cannot think that so much good 

 work would be allowed to be lost. The catalogue, not 

 being confined to papers in the English language, would 

 be equally useful in every country where science is culti- 

 vated, and would find support all over the civilised world. 

 Either from the Government, or from learned societies, 

 or the universities, or the enterprise of publishers, or the 

 interest of individual subscribers, or private munificence, 

 means would, sooner or later, be forthcoming to bring the 

 work out, and thus erect a most substantial monument to 

 the utility of our Association. It would obviously be im- 

 portant to provide that scientific papers should be indexed 

 not only for the past, but for the future. If, as I trust, 

 the Royal Society intends to continue the publica- 

 tion of its alphabetical index from time to time, the 

 compilers of the classified index will continue to enjoy 

 the same facilities as at present. There must be 

 some very effectual machinery at the Society for regis- 

 tering new scientific papers as they are published. 

 What it is we may hope to learn from our colleague, 

 its eminent librarian, who must be the most com- 



petent of all authorities on the subject. Mr. Bailey 

 draws attention to several scientific periodicals as useful 

 for bibliographical purposes, and I may mention one 

 which seems to be very complete.' It is published at 

 Rome. The number for last December, which I have 

 just seen, is so complete that, among a very great 

 number of scientific papers from all quarters, it records 

 those on the telephone and the electric light, in the 

 "Companion to the British Almanac," which, I think, 

 had then been only announced here, not published, 

 omitting the other contributions as non-scientific. It 

 further gives a complete index to the contents of the 

 Revista Cientifica, a Barcelona periodical, which had 

 apparently just reached the editor, from its commence- 

 ment in the preceding April. By this list I learn that 

 the electric pen, the subject of our colleague Mr. Frost's 

 recent paper, had been the theme of a communication to 

 a Barcelona society in May last. It certainly seems as 

 if any library that took this periodical in, and transcribed 

 the entries in its bibliographical section on cards properly 

 classed, would be able to keep up a pretty fair subject- 

 index to scientific 'papers for the future. I must, in 

 conclusion, say a few words on a subject-index to the 

 transactions of literary societies. The prospect is here 

 much more remote, from the want of the almost indis- 

 pensable ground-work of a general alphabetical index. 

 We have seen what an infinity of trouble in collecting, 

 in cataloguing, and in transcribing will be saved by the 

 Royal Society's list in the case of scientific papers, and 

 arc in a position to appreciate the impediments which 

 must arise from the want of one in this instance. 

 The work could be done by the British Museum if 

 it had a proportionate addition to its staff, or by a 

 continuance of the disinterested effijrts which are now 

 devoted to the continuation of Mr. Poole's index to- 

 periodicals. Failing these, the most practical sugges- 

 tion appears to me Mr. Bailey's, that the undertaking 

 might be to a considerable extent promoted by the 

 respective societies themselves. If the secretaries of the 

 more important of these bodies would cause the titles of 

 the papers occurring in their transactions to be trans- 

 cribed upon cards and deposited with this Association, 

 we should accumulate a mass of material worth working 

 upon, and which might be arranged while awaiting a 

 favourable opportunitity for publication. In some instances 

 even more might be done. The library of the Royal 

 Asiatic Society, for example, contains not merely its own 

 transactions, but those of every important society devoted 

 to Oriental studies, as well as all similar periodicals. Our 

 friend, Mr. Vaux, could probably, in process of time, not 

 only procure transcripts of the papers contained in these 

 collections, but could induce competent Orientalists to 

 prepare a scheme of classification, and such a classified 

 list, complete in itself and of no unwieldy magnitude, 

 could be published as a sample and forerunner of the rest. 

 The initiative in such proposals, as well as those referring 

 to scientific papers, should be taken by our Association, 

 which can negotiate with eminent men and learned bodies 

 upon equal terms, and speak with effect where the voice 

 of an individual would be lost. The desideratum of a 

 classed index, in a word, affords our Society a great 

 opportunity of distinguishing itself. It is this aspect of 

 the matter, no less than the importance of the matter 

 itself that has encouraged me to bring it under your 

 notice. 



ON VARIABLE STARS 



IT had long been known that certain stars greatly varied 

 in brightness and some observations had been made 

 concerning them, but it was reserved to the Herschels to 

 pave the way for practical investigators. Notwithstand- 



' ' BulUttino di hiUiogra/ia t di storia delle scienze matematiche efitiche. 

 Pubbl. da B. Boncompagni ; Rome, 1868, &c. 



