May 1 6, 1918] 



NATURE 



in declination -17°. The form of the catalogue is 

 generally similar to that adopted at Greenwich and 

 Oxford, the measures for each plate being accom- 

 panied by an equation for the conversion of measured 

 diameters to magnitudes, and the plate constants re- 

 quired for conversion to standard co-ordinates. The 

 reduction of measured to standard co-ordinates, and 

 thence to right ascension and declination, is fully ex- 

 plained in the introduction, and tables are provided to 

 facilitate the computations. A supplementary catalogue 

 gives the standard co-ordinates of the reference stars. 

 All the plates reach at least to fhe 12th magnitude, 

 and some include stars fainter than magnitude 13. 

 The whole work reflects great credit on the director 

 and his assistants. 



THE CO-ORDINATION OF SCIENTIFIC 

 PUBLICATION. 

 'X*HE co-ordination of scientific publication formed 

 -*■ the subject of a recent conference arranged by 

 the Faraday Society under the chairmanship of Sir 

 Robert Hadfield, when a number of interesting 

 problems bearing on the desirability of a fuller co- 

 operation amongst our scientific and technical socie- 

 ties were discussed. Both in the reading and publica- 

 tion of papers there is, at present, a considerable 

 amount of overlapping and lack of co-ordination, with 

 the result that much valuable work is either lost or 

 overlooked owing to communications being made to 

 societies which are not especially associated with the 

 subject-matter of the investigations concerned, and 

 rnuch benefit would undoubtedly result from a federa- 

 tion of interests in this respect. Whilst there is a 

 general consensus of opinion that it is essential to 

 maintain the individuality of each society in regard 

 to the reading and publication of papers, and that any 

 attempt to pool communications for later distribution 

 by a central organisation is undesirable, much effec- 

 tive co-operation could be secured between kindred 

 societies by the arrangement of joint meetings and con- 

 ferences with the object of promoting united work on 

 problems of common* interest. Borderland subjects 

 merit special consideration from this point of view. 



The publication of the proceedings of such 

 meetings in the Transactions of the several 

 societies concerned would be much facilitated by 

 the adoption of a uniform size and type for the 

 publications of societies dealing with allied subjects, 

 so that each could include such papers in its journal or 

 distribute them as self-contained reprints of a standard 

 size. Similar uniformity is perhaps not practicable 

 for all scientific and technical publications, but in so 

 far as it can be adopted it would add much to the 

 accessibility and the utility of the recorded work. 



Organised collaboration' is also desirable by means 

 of which the members of scientific and technical socie- 

 ies should have opportunity of knowing what papers 

 ire being contributed to societies other than their own, 

 apart from their later publication either in the 

 journal of the society concerned or in the form of 

 abstracts. The proposal, which, it is understood, is 

 being considered by the Board of Scientific Societies, 

 to publish a weekly journal of announcements would 

 meet this want, and it is to be hoped that the Board 

 will decide to issue such a publication as soon as pos- 

 sible. _ Meanwhile, individual societies could aid in this 

 direction by publishing in their journals both the 

 announcements of cognate societies and short sum- 

 itiaries of papers read previous to publication, so that 

 the subject-matter is brought to the notice of those 

 interested at as early a date as possible. A method 

 of mutual exchange to facilitate such co-operation 

 could be easily arranged, and would in no way detract 

 NO. 2533, VOL. lOl] 



from, but rather add to, the interest in the later 

 full jjubllcation of papers. 



Apart from original contributions, the publications of 

 most Societies mclude abstracts of scientific and 

 technical literature published both in our own and in 

 foreign journals. In so far as such abstracts include 

 subjects of common interest to members of kindred 

 societies, there is at present a great deal of over- 

 lapping which could be advantageously eliminated by 

 organised collaboration. We have, in" the past, been 

 far too reliant in many subjects on the foreign, and 

 especially on the German, journals for our supply of the 

 vyorld's scientific and technical literature, and it is high 

 time that we became independent and self-supporting 

 in this respect. Effective co-operation should achieve 

 this desirable end for each group of cognate subjects; 

 and whilst the method of collaboration would depend 

 to a considerable extent on the character of the 

 subject, a common journal of abstracts for each 

 group of societies would, in the majority of cases» 

 prove the most advantageous plan. Although a 

 scheme of this character would necessarily decrease the 

 bulk of the publications of each society, the original 

 contributions which mark their individuality would be 

 given greater prominence, time wasted by the re- 

 reading of the same abstract in several journals would 

 be saved, and considerable economies in publication 

 would be effected. 



Much attention is being directed at present towards 

 the unification and co-ordination of scientific effort. 

 The co-ordination of scientific publication, which has 

 made some progress in the directions indicated during 

 recent years, should certainly continue to occupy a 

 prominent place amongst these problems of recon- 

 struction. 



THE DIURNAL VARIATION OF TERRES- 

 TRIAL MAGNETISM. 

 PUBLICATION No. 102 of the Royal Meteoro- 

 ■*■ .logical Institute of the Netherlands consists 

 of a doctor's dissertation in Dutch by Miss 

 Annie van Vleuten "On the Diurnal Variation 

 of Terrestrial Magnetism " and two short papers 

 in Englisih from vol. xxvi. (1917) of the Pro- 

 ceedings of the Science Section of Kon. Ak. v. Wet. 

 of Amsterdam. The dissertation, which extends to 106 

 pages, . contains numerous tables of diurnal variation 

 data for the magnetic elements, and the corresponding 

 Fourier coefficients for a number of stations, more 

 especially for Pavlovsk, Sitka, Irkutsk, De Bilt, Chel- 

 tenham, U.S., Zi-ka-wei, Honolulu, Bombay, Buiten- 

 zorg, and Samoa, and for the group of years 1906-8. 

 The Fourier coefficients, based on the data from these 

 ten stations from the international quiet days, five a 

 month, are used to furnish answers to the questions 

 advanced in the two short papers in English : (i) Does 

 the internal magnetic field to which the diurnal varia- 

 tion is partly ascribed def>end on induced electric 

 currents? (2) Do the forces causing the diurnal varia- 

 tion possess a potential? These are problems chiefly 

 associated in England with the name of Prof. Schuster, 

 to whose work there are many references, while abroad 

 they have occtipied, amongst others, Profs. Fritsche and 

 Steiner, Schuster and Fritsche, using totally different 

 observational data, separated the forces causing the 

 diurnal variation into one set having a source external 

 to the earth, and a second set having an internal 

 source. Schuster suggested that the second set arise 

 from currents induced in the earth by the former set. 

 Steiner, employing Fritsche's results, decided against 

 Schuster's hypothesis. Miss van Vleuten's material is 

 at once more homogeneous than Fritsche's, and more 

 representative than Schuster's. She concludes that. 



