294 RECORD OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY 



has been ,104,399 7s. Id. The grants for buildings and equipment received 

 from H.M. Treasury during this period amount to a total of .'57,150, the 

 remainder being for the most part provided from private sources. The 

 ordinary expenditure during the year 1911 amounted to .30,571 14*. 10d., 

 of which <! 7,398 3*. 7d. was met by payments for testing- work done. 



IV. INTERNATIONAL CATALOGUE OF SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



In the foregoing chapter an account was given of the Royal Society's 

 ' Catalogue of Scientific Papers \ of which twelve volumes have been published 

 comprising the period from 1800 to 1883. It had long been apparent that the 

 production of so great a work would soon be beyond the resources of the 

 Society or indeed of any single body. International co-operation appeared to 

 be the only means of securing the continuation of the work. As already 

 stated, the President and Council of the Royal Society were willing to 

 complete at their own charges the volumes required to bring their 

 ' Catalogue ' down to the end of the nineteenth century, but they felt that 

 some other arrangement must be made for the further prosecution of the 

 Catalogue beyond that period. 



Accordingly, the Royal Society sought the opinion of a large number of 

 representative bodies and individuals abroad, and as the replies were 

 almost uniformly in favour of the work being undertaken by international 

 co-operation, steps were taken to summon an international conference of 

 delegates appointed by the various Governments. This Conference was held 

 in London on July 14 to 17, 1896, and was followed by Conferences held in 

 London on October 11 to 13, 1898, and on June 12 and 13, 1900. 



The Conference held in 1900 agreed upon a scheme for the publication of 

 an International Catalogue of Scientific Literature. It was then laid down 

 that the supreme control of the Catalogue should be vested in an International 

 Convention. In the intervals between the meetings of the International 

 Convention, the administration of the Catalogue was to be vested in an 

 International Council, the editing and publication being carried on by 

 a Central Bureau. All difficulties were finally removed by the Royal Society 

 undertaking in October 1900 to act as the publishers of the Catalogue on 

 behalf of the International Council, thereby giving the necessary legal status 

 to the undertaking, and also agreeing to advance the capital required to start 

 the enterprise, the understanding being that this capital should be repaid 

 during the next five years. The contracts entered into at the time were for 

 publishing five annual issues of the Catalogue corresponding to the five years 

 1901-1905. 



At the first meeting of the International Council aforesaid in London, on 

 December 12, 1900, it was decided to commence the preparation of the 

 Catalogue from January 1, 1901, that each annual issue of the Catalogue 

 should consist of seventeen volumes, and that the price of the set to subscribers 



