540 



NA TURE 



[August io, 1893 



from the table given by Mr. Gregory on p. 185, and 

 several elements, such as bromine, are erroneously 

 included. 



The 107 illustrations form a noticeable feature of the 

 book, many of them having been specially drawn for it. 

 We confidently recommend the book to the notice of 

 teachers, for it is certainly one of the most excellent ex- 

 positions of the subject that vee have yet seen. 



Proceedings of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society. 

 Vol. xi. (London : Williams and Norgate, 1893.) 



The practice recently adopted by this Society of issuing 

 its volumes in complete form at the end of its session, 

 whilst it has some advantages, has the great disadvantage 

 which results to an author in the long delay of the pub- 

 lication of his results if he has made his communication 

 early in the session. We believe, however, that the 

 Society meets this objection by allowing authors to have 

 copies of their papers as soon as they are printed. 



There are twelve contributors to this volume of 170 

 pages. The historical notes are especially interesting. 

 They are on the history of the Fourier series, by G. A. 

 Gibson ; history of the nine-point circle, early history 

 of the symmedian point, and Adams's hexagons and 

 circles, by Dr. J. S. Mackay. These last are written in 

 Dr. Mackay's usual interesting style, with full references 

 to early writings on the several points. It is a pity that 

 he has not received sufficient encouragement to publish 

 his large store of notes in a single volume instead of issu- 

 ing them in the shape of detached notes. Prof. A. H. 

 Anglin gives a paper on certain results involving areal and 

 trilinear coordinates. Mr. C. Chree writes on action at a 

 distance, and the transmission of stress by isotropic 

 elastic solid media, and Mr. W. Peddie contributes notes 

 on the use of dimensional equations in physics, on the 

 fundamental principles of quaternions and other vector 

 analyses, and on the elements of quaternions. This last 

 subject is discussed at some length by Prof. Knott in 

 the quaternion and its depredators. His attitude is well 

 known to the mathematical readers of Nature (see vols, 

 for 1 891-2-3). The remaining notes appeal to the 

 mathematical masters, who form the major part of the 

 clientele of 131 members. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



[ The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 

 pressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 

 to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part of Nature. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications.^ 



The Publication of Scientific Papers. 



The discussion of this important subject has been started 

 a propos of physical papers, but the publication of papers in all 

 branches of science is in an equally unsatisfactory state. 



Prof. Lodge, in his letter in your issue of July 27, after paying 

 attention to the preparation of useful abstracts of all papers on 

 physical subjects appearing both at home and abroad, calls 

 attention to what has always appeared to me to be the most 

 important matter for reform, namely, the means and methods of 

 publication of English scientific papers. 



There is no complaint more frequently heard abroad than that 

 important papers of English scientific men are almost inacces- 

 sible to the foreigner, because it has been the fashion to com- 

 municate them to local societies and to rest content with such 

 publication as is secured by their being printed in the Society's 

 Proceedings or Transactions. If these societies distributed their 

 publications liberally where there are students who ought to 

 have the opportunity of reading them, and without taking 

 account of whether they receive in exchange a publication of an 

 equal number of pages, the evil would be much less. But this 

 is not so. It is notorious — to take, for instance, the Royal 

 Society of Edinburgh, with which I am best acquainted, and 

 which is not by any means the least liberal in the matter of 

 distribution — that unless the author distributes lavishly separate 



NO. I 241, VOL. 48] 



copies of his paper in every quarter where he considers it im- 

 portant that it should be read, it will pass unnoticed, and a 

 worker in the same branch of science will not consider that he 

 is open to any blame for not being acquainted with a paper 

 published in an organ so difficult to procure. I believe that this 

 applies in at least an equal degree to the other two societies 

 mentioned by Prof. Lodge, namely, those of Dublin and Cam- 

 bridge, and of course it is all the more applicable to societies of less 

 importance. But even the Royal Society itself is open to excep- 

 tion in this respect, for although no fault can be found with the 

 Proceedings or Transactions as a recognised organ of publication, 

 they are, as a matter of fact, not more readily accessible abroad 

 than the corresponding publications of the Edinburgh Society, 

 and the majority of foreign students never see anything but 

 abstracts of important English papers. The only independent 

 scientific journal of importance is the Philosophical Magazine, 

 and though widely known it is not extensively used, and has 

 not grown with the times. The want of means of scientific 

 publication which has been produced by the development of 

 scientific activity in the last twenty or thirty years has been met 

 by an increase in the number of societies, and by a greater de- 

 velopment of society publication. The former is probably an 

 advantage, the latter is certainly a disadvantage. The publica- 

 tion of scientific papers cannot be too much centralised in the 

 interests of both authors and readers, and for this purpose a 

 central organ such as indicated by Prof. Lodge is required. 



What is at present inefficiently and extravagantly done by a 

 multitude of amateur publishers scattered over the country 

 could at much less cost be efficiently done by a central publish- 

 ing officer issuing a central organ, in several series, each series 

 appearing in monthly numbers, and the whole run on strictly 

 business lines. Each series should be devoted to a particular 

 science or branch of a science. Thus, there might be several 

 series in chemistry as organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, 

 physical chemistry and technical chemistry. Physics also would 

 fall into several series, as would other sciences. Each series 

 of original papers would have a parallel one of abstracts of 

 foreign papers on the same subject, and it would be useful to- 

 have a separate series, which might be issued weekly or fort- 

 nightly, devoted to printing a minute of the proceedings and 

 papers read at the meetings of the various societies throughout 

 the country, to be furnished by their secretaries. 



The effect of the realisation of some such plan as this would 

 be the immediate setting free of the large sum of money 

 annually spent by the societies in printing, and the collection of 

 all that is published in one organ, which would be an enormous 

 assistance to the student. 



Each series would have to be intelligently and liberally 

 indexed, and a separate volume of the indices of all the series 

 published each year. It would then be sufficient for the worker 

 to take in the series devoted to his own branch of science and 

 the yearly index volume, which would prevent his overlooking. 

 papers of importance appearing in other series. 



This scheme of central publication has occupied my thoughts 

 for some years, and I have from time to time discussed it with 

 my friends, and it has even been brought before one publisher, 

 but without any practical eflfect. 



It is therelore with very great pleasure that I find Prof. 

 Lodge advocating a similar scheme, and I hope that it may be 

 the means of fixing public attention on the present unsatis- 

 factory state of things and of forcing a remedy. 



August 8. J. Y. Buchanan. 



The abstracts of physical science for the year 1886, pub- 

 lished by the Berlin Physical Society, are contained in three 

 stout octavo volumes, comprising over 2000 pages, while the 

 somewhat less comprehensive supplements to the Annalcn 

 average about 1000 pages. A good index, on the other hand, 

 can be prepared at little more than the cost of printing. An 

 index entry, which contains the full title of the article, the 

 name of the author, the correct reference, the number of pages 

 covered by the article, and, where necessary, a brief indication 

 of the scope of the article, is sufficient to inform the student 

 where each advance in his particular branch of science is to be 

 found reported, and is of permanent value to searchers of all 

 sorts, provided a proper system of classification of the index 

 entries is adhered to. The scheme of indexing carried out by 

 the Association of Engineering Societies of America presents 

 many features worthy of imitation. The index, which appears 

 monthly in the journal, is printed on one side only (the reverse 



