PREFACE. 



The Inteuxatioxal Catalogue of Scientific Liteuaiuke, com- 

 mencing' with the literature of the year 1901, is an outg-rovvih of the 

 Catalogue of Scientijic Papers relating to the scientific literature of the* 

 nineteenth century, published by the Royal Society of London. 



The sug-gestion to catalogue scientific papers may be traced back 

 to Prof. Henry, of Washing-ton, U.S.A., who brought the subject, 

 under the notice of the British Association for the Advanceuient of 

 Science at its meeting in Glasgow, in 1855. The history of the incep- 

 tion of the enterprise is recorded in the first volume of the Cafalof/ue 

 of Scientific Papers issued by the Royal Society in 1867. Twelve 

 large quarto volumes have been printed in which the titles of papers 

 published during the period 1800-1883 are arranged under authors' 

 names. A subject index, which will serve as a key to these volumes 

 and also form an independent record, is in an advanced state of 

 preparation. A catalogue of the scientific papers published during the 

 period 1884-1900 is now being prepared by the Royal Society of 

 London. 



The possibility of preparing a complete iiidcx of current scientific- 

 literature by international co-operation was first taken into considera- 

 tion by the Royal Society about the year 1803. It had long bee;» 

 apparent that the work was beyond the resources of the Society, or 

 indeed of any single body. Moreover, it was felt that an authors' 

 catalogue could not supply the required information, and that it was 

 essential that scientific workers should be kept fully and quickly 

 informed of all new discoveries by n^.eans of complete subject indexes. 

 International co-operation appeared to be the only means of carrying 

 out such a work with the necessary completeness and rapidity. The 

 Society therefore sought the opinion of a very large number of 

 representative bodies and individuals abroad ; and, as the replies 

 were almost uniformly iu favour of the work being undertaken 

 by international co-operation, steps were taken to summon an 

 International Conference of Delegates appointed by various 

 Governments. 



The Conference took place in London on July 14-17, 1896, 

 and was attended by delegates from Canada, Cape Colony, DenmarJr, 

 France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, 

 Natal, the Netherlands, New South Wales, New Zealand, Norway, 

 Queensland, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United 

 States. 



