December 5, 1895] 



NATURE 



III 



line of research to which he devoted the rest of his life, and by 

 which he conferred untold benefits on humanity and the lower 

 animals. As I had occasion to remark in my Presidential 

 Address of last year, Helmholtz had in his earliest work proved 

 almost to a certainty "that the actual presence of a living 

 creature — vibrio, as he called it, bacterium as we more com- 

 monly call it now — -is necessary for either fermentation or 

 putrefaction." Pasteur gave complete demonstration of that 

 conclusion, anil early expanded it to vast and previously un- 

 dreamt of extensions of its application. The first great practical 

 application of his views was made by Lister about 1863-65. then 

 my colleague in the University of Cilasgow, now recommended 

 by your Council as my successor to the Presidency of the Royal 

 Society. From Pasteur's discoveries he was led to work out 

 the principles of his antiseptic surgery, the practice of which 

 he commenced in the Glasgow Royal Infirmary in the summer 

 c.f 1865. 



Having been led to trace microbes as the origin not only of 

 fermentation and putrefaction, but of a vast array of destructive 

 blights happening to plants and animals — vines, silkworms, birds, 

 cattle, and mankind — Pasteur was forced to take up the question, 

 as of supreme practical importance, "Whence came these 

 microbes, and what are their antecedents ? " From warmth and 

 moisture, as we see by turning up a stone in a field, I was told 

 forty years ago by an Arran farmer well versed in the popular 

 literature of the day. We are sometimes told the same thing in 

 scientific journals of 1895 under the more learned disguise per- 

 haps of abiogenesis, or the fortuitous concourse of atoms, not 

 tested by the calculus of probabilities. Without wasting words 

 to prove theoretically that, while stones falling together may, 

 as we all believe they have actually done, make a solar system 

 with a habitable planet or planets, they cannot make a man, or 

 a microbe, or an organic cell with its property of heredity, 

 Pasteur set about practically to trace the antecedents of every 

 microbe he met with, and he found for it in every case a living 

 thing, whether in the air, or in water, or in earth. During 

 nearly all the latter part of his life and to the end Pasteur devoted 

 himself to biological research, and to vigorous practical realisa- 

 tion of its benefits for the world. 



Turning now to the business of the Royal Society since our 

 last Anniversary Meeting, I am glad to be able to report that 

 excellent progress has been made with the " Catalogue of 

 Scientific Papers." Vol. xi. of the Catalogue, under authors' 

 names, completing the alphabet, is on the eve of issue, and the 



supplementary volume is far advanced. 

 The movement 



which led to the inception of the Catalogue 

 dates back forty years — to the first meeting of the British 

 .'Vssociation in Glasgow, when Prof. Henry, of Washington, 

 communicated a proposal for the publication of a catalogue of 

 philosophical memoirs scattered throughout the Transactions of 

 Societies in Europe and America, with the offer of co-operation 

 <m the part of the Smithsonian Institution. 



The proposal was referred to a committee consisting of Mr. 

 Cayley, Mr. (irant,and Mr. Gabriel Stokes. The year after, at 

 the Cheltenham meeting, this committee propounded a scheme 

 for a Catalogue, embracing the mathematical and physical 

 sciences, to include both authors' names and subjects. Besides, 

 Transactions and Proceedings of Societies, journals, ephemerides, 

 volumes of observations, and other collections not coming under 

 these heads were to be indexed. 



This scheme came before the Royal Society in March 1857, 

 in consequence of a request made by General Sabine at the 

 instance of the British Association. Considerable discussion 

 t;)ok place, and eventually it was decided to prepare a titanti- 

 script Catalogue of periodical works in the Royal Society's 

 library, to include all the sciences, the question of printing being 

 deferred ; and to do the work at the Society's sole charge. 

 .Subsequently it was resolved to extend the Catalogue to works 

 in other libraries not included in that of the Royal Society. 



In 1864 it was decided to offer the Catalogue to Government 

 for publication, and in 1866 the printing of the first series of the 

 Catalogue, covering the period from 1800 to 1863, was com- 

 menced by the Stationery Office. The sixth and last volume of 

 the series was published in 1872. Two additional volumes, 

 covering the period 1863-1873, were published in 1879. The 

 Treasury then declined to continue the publication of the Cata- 

 logue, which, however, was undertaken by the Society, assisted 

 by a sum of j^iooo voted by Parliament towards the charges of 

 publication of the decade 1873-1883. The unexpended portion 

 of this grant was invested in a policy, under which ^1000 will 



NO. 1362, VOL. 53] 



become available for the purposes of the Catalogue in October, 

 1899. 



So far back as June, 1864, it was resolved by the Council that 

 the Catalogue according to authors should be followed by the 

 immediate publication of an Index according to subjects. Such 

 an Index Rerum was constantly under consideration, and many 

 plans for its preparation have been discussed. The work at last 

 took practical shape in 1893, when our Fellow Mr. Ludwig 

 Mond most generously presented a sum of £2000 to the Society, 

 in aid of the work of preparing the Catalogue and the Subject 

 Index. Out of this liberal donation there remains unexpended 

 a sum of ;i^i,500. A special staff was organised, by whom more 

 than I40,CKX) slips have now been mounted and arranged in 

 boxes, and of these over 46,ocx3 have already been provisionally 

 prepared for press. Since the last Anniversary, the department 

 has to some extent been reorganised by the Committee, women 

 being now employed in the Index Rerum Department, and Miss 

 Chambers having been entrusted with full control over the 

 whole. The total number of women employed in the two 

 departments including junior copyists is now twelve. 



It has, however, l<mg been felt that the continuation of such a 

 work was almost beyond the resources of the Royal Society, and 

 therefore about two years ago a committee was appointed to take 

 into consideration a suggestion that the preparation of complete 

 indexes to scientific publications should be effected by inter- 

 national co-operation. 



This ver}' important subject has continued to eng.xge the 

 attention of the Council during the past year ; and the suggestion 

 of international co-operation having been recommended to Her 

 Majesty's Government for favourable consideration, official 

 invitations have been issued to an International Conference to 

 be held in London in July next. 



Meanwhile others have been equally aware of the great 

 importance attaching to the indexing of literature, and only in 

 September last an International Institute of Bibliography was 

 established by Royal Decree in Brussels. 



Two gentlemen in that city, MM. Otlet and La Fontaine, 

 have, during the past half dozen years, devoted themselves to 

 the study of modern methods of bibliographic classification, 

 specially with reference to sociology, and their work has been 

 supported by the Belgian Government. They were led to adopt 

 the decimal system devised by Melvil Dewey, which is popular 

 with American librarians, and having made a careful study of its 

 application, have become so impressed with its value that they 

 have developed an extraordinarily comprehensive scheme 

 applicable to literature generally. 



An invitation to attend a conference in Brussels at the begin- 

 ning of September last was received by the Royal Society early 

 in August, too late unfortunately to permit of a representative 

 being present. 



At the conference held there on September 2 to 4, a number 

 of resolutions to establish an International Institute of Biblio- 

 graphy as a development of the work begun by the above- 

 mentioned gentlemen, were arrived at, and by a Royal Decree 

 of September 12, 1895, such an oftice was established. 



Your senior Secretary had an opportunity, when in Brussels 

 recently, of visiting the office which has been established, and of 

 .seeing the skill and zeal with which the preliminary preparations 

 have been made to carry the work into execution. 



All must admire the energy and enterprise which has thus 

 been displayed in Belgium. At the same time, the magnitude 

 of the work and the importance of the interests involved are 

 such that it appears most desirable that the action which the 

 Royal Society has already taken for an International Conference 

 should be persevered in, so that decisions may be arrivetl at 

 which may ensure, if possible, complete success. The enterprise 

 is one in which we, in consequence of our long connection 

 with such work, are most deeply interested ; it is also one which 

 may well become of exceeding value to science generally. But 

 it is impossible to overrate the difficulties connected with it ; and 

 to avoid unnecessary complications in the future it is essential 

 that very many questions— especially the division of the subject 

 matter in the various branches of science and the nomenclature 

 to be used— be taken into consideration by competent bodies and 

 settled by general agreemert. 



In my last Anniversary Address I mentioned that the Library 

 Committee, in view of the great accumulation of the stock of 

 Philosophical Traiisacttoiis, were taking measures to make 

 the memoirs composing the volumes separately available to the 

 public, which, while facilitating the sale, would increase their 



