May, 1905.] 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



loi 



Literature " should be undertaken, and that it should 

 commence on January i, 1901, where the " Catalogue of 

 Scientific Papers " would come to a conclusion. It was 

 also agreed that the International Catalogue should be 

 controlled by a "Central Bureau" established in London, 

 while the other countries should each have a " Regional 

 Bureau " to collect the necessary information on the spot 

 and transmit it to the Central Bureau. At two other Con- 

 ferences, held by the Royal Society in London in 1898 and 



1900, the scheme was further elaborated, and numerous 

 details were settled. It was agreed that the Catalogue 

 should be published in London in seventeen annual 

 volumes, each of which would relate to a separate branch 

 of science and be distinguished by the letters from A to R. 

 The general plan of the catalogue is given in the sub- 

 joined extract from the prospectus of it. 



The " International Catalogue of Scientific Literature " 

 contains an Authors' and a classified Subject-Index of 

 the Scientific Literature published on and after January i, 



1 90 1. Each country has undertaken to mdex its own 

 literature. The material thus collected is sent to the 

 Central Bureau in London, where it is arranged accord- 

 ing to ((() Authors' Names and (b) Subject-matter, and 

 published in annual volumes. A Schedule of Classifica- 

 tion and an Index thereto are prefixed to each volume in 

 English, French, German, and Italian. These, and Latin, 

 are the only languages which are used in the Catalogue 

 without a translation, but in the Authors' Catalogue the 

 titles of all publications are given in the original language. 

 Each volume contains the material received at the Central 

 Bureau since the date of completion of the manuscript of 

 the previous volume. 



The following is a list of the seventeen volumes (A to 

 R) of the First Annual Issue (1903-4) of the International 

 Catalogue, and of the prices at which they are sold sepa- 

 rately ; the price of the whole set being ^18 : — 



Mathematics .... 

 Mechanics .... 

 Physics (Part I.) . . 



(Part II.) . . 



Chemistry (Part I.) . . 



(Part II.) . 



Astronomy 



Meteorology .... 



Mineralogy 



Geology 



Geography 



PaliEontology .... 

 General Biologs . . . 

 Botany (Part I.') . . . 



(Part II.) . . 



Zoology 



Human Anatomy . . 

 Physical Anthropology 

 Physiology (Part I.) . 

 (Part II.) . 

 Bacteriology .... 



The second and third Annual Issues are now in pro- 

 gress of publication. 



All scientific men will, we think, approve of the general 

 plan of the "International Catalogue of Scientific Lite- 

 rature," and be very grateful to the Royal Society for 

 the institution of a piece of work which cannot fail to be 

 of material assistance in scientific research. But we will 

 now proceed to consider shortly the way in which the 

 initial volumes of the new catalogue have been prepared, 

 and whether they contain the information required by 

 the students of the branches of science to which they 



respectively relate. To this inquiry, however, we fear 

 it is not possible to give a quite satisfactory reply. 

 While some of the volumes of the first Annual Issue, 

 to which we will confine our remarks, receive unstinted 

 praise, others, it is only right to say, have met with a 

 great deal of severe criticism. In the latter category we 

 may specially point out the volumes on Palasontology 

 and Zoology, both of which are generally considered not 

 to be "up to the mark," as the phrase is. It is, of 

 course, unreasonable to suppose that in commencing the 

 difficult task of inaugurating such a gigantic undertaking 

 as the present mistakes will not be made. We may also 

 be quite sure that Dr. J. Foster Morley, the director of 

 the whole undertaking, and his assistants in the prepara- 

 tion of the long series of volumes have done all in their 

 power to avoid errors. But in some cases they ha\e 

 certainly not altogether succeeded in doing this. It has 

 been shown on competent authority that the list of publi- 

 cations for the year 1901, which is, of course, the most 

 important part of every volume, is by no means com- 

 plete in the two volumes specified and in several others, 

 and that the subject-indexes are consequently also defec- 

 tive.- In the subject-indexes cases of misplaced titles are 

 also by no means rare. These points, we hope, will be 

 more carefully attended to in future volumes. But we 

 venture to recommend that the so- called " Referee " of 

 each volume should be given larger powers for additions 

 and alterations than, as we understand, have hitherto 

 been accorded to him. The Referee should be well paid 

 for his labour, and should be deemed to be absolutely re- 

 sponsible for the correctness of his volume. It is, of 

 course, absurd to suppose that the general editor of the 

 work could be perfectly acquainted with all the sciences 

 to which the seventeen volumes relate, and the respon- 

 sibility should be attributed to the so-called Referees. 



Having said thus much, we will add a few words 

 upon some of the general features of the International 

 Catalogue. In the first place, we object strongly to 

 the shabby paper-covers in which the volumes are 

 issued. They are quite useless for protection, and 

 necessitate the immediate binding of the volumes, in 

 boards at least. To deliver bulky volumes of this kind 

 in thin paper covers seems to us to be a very unbusiness- 

 like proceeding, and likely to hinder their sale. On 

 the other hand, the paper and print of the volumes 

 are decidedly good, though the margin left on each side 

 is, in our opinion, decidedly insufficient. As regards the 

 prices at which the volumes are sold, they are in many 

 cases decidedly exorbitant. Scientific men, we are sorry 

 to say, are seldom possessed of large means. To charge 

 an unfortunate zoologist thirty-seven shillings and sixpence 

 as the cost of his volume is, in fact, a prohibition to 

 buying it, and will seriously interfere with the sale of the 

 work. A third point to which we must call attention is 

 the great delay that has taken place in the publication of 

 the volumes. Those relating to 1901 should certainly 

 have all been issued before the close of 1902. Scientific 

 men, like other persons in these days, are always 

 expected to be well " up to date," and cannot be required 

 to wait three or four years for the information they 

 require. Here, again, it may be answered thatanewand 

 gigantic undertaking like the present must be allowed a 

 little time to acquire its full organization, and that we 

 should not be too hard on the delay. To this we reply 

 that delay is dangerous in this sort of work. It is often 

 very difficult, if not impossible, to make up arrears, and 

 unless strong means are taken at once to bring the "In- 

 ternational Catalogue of Scientific Literature" com- 

 pletely up to date, it will lose, we fear, a great part of its 

 undoubted value to workers in science. 



