SEfTK.MIiER 2 7, 1 894] 



NA TURE 



19 



THE INDEXIXG OF CHEMICAL LITER A TURE 

 \ T the recent meeting of the American Association for the 

 ■^^ Advancement of Science the Committee on Indexing 

 Chemical Literature presented to the Chemical Section its 

 twelfth annual report. The followinj; is a reprint of an 

 ."dvancc copy of the report. During the current year the 

 following bibliographies have been printed in the channels | 

 indicated : — 1 



(1) Index to the Literature of Didymium, 1S42-1893. By ! 

 A. C. Langmuir. School of Mine's Quarterly (Columbia 

 College, New York). Vol. xv. pp. 33-47. November 1893. 

 In this index the author follows the plan originally proposed ', 

 by H. C. Bolton in 1870. 



(2) The Tannin?, a mono!;raph on the history, preparation, 

 properlie=, methods of estimation and uses of the vegetable 

 astringents. With an index to the literature of the subject. 

 Vol. ii., the Tannins of oak-hark, mangrove, canaigre, 

 chestnut. By Henry Trimble. Philadelphia, 1894. Pp. 172. 

 I2Tno. 111. I 



This forms the second volume of the work previously noted 1 

 in our report:. The carefully compiled bibliography contains \ 

 about 325 titles. 



Reports of progress have been received from several 

 chemists. Prof. Arthur M. Comey announces that the first 

 volume of his Dictionary of Chemical Solubilities, devoted 

 to inorganic compounds, has gone to press, an.', will be 

 published before the doe of the year. The second volume is 

 also in active preparation. 



Dr. Alfred Tuckerman reports thatthe United States Section 

 of his B.blingraphy of Mineral Waters \vill be ready for the 

 printer in a few month?. 



Prof. Clement W. Andrews states that he had done much work 

 on a Bibliography of the Polariscopic Determination of Sugar ; 

 but, learning that Prof. H. W. Wiley, chief chemist of the U. S. 

 Department yA .-Vgriculture, was engaged in a similar under- 

 taking, generoasly haniied over to him all the material he had 

 accumulated. The combined manuscripts have recently been 

 returned to Prof. .Andrews, who will continue the work. 



Prof. H. W. Wiley reports great activity on the part of the 

 Division of Chemistry of the U. S. Depanment o( Agriculture, 

 in the preparation of bibliographies and special indexes, but he 

 is obliged to admit difficulties in securing the printing of the 

 manuscripts. We quote the following paragraphs from his 

 letter, dated June 29, 1S94, addressed 10 the chairman of the 

 committee: — "The elegant bihiiographv of heavy metals 

 occurring in canned goods, by Mrs. K. P. McElroy, has not yet 

 found an avenue for publication." ..." We also have a very 

 complete bibliography of carbohydrates from the point at which 

 they were left by Tollens in his Handbuch, in 18S8, up to the 

 close of 1892. This work was partly done by myself, but 

 chiefly by Mr. II. E. L. Ilorltm, and we were assisted greatly 

 by receiving many hundred titles from Prof. C. W. Andrews, of 

 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. But what we can 

 do with such a bibliography, compri.sine as it does three or four 

 thousand titles, I do not know. The Department of Agricul- 

 ture will not publish it, it is loo large for the journal of the 

 American Chemical Society, and so it lies idle. '. . . " A very 

 complete bibliography of agricultural chcmislrv for the year 

 ending 1S93 has also been completed by the committee 

 appointed by the .\ssociition of the Oflicial Agricultur.al 

 Chemists, of which Dr. William Erear is chairman. This 

 bibliography I submitted to the Assistant Secretary of 

 Agriculture with the request that it he published as a part of the 

 Proceedings of the Association, but this request was not 

 complied with. The same committee has in preparation a 

 complete bibliography of agricultural chemistry for the year 

 ending June 30, 1S94, and this report will be presented to the 

 meeting of llic .-Kssociation of Oflicial .Xgricullural Chemists in 

 August at Washington. We shall then have unpublished a 

 complete bibliography of all agricultural chemical topics for the 

 two years ending June 30, 1894." 



Mr. P. II. Seymour's •' Bibliography of .Aceto-.^celic Ester " is 

 in ihe printer's hands, and wdl be published by the Smithsonian 

 Institution during the summer. 



Prof. F. W. Clarke reports that he is engiged on a new 

 edition of his •' Recalculation of Atomic Weights." 



Prof. II. C. Bolton has begun a " Supplement to his Biblio- 

 graphy of Chemistry,." and last winter visited the chief libraries 

 of Italy in search of material. 



Dr. H. P. Talbot, of the Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology, with the co-operation of Dr. H. C. Bolton, has 

 begun a >econd edition of the "Index to the Literature of 

 Manganese," published by the latter in 1875, with the intention 

 of bringing it down to date. 



Prof. Jauies Lewis Howe, of Louisville, Ky., reports progress 

 on a Bibliography of the Platinum Metals. 



Dr. W. II. Magee, of Cornell University, has completed 

 Indexes to the Literature of Ceriuin and of Lanthanum, and 

 iheMSS. have been apprwed by your committee, and, together 

 with Mr. Langmuir's Index to the Literature of Didymium, 

 have Ijcen recommended 10 the Smithsonian Institution for 

 publication. The three Indexes have been accepted by the 

 Smithsonian, and will appear in the Miscellaneous Collections. 

 Prof. Charles E. Munroe reports that part ii. of his " Index to 

 the Literature of Explosives " does not complete his work, as 

 stated in the Eleventh Annual Report ; he is engaged on a 

 continuation. 



Dr. Claude Augustus Oscar Rosell's thesis, presented to the 

 Columbian University, Washington, D. C, in June, entitled 

 " Investigation of the Properties of Ferric Acid," contains an 

 exhaustive bibliography of the Ferrates and Ferric Acid ; the 

 channel of publication is not yet determined. 



Prof. J. Christian Bay reports progress on a bibliography of 

 alcoholic fermentation, and has commenced a bibliography of 

 glycogen. 



The annual reports of this committee are properly confined 

 to the productions of Americans ; but the chairman begs leave 

 to direct attention to indications <jf a growing appreciation of 

 the value of special bibliographies on the part of European 

 chemists, confirming by tlieir recent and propo5ed activities the 

 work begun in America, at the chairn-an's suggestion, now 

 more than twelve years ago. Several European countries have 

 long published periodical bulletins of all books issued m their 

 own lands, but they are, as a rule, loo comprehensive in scope 

 for the convenience of the specialist in science. Since the 

 " Biblioteca Mistorico Naturalis," published at Guttingen, 

 dropped chemistry from its pages (in :SS7) the most useful 

 bibliography of current scientific works has been the well- 

 known "Naturae Novitates " (Fricdlaender, Berlin), now in its 

 sixteenth year ; however, this trade serial is stronger in Ger- 

 man than in other languages, and falls short of the completeness 

 desirable. 



In technology and technical chemistry the admirable " Reper- 

 toiium der techni-chen Lileratur" (Leipzig), in its continuation, 

 affords invaluable assistance to the ind.is rial c'lemist. Recently, 

 too, the following periodical has been established : " Biblioteca 

 polytechnica ; Internationale Bibliographie der gesamniten 

 neuen technischen Literatur, herausgegeben von Fritz von 

 Szczepanski." (St. Petersburg and Leijjzig, 1S93.) ^''°- '- 

 numbers per annum. This includes chemi-try pure and 

 applied. 

 I The need of an exhaustive authoritative bibliography of 

 1 current chemical books of the world is still felt. 

 j In a private letter to the chairman of your committee. Dr. 

 I Bechhold, of F'rankforton-Maine, announces his intenti in o: 

 I publishing a full and complete Index to Current Chemical Liter- 

 ature in all languages, on a most comprehensive plan : the first 

 number of this serial will be awaited by chemists with great 

 interest. 



Heinrich Wien (Vienna) and F. A. Brockhaus (L'ipzi^K 

 1 announce the publication of a " Universal I idex to the World's 

 ; Technical and Scientific Literature. ' This ambitious undertak- 

 ing is inleftded to embrace both bjoks and periodicals, and to 

 represent all the known literature that has appeared in every 

 part of the world ; five parts are projected, viz. chemistry, 

 medicine, mining, photography, electricity. 



As most of the members of the Chemical Section are aware, 

 a call has been issued for an International Congress of Applied 

 Chemistry, to be held, under the patronage of the Belgian Gov- 

 ernment, at Brussels in August 1894. At that meeting it is 

 proposed to found a Review of Reviews of Applied Biological 

 Chemistry in several languages, to contain a ?ft««i of chemical 

 work in that branch from all parts of the world. The Secretary 

 General of the Congress is M. Sachs, |68 Rue d'Allema^ne, 

 Brussels. 



At the Congress of Chemists held in Chicago, in August 

 1893, your chairman had the honour to read an address on an 

 "International Index to Chemicil Literature" ( /. Ant. C/ieni. 

 Siv., XV. Oct. 1S93}, in which be proposed a simple scheme 



NO. T.3OO, VOL. 50] 



