The Publication of Scientific Papers 4 1 1 



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 

 Cambridge, and of course it is all the more applicable to 

 societies of less importance. But even the Royal Society 

 itself is open to exception 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 corre- 

 sponding publications of the Edinburgh Society, and the 

 majority of foreign students never see anything but ab- 

 stracts 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 development of society publication. The former 

 is probably an advantage, the latter is certainly a disad- 

 vantage. The publication 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 publishing 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 tech- 

 nical 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 



