412 The Publication of Scientific Papers 



might be issued weekly or fortnightly, devoted to printing a 

 minute of the proceedings and papers read at the meetings 

 of the various societies throughout the country, to be furnished 

 by their secretaries. 



The effect of the realisation of some such plan as this 

 would be the immediate setting free of the large sum of 

 money annually spent by the societies in printing, and the 

 collection of all that is published in one organ, which would 

 be an enormous assistance to the student. 



Each series would have to be intelligently and liberally 

 indexed, and a separate volume of the indices of all the 

 series published each year. It would then be sufficient for 

 the worker to take in the series devoted to his own branch 

 of science and the yearly index volume, which would pre- 

 vent his overlooking papers of importance appearing in other 

 series. 



This scheme of central publication has occupied my 

 thoughts for some years, and I have from time to time dis- 

 cussed it with my friends, and it has even been brought 

 before one publisher, but without any practical effect. 



It is therefore with very great pleasure that I find Prof. 

 Lodge advocating a similar scheme, and I hope that it may 

 be the means of fixing public attention on the present unsatis- 

 factory state of things and of forcing a remedy 1 . 



1 See Contents, p. xxxi. 



