24 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



Finally, a great undertaking of quite a different character— 

 the International Catalogue of Scientific Literature — must be 

 classed in the same category. This catalogue has arisen out of a 

 desire to classify the scientific literature of the world, so as to 

 enable anyone who desires to study a certain subject, to find out 

 quickly all previous researches relating to it. Practically all 

 nations in which scientific work is carried out have united, each 

 collecting its own data and forwarding it to the central bureau 

 in London. 



I can not pass away from this type of international co-opera- 

 tion without expressing regret that a proposal which was made 

 by the late Professor Simon Newcomb has not been adopted 

 hitherto. When the first program of the Carnegie Institution 

 of Washington was being discussed, he proposed that there 

 should be some central computing bureau established at one 

 place where accumulated data of observation, which required 

 scientific treatment, could be discussed and treated in that way. 

 The number of instances which have come to my own notice 

 within the last few years, in which the existence of such a bureau 

 would have been of the greatest assistance to the progress of 

 science is considerable; and I feel very little doubt that others 

 have also felt the want. 



The problems which fall into the third category are mainly 

 those belonging to the important and much neglected subject of 

 geophysics. The time is passed when we could separate the 

 physics of the laboratory from that of the earth, and that again 

 from the physics of the universe. The experimenter who now 

 studies the structure of the atom must keep an eye on the sun and 

 stars in order to detect whether celestial observations destroy his 

 theories or give them strength. 



Atmospheric electricity and terrestrial magnetism, treated too 

 long as isolated phenomena may give us hints on hitherto un- 

 known properties of matter. A meteorologist, finding out at last 

 that space has three dimensions, and that the motion of air is 

 governed by the laws of mechanics, has converted what hitherto 

 has been a sport into a science. 



