November 6, 1902] 



NA TURE 



9 



shocks were felt throughout the day, and shocks are reported on 

 every day up to August 30. At 10 p.m. on September 2, a very 

 sharp and severe shock was felt. It is said, though this has 

 probably no direct connection with the earthquake, that the 

 disturbance was followed by extreme heat, which lasted, at any 

 rate, to the end of the month. 



At Kashgar a good number of walls, made of sun-dried 

 bricks, were knocked down, but masonry buildings do not seem 

 to have suffered ; sixteen deaths are said to have occurred 

 through falling of houses. In the Artush district, to the north of 

 Kashgar, the damage was much greater ; nearly all the houses — 

 presumably built of sun-dried brick — are said to have collapsed, 

 and 667 deaths are known, besides more than 1000 persons 

 severely injured. In Russian territory north of the Tian Shan 

 range the shock appears to have been less violent, and it is re- 

 ported that the damage done at Narin and Atbasht was not great. 

 In the opposite direction the shock was felt at Yarkand, whence 

 three shocks are reported to have been felt between 9 and 10 

 a.m. Some damage was done to the city wall and some private 

 buildings ; two children were killed by walls falling on them. 



These particulars are sufficient to show that the earthquake 

 was one of the first order of magnitude. Yarkand and Narin, at 

 both of which it was destructive, are about 240 miles apart in 

 a straight line, but are not sufficient to determine with certainty 

 the position of the epicentre. This was evidently either to the 

 east-north-east of Kashgar or more probably to the west-north- 

 west among the mountains of the Alai Tian Shan range. It 

 may consequently be taken that this earthquake, which will 

 probably never be the subject of a detailed study, originated in 

 about Iat. 40° N. , long. 74 E. of Greenwich. 



Calcutta. R. D. Oldham. 



Lectures on Anthropology and Ethnology. 



The letter of " Anthropotamist " in your issue of October 30 

 ought to meet with general approval. 



In mentioning the educational institutions at which anthro- 

 pology and ethnology are taught, your correspondent has 

 entirely omitted London. 



May I point out that courses of lectures in these subjects have 

 been established at this college for the past two years, and have 

 been attended by upwards of thirty students ? Of these, two 

 have previously contributed papers to the Philosophical Trans- 

 actions and Biometrika dealing with questions of physical 

 anthropology, while a third is the author of a volume treating 

 of one phase of ethnology. It may be fairly claimed that to 

 this college belongs the credit of being a pioneer in the 

 systematic teaching of this subject in London. 



H. W. Marett Tims. 



Bedford College for Women (University of London), 

 November 2. 



THE ROYAL SOCIETY'S CATALOGUE OF 

 SCIENTIFIC PAPERS. 

 'THE following memorandum has been issued by the 

 *■ treasurer of the Royal Society : — 



The Royal Society has been engaged continuously 

 during the past forty years in cataloguing the various 

 scientific papers which have been issued in all parts of 

 the world since the beginning of the last century. The 

 original scheme of the Catalogue of Scientific Papers 

 provided that the papers should be catalogued only under 

 the names of their respective authors arranged alpha- 

 betically. This " Authors' Catalogue " has now been 

 carried down to the end of 18S3, and comprises twelve 

 quarto volumes. 



More recently it has been decided to prepare also a sub- 

 ject index of the same papers, that is to say, a catalogue in 

 which the papers are indexed according to the subject- 

 matter of which they treat. Considerable progress has 

 been made with this subject index, though nothing has as 

 yet been published. 



The expense of this work has been very large ; since, 

 although a great amount of gratuitous labour has been 

 readily given by Fellows of the Society, it has been 

 necessary to employ a considerable permanent salaried 



NO. I/23, VOL. 67] 



staff upon the preparation of the copy for the press. At 

 first the printing and publication were undertaken by 

 H.M. Stationery Office, the Treasury having determined 

 that the Catalogue should be printed at the public ex- 

 pense. In coming to this conclusion, the Lords of the 

 Treasury stated that they had regard " to the importance 

 of the work with reference to the promotion of scientific 

 knowledge generally, to the high authority of the source 

 from whence it came, and to the labour gratuitously 

 given by members of the Royal Society for its produc- 

 tion.'' This arrangement, however, came to an end after 

 the publication of the first eight volumes. The Treasury, 

 in 1889, informed the Society that the Catalogue could 

 no longer be printed and published by the Stationery 

 Office. The unsold volumes were, however, handed over 

 to the Society, and Parliament voted a sum of 1000A to 

 assist the Society in continuing the printing and pub- 

 lication. The four subsequent volumes have been printed 

 and published by the Cambridge University Press, which 

 has received subsidies from the Society for this purpose 

 and receives the sums arising from sales. 



The total sum expended by the Society upon the 

 Catalogue down to the end of June last has been 

 14,790/. 5.?. $d. Towards this expenditure a donation of 

 2000/. was made by Dr. Ludwig Mond in 1S92. Sums 

 amounting to 524/. 1 is. gd. have been received as the 

 proceeds of sales of the volumes handed over to the 

 Royal Society by the Stationery Office, and, as already 

 stated, 1000/. has been received from the Treasury. The 

 Council has also hitherto devoted the income of the 

 Handley fund (which they have power to apply as they 

 may deem best for the advancement of science) towards 

 defraying the cost of producing the Catalogue. The total 

 sum received from this source has been 2394/. 1 is. lod. 

 A sum of 341/. 1 is., arising from money invested until 

 actually required, has also been available for the same 

 purpose. These pecuniary aids amount in all to 

 6260/. 14s. id. As will be seen, they have not been nearly 

 sufficient to meet the whole cost, and the Society has 

 been compelled to make up the balance of 8529/. \os. lod. 

 out of its general income. 



As it became obvious that to continue permanently to 

 prepare and publish catalogues of the ever-increasing 

 stream of scientific literature was wholly beyond the 

 means of the Society, the Council took steps to obtain 

 international cooperation in this great work. Such co- 

 operation has happily been secured, and the cataloguing 

 of the scientific literature of the present century is now 

 in the hands of an international council. The Royal 

 Society has, however, incurred large special responsi- 

 bilities in connection with the matter, having undertaken, 

 inter alia, to act as the publishers of the Catalogue, and 

 also to advance the capital required to start the enter- 

 prise. 



The International Catalogue is concerned only with 

 the scientific literature appearing after the commence- 

 ment of the present century. The Royal Society's 

 Catalogue, as already stated, is at present carried down 

 to the end of the year 1883 only, and the subject index 

 for that period is but partially dealt with. The foreign 

 delegates, assembled to consider the establishment of the 

 international council, expressed their sense of the great 

 importance of the Royal Society's Catalogue and of the 

 obligations which men of science in all countries were 

 under to the Society for having undertaken it. They 

 also expressed the hope that the Society would complete 

 the Catalogue up to the close of the last century, so as 

 to bring it into line with the International Catalogue. 



In order to complete the Catalogue, it will be neces- 

 sary to prepare and publish a catalogue of authors for 

 the seventeen years 1883- 1900, and to complete and 

 publish the subject index for the whole of the past cen- 

 tury. The Council of the Royal Society are satisfied 

 that this work must be done, and have not felt justified 



