( 



6iS 



NA TURE 



[OCTOHER 29, 1896 



and consequently offer papers which are ill-arranged and 

 intolerably diffuse, being full of unnecessary detail. 1 

 would have all such returned to their authors, although 

 I well know, from sad experience, that nothing gives 

 greater offence. But what a reformation of our scientific 

 literature will follow from the adoption of such a course ! 

 We shall then be able to read what is written. Carefully 

 composed and provided with well-chosen titles, our papers 

 will be easy to index ; and when memoirs are kept 

 within reasonable compass, library shelves will not be 

 so grievously overburdened with w-aste-paper as they are 

 under the present want of system. 



" The writing out of scientific investigations is usually 

 a troublesome affair ; at any rate, it has been so to me. 

 Many parts of my memoirs I have re-written five or six 

 times, and have changed the order about until I was 

 fairly satisfied. But the author has a great advantage 

 in such a careful wording of his work. It compels him 

 to make the severest criticism of each sentence and each 

 conclusion. ... I have never considered an investigation 

 finished until it was formulated in writing, completely 

 and without any logical deficiencies. Those among my 

 friends who were most conversant with the matter re- 

 presented to my mind my conscience, as it were. I 

 asked myself whether they would approve of it. They 

 hovered before me as the embodiment of the scientific 

 spirit of an ideal humanity, and furnished me with a 

 standard" (H. v. Helmholtz, Jubilee Address). 



May we not say — " Scientific societies, please copy '' ? 

 Mo one could take offence if such a quotation were printed 

 at the head of the circular letter requesting an author 

 to revise his manuscript. 



To reproduce almost verbally the voluminous notes 

 of a piece of work made from day to day in the labora- 

 tory book serves the purpose neither of the writer 

 nor of science, as the results become obscured in a mass 

 of unnecessary detail. And we rarely need to know the 

 process of self-education through which the worker 

 passes. In this matter also we may therefore, as a 

 rule, safely take Helmholtz as our guide, and follow the 

 advice he gives by implication when he says : " In my 

 memoirs I have, of course, not given the reader an account 

 of my wanderings, but I have described the beaten path 

 on which he can now reach the summit without trouble." 



Mr. Campbell has much to say on the value of the 

 section in the arrangement of a work which may be 

 •commended to scientific writers. All must agree with 

 him that the future of literary study is greatly dependent 

 on special libraries or sections of libraries in which all 

 the works on particular subject-groups are to be found ; 

 and that, instead of following the principle of first making 

 a muddle and then indexing it, scholars of particular 

 subjects will demand that their material shall be kept 

 separate from other literature. The argument applies 

 equally to individual papers, if these are to be properly 

 indexed in the future ; and in principle it is the argument 

 which leads us to insist that carefully classified subject- 

 indexes must be regularly supplied for the use of workers 

 in science. 



" One thing is very certain, that people 7L'ill have 

 special bibliographies, whatever we may say, because 

 they supply a legitimate want. We may, therefore, just 

 as well seriously take the matter in hand and see that it is 

 done properly once and for ever, instead of allowing it to 

 be done badly. And on this head be it remembered that 

 the curse of bad work does not always end with itself, 



NO. 1409, VOL. 54] 



but often not only delays but actually prohibits the work 

 from e\er being properly carried out." 



.Sounder advice could not possibly be given, and it is 

 refreshing to find the opinion expressed by Mr. Campbell 

 that it is a fallacy to suppose that bibliographers can 

 never agree together on any one system of classification ; 

 one of the most deadly arguments brought against the 

 idea of special bibliographies, it is one, he says, which he 

 trusts we shall soon trample under foot. And it is 

 important to note that he is not considering books alone : 

 any article on a subject is defined by him as a work to be 

 catalogued and indexed. 



.Mr. Campbell regards State aid as essential in the 

 preparation of national bibliographies, and his proposals 

 on this head are worthy of the most serious attention ; it 

 is more than probable, now that the work of organisation 

 is being put in hand, that effective steps may soon be 

 taken to secure the registration of State publications for 

 which he pleads. One of the most important resolutions 

 adopted at the International Conference had reference to 

 the organisation of national offices in connection with ih.e 

 international central office. 



Once set rolling, the ball cannot possibly be brought to 

 rest. The appearance of so many distinguished and 

 representative delegates at the meeting at the Royal 

 Society's rooms — and the complete unanimity which pre- 

 vailed on all essential .questions — was evidence of the 

 general willingness to recognise the importance of the 

 scheme ; the vote taken at the outset was a formal 

 ratification of its purpose, and will serve to pledge the 

 various Governments concerned to do their utmost to 

 facilitate the execution of the enterprise. There can be 

 little doubt that scientific bodies generally must now re- 

 gard it as their duty to promote such a work : those who 

 do not will be guilty of shameful desertion in the face of 

 the enemy, for never was such an opportunity given 

 before. 



But the Conference clearly recognised that the indi- 

 vidual worker must also take an important share in the 

 work, as in preparing the subject-matter index regard is 

 to be had not only to the title of a paper or book, but also 

 to the nature of the contents. It will be necessary tlicre- 

 fore, in the future, that all publishing bodies insist that 

 authors supply subject-inde.xes with their papers, as the 

 work of reading papers with this object in view cannot 

 possibly be carried out at any central office. The pre- 

 paration of such subject-indexes will, however, need the 

 greatest care, in order that whilst all points are indicated 

 to which the attention of workers should be drawn, at the 

 same time the entries are, as far as possible, limited in 

 number. 



It is to be hoped that serious attention will now be 

 given to the question of indexing, and that the require- 

 ments to be met will be fully realised. As Mr. Campbell 

 very properly insists, a large amount of theoretical and 

 practical investigation of the subject is necessary before 

 we can possibly be in a position to commence operations 

 aright and develop a scientific bibliography of the 

 literature of science. How to classify the subject-matter 

 in the various main and sub-branches of science is the 

 great question before us, which needs an immediate 

 answer, and to which we must therefore most earnestly 

 devote our attention. Henrv E. Armstkoni;. 



