Toe cI LERNATIONAL CATALOGUE OF .SCIENTIFIC 
LITERATURE* 
By CYRUS ADLER 
Since presenting an account of the work of the International Cat- 
alogue of Scientific Literature at the first general meeting of the 
American Philosophical Society thirty-nine volumes have been pub- 
lished and distributed to the subscribers in the United States; that 
is to say all of the First Annual Issue for 1901, all of the Second 
Annual Issue, excepting the volumes of zoology, and four volumes 
of the Third Annual Issue, these constituting a classified index to 
all original contributions made in all parts of the world to prac- 
tically all of the pure sciences. Now that the work is well under 
way a critical examination is possible to determine whether the 
methods used are calculated to answer the demands of scientific 
investigators in whose interest the catalogue was primarily under- 
taken. As is natural in any new enterprise and especially in one 
having to do with so many and diverse interests, criticism has been 
-aroused; however on the whole the work has been well received 
and seems to bid fair to completely fill the expectations of its 
sponsors. 
Sins of omissions are the principal ones charged, but as the organ- 
ization is yet comparatively new this fault is expected to be only a 
temporary one and capable of being remedied, since the omissions 
-in one volume can be made good in the next on the same subject. 
It should be understood that these annual issues are not year books, 
although after the volumes dealing with the literature of the present 
year (1905) it is expected that the work will be so well in hand and 
up to date that each subsequent yearly issue will practically index 
the literature of the previous year. 
Leaving aside this question of promptness of treatment, which is 
only one of available funds and business organization, I come to 
that of the system of classification. 
I believe that, upon reflection, it will be generally admitted that 
any system to be of permanent value must be elastic not only as 
regards its details but also in its main heads, which are of course 
based on the accepted theories of science for the time being. 
*Read at the general meeting of the American Philosophical Society, Phila- 
delphia, April 12, 1905. 
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