THE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SPECTROSCOPY. 263 



The Bibliography of Spedroscopij. — Report of the Committee, consistimj 

 of Professor H. McLeod, Professor W. 0. Roberts Austen, Mr. 

 H. G. Madan, cmd Mr. D. H. Nagel. 



Progress has been made with the catalogue of spectroscopic literature, 

 which has now been brought nearly up to date ; but, in view of the diffi- 

 culty of obtaining assistance from any one who is within reach of the 

 great scientitic libraries, the Committee do not see their way to its further 

 continuance. 



They therefore propose to bring the catalogue to a conclusion at the 

 end of the present ;year, so as to form a twenty -five-years' record of spec- 

 troscopic literature. 



Four instalments of the list of papers have been already issued, and 

 will be found in the reports of the Association for 1881, 1884, 1889, and 

 1894. The inconvenience of having to refer to four distinct volumes in 

 order to obtain a complete list of papers on any particular subject is 

 obvious, and the Committee strongly lecommend that all the separate 

 instalments should be collected, rearranged, and issued as one continuous 

 catalogue. Mr. Madan is quite willing to undertake gratuitously all the 

 labour of doing this, the only question is that of expense of printing. 



In an estimate obtained last year, Messrs. Spottiswoode & Co. stated 

 that the cost of printing 500 copies of the first three instalments (1881, 

 1884, and 1889) would be about 95^. The cost, therefore, of printing the 

 whole catalogue would be about 130^. 



If the above recommendation is approved by the Association, the Com- 

 mittee would suggest that the Association might undertake the responsi- 

 bility of the cost of printing, and be recouped (in part at least) by the 

 charge of 2s. 6(7. per copy (which would produce 62^. 10s.). Or a higher 

 charge might be made. 



It appears, moreover, not unlikely that other scientific societies — the 

 Royal Society, the Chemical Society, and the Physical Society — might be 

 induced to make grants, if, as is hoped, the catalogue would be of value 

 to those who are engaged in physical research. 



The Committee desire to present the above subject for discussion, and 

 ask to be reappointed for one more year in order to finish their work. 



The Action of Light upon Dyed Colours. — Report of the Committee, 

 consisting of Dr. T. E. Thorpe {Chairman), Professor J. J. 

 Hummel (Secretary), Dr. W. H. Perkin, Professor W. J. Eussell, 

 Captain W. de W. Abney, Professor W. Stroud, and Professor 

 R. Meldola. (Brawn up Jiy the Secretary.) 



During the past year (1894-95) the work of this Committee has been 

 continued, and a large number of wool and silk patterns, dyed with vari- 

 ous natural and artificial refZ, orange, and yellow colouring matters, have 

 been examined with respect to their power of resisting the fading action 

 of light. 



Similar patterns were exposed to light in the years 1892-93 and 

 1893-94, and have already been repoi-ted upon, but for want of sufficient 



