A Weekly Journal devoted to the Advancement 

 of Science, publishing the official notices and 

 proceedings of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, edited by J. McKeen 

 Cattell and published every Friday by 



THE SCIENCE PRESS 



I I Liberty St., Utica, N. Y. Garrison, N. Y. 



New York City: Grand Central Terminal 



Annual Subscription, $6.00 Single Copies, 15 Cts. 



Entered as second-class matter January 21, 1922, at the 



Post Office at Utica, N. Y., Under the Act of March 3, 1S79. 



Vol. LVI NOVEMBER 3, 1922 No. 1453 



CONTENTS 

 The Abstracting and Indexing of Biological 

 Literaure: Dr. J. E. Schramm 495 



Does Nitrification occur in Sea Water: Pro- 

 fessor ChAS. B. IiIPMAN 501 



A Recent Scientific Expedition to the Islands 

 off the West Coast of Lower California: 

 Dr. G. Dallas Hanna 503 



Aid to Russian Scientists: Dr. Vernon Kel- 

 logg 504 



Scientific Events: 



The Ilecovery of Helium; The Use of Oxy- 

 gen in Metallurgical Operations ; Acoustical 

 Research; The American Society of Zoolo- 

 gists 505 



Scientific Notes and News 507 



University and Educational Notes 511 



Discussion and Correspondence: 



The Dissociation of Carbon in the Intensive 

 Arc: Dr. Louis Bell and P. R. Bassett. 

 The Determination of Fat in Cream: Pro- 

 TESSORS E. 6. Mahin and R. H. Carr. 

 Note on a Daylight Meteorite: Dr. Nor- 

 man MacL. Harris. Soivard on Chemical 

 Spelling: Dr. H. W. Wiley 512 



Quotations : 

 'Bayer HOC 514 



Scientific BooTcs: 



Parker on Smell, Taste and Allied Senses 

 in the Vertebrates: Professor C. Judson 

 Hekricic 515 



Special Articles: 

 Ferigenesis: Harold C. Sands 517 



The American Chemical Society: Dr. Charles 

 L. Parsons , olS 



THE ABSTRACTING AND INDEXING 

 OF BIOLOGICAL LITERATUREi 



When Dr. Lillie asked me to discuss some 

 phase of the general ahstracts-indexes-bibliog- 

 raphies problem in one of these evenings I hesi- 

 tated considerably before accepting because it 

 appeared to me such a discussion would be 

 rather foreign to the general character of these 

 evenings, occupied, as they are, primarily with 

 the results of biological or related research. 

 However, it was rather because of this differ- 

 ence that I ventured to accept. I found a cer- 

 tain justification on the ground that if in the 

 main these evenings are given over to the re- 

 porting of advances in knowledge, one evening 

 might conceivably be profitably devoted to a 

 consideration of whether we are preserving 

 these advances in such a way that the greatest 

 use may be made of fthem with a minimum ex- 

 penditure of time, energy, and funds. We ex- 

 pend considerable funds and enormous amounts 

 of energy and time in ascertaining new facts 

 and publishing them in extenso. I believe it 

 is pertinent to inquire whether we have estab- 

 lished adequate means for so recording these 

 facts that the greatest and most economical 

 use is made of them and progress made as 

 largely cumulative as possible. 



No doubt some of you are wondering what 

 special license I have to discuss this problem. 

 I can answer only that I have none. My con- 

 tact with the subject has been a brief one. I 

 happen to be one of a number who for the past 

 four years . have been carrying some of the 

 responsibility in connection with Botanical Ab- 

 stracts, and as such have been impressed with 

 the magnitude of -the problem of properly re- 

 cording our information and have become con- 

 vinced that in a large measure we have not in 



1 An invitation paper given at the Marine Bio- 

 logical Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 

 August 4, 1922. 



