June 2, 1899.] 



SCIENCE. 



765 



being satisfied that it could follow the mat- 

 ter from the vei'batim reports issued. The 

 German government, ou October 4th, re- 

 quested a postponement owing to the difiB- 

 culty of appointing delegates, but it was 

 not possible to arrange for this. Professor 

 Klein, of Gottingen, representing Germany, 

 arrived the second day of the Conference. 



The time of meeting was then arranged 

 and a resolution agreed to ' That each dele- 

 gate shall have a vote in deciding all ques- 

 tions brought before the Conference,' it 

 being understood that the decisions of the 

 Conference did not bind the respective gov- 

 ernments. It was further agreed that Eng- 

 lish, German and French be the official 

 languages of the Conference, but that any 

 delegate might employ any other language, 

 provided he supply a written ti-anslation 

 into one of the official languages. 



Professor Foster then formally laid before 

 the Conference, on behalf of the Roj'al So- 

 ciety, the report summarized above, and 

 Professor Riicker, in explaining the report, 

 gave it as his opinion that the secondary 

 cards entailed too great an expenditure and 

 should be given up. Dr. Deniker (France) 

 thought the question to be discussed was 

 whether it was better to publish the Cata- 

 logue in the form of volumes or cards. 



Professor Darboux was opposed to giving 

 up cards which rendered great service to 

 scholars. He thought it best to discuss the 

 scientific questions first and leave this mat- 

 ter to the body which would be charged 

 with the actual workings of the Catalogue. 



M. Otlet (Belgium) considered that the 

 order of subjects was threefold : (1) scien- 

 tific, (2) technical — relative to the method 

 of employing the cards, and (3) financial. 



Dr. Graf (Switzerland) dissented, holding 

 that the matter should be taken up in the 

 order indicated by the Eoyal Society, inas- 

 much as the financial questions depended 

 upon whether the Catalogue should be is- 

 sued in both book and card form. He added 



that his government had given him in- 

 structions to advocate the double form. 



Dr. Heller (Hungary) also expressed 

 himself in favor of the double form. Dr. 

 Brunchorst (Norway) agreed in principle, 

 but thought at the beginning the Catalogue 

 could only be issued in book form. Profes- 

 sor Boltzmann (Austria) thought that for 

 the present only the book form and primary 

 slips were feasible. 



Professor Darboux pointed out that it 

 was at least necessary for the various Bu- 

 reaus to prepare the Catalogue in slip form 

 and send it to London. The financial 

 question was : Could this Card Catalogue be 

 published ? If it could it would be done ; if 

 not it could be consulted in London. 



Dr. Adler pointed out that if the com- 

 plete Card Catalogue were published the 

 subscription fee would by no means cover 

 the entire cost to a library ; an additional 

 sum for furniture to provide for it, as well 

 as for the arrangement and care would 

 have to be taken into account, as well as 

 the space required, making the total cost of 

 the whole Catalogue and its maintenance to 

 each institution subscribing about £200 per 

 annum. 



Dr. Deniker thought the statement as to 

 the space, cost, etc., exaggerated, and for- 

 mulated the proposition : " The Conference 

 decides in principle for the publication of 

 the Catalogue in the double form of vol- 

 umes and cards ; " after further discussion 

 this resolution was agreed to. 



The report of the Committee of the Eoyal 

 Society was then taken up seriatim and it 

 was agreed after a brief discussion as to the 

 form ' That schedules of classification shall 

 be authorized for the several branches of 

 science which it is decided to include in the 

 Catalogue.' 



Professor Foster then moved that " Each 

 of the sciences for which a separate schedule 

 of classification is provided be indicated 

 by a Eoman capital letter (hereafter called 



