June 16, 1899.] 



SCIENCE. 



833 



needs a convenient survey of the literature 

 in question, as well as to the peculiarities 

 of libraries, whether large or small, public 

 or private. There is no doubt that, sooner 

 or later, some sj'stem like Dewey's must be 

 adopted ; in the interest of unity it is to 

 be desired and hoped that it will be Dewey's 

 system itself. That the Committee of the 

 Eoyal Society has come to an analogous 

 system is significant. What was said 

 against Dewey's system by some persons at 

 the London Conference in July, 1896, can 

 only be regarded as having resulted from 

 a misconception of it. It was said, e. g., 

 that it would be difi&cult with the decimal 

 system to introduce new discoveries in 

 Physics ; but I should like to ask with what 

 other system this would be easier without 

 alteration of the scheme itself? No part of 

 science is tied down by it, is rigidly 

 hemmed in, firmly restricted by it [certainly 

 not more firmly than by other sj'stems, in 

 which there is in certain sciences such an 

 unlimited extension of sub-divisions (com- 

 pare Eoman Law, Dogmatics, etc., of the 

 Halle Catalogue)]. On the contrary, the 

 decimal system is the most elastic and 

 adaptable that can be imagined, since it 

 everywhere presents the possibility of mak- 

 ing additions and extensions ; it even lends 

 itself, under certain conditions, to the in- 

 troduction of modifications to suit the needs 

 of the individual investigator or of special 

 libraries. The system of the Committee of 

 the Royal Society, on the contrary, is the 

 most rigid and inelastic of all. Let one at- 

 tempt to make an intercalation into Zoology, 

 for example ! Everything is, iadeed, tied 

 down, but not in the desirable sense that 

 the same thing always bears the same num- 

 ber. Further, it has been said, that it is a 

 very weak side of the decimal system that 

 numbers 1, 2, etc., have to serve at the 

 same time for a general system of science 

 and as the tokens of the separate books. 

 IBut this is not the case. Nowhere has 



this been said, either by Dewey himself or 

 by any of his followers. The separate 

 numbers can, and are intended to, give 

 nothing further than the rubrics into which 

 the separate writings are to be grouped, 

 exactly as do the combinations of letters 

 and figures in the Halle Catalogue. Hand- 

 books of Zoology are 590.2 according to 

 Dewey, Sc. II. 1, according to Hartwig ; 

 but the arrangement and designation of the 

 numerous works belonging in this category 

 must, of course, be carried out, according to 

 some other fixed method conformable to 

 the custom prevailing in each individual 

 library, just as in the case of monographs, 

 etc. , it is left to each library and to each 

 private person to arrange the writings bear- 

 ing the same indices according to pleasure. 

 For a general bibliography, in book form or 

 in cards (slips), this question does not arise 

 at all, since in these cases each user and 

 each library is at liberty to arrange the 

 cards according to preference. 



The procedure of the Committee of the 

 Eoyal Society as regards the introduction 

 of the system of classification and indexing 

 drawn up by them leaves a singular impres- 

 sion. After the question of classification 

 had been designated in the words used by 

 Professor Armstrong at the opening of the 

 Congress in July, 1896, as a burning one, 

 and after the agreement of the aims of the 

 Eoyal Society with those of the Congres 

 international de bibliographic in Brussels 

 (1895) had been mentioned, it would have 

 been of the greatest value to all who are in- 

 terested in the further development of this 

 international undertaking if the Committee 

 had stated, even in the briefest manner, 

 what position their undertaking (in imita- 

 tion of that of Brussels) was intended to 

 assume toward this model, which pursued 

 absolutely the same object and was already 

 in active operation. For, although the 

 Eoyal Society limits itself to the Natural 

 Sciences, the idea, the plan is identical in 



