June 23, 1899.] 



SCIENCE. 



867 



throughout the world as this, and it is 

 earnestly to be desired that enough countries 

 and enough universities and libraries will 

 subscribe to the enterprise to make it 

 possible lor the Central Committee to pub- 

 lish the book and the card catalogues. 



J. S. Ames. 

 Johns Hopkins University. 



chemistry. 



If the object of arranging titles of books 

 in a bibliography in certain groups or 

 classes is to enable readers and investi- 

 gators to find more readily an article on a 

 given subject, then the anonymous Commit- 

 tee that drew up the schedule of classifica- 

 tion for Chemistry in the Report of the 

 Royal Society's International Catalogue 

 Committee has made an almost total failure. 



Two methods were open to the Commit- 

 tee appointed to devise a classification 

 scheme for Chemistry, either to adopt an 

 arbitrary system, in which symbols uni- 

 formly indicate definite subjects, or to adopt 

 the dictionary plan, in which specific words 

 are arranged alphabetically. The latter 

 plan has, in our opinion, great and incon- 

 testable advantages over the former, but as 

 the Committee chose to adopt the first 

 named method the second cannot be here 

 considered. 



The provisional plan which was submit- 

 ted to the delegates at the Conference of 

 the International Catalogue Committee, 

 held in London, October, 1898, forms Sec- 

 tion F, of the general scheme printed in a 

 small volume, very difScult for others than 

 delegates to obtain. The grand divisions, 

 with their registration symbols, are as fol- 

 lows : 



(No number) Chemical Bibliography. 

 0100 Chemistry (Specific) of the Elements. 

 0900 Laboratory Procedure. 

 1000 Organic (Carbon) Chemistry (Specific). 

 1010 Hydrocarbons. 

 1100 Alcohols and Ethers. 

 1200 Acids. 

 1300 Aldehydes and Ketones. 



1100 Carbohydrates ; Glucosides ; Resins. 



1.500 Amino- and A zo-Com pounds. 



1600 Mixed Cycloids. 



IJOO Organo-Metallic and allied Compounds. 



1890 Alkaloids. 



1900 Proteids. 



20B0 Coloured Compounds. 



2500 Operations in Organic Chemistry. 



3000 Analytical Chemistry. 



3500 Theoretical and Physical Chemistry. 



4000 Physiological Chemistry. 



These grand divisions are sub-divided so 

 as to provide a class and a symbol for every 

 substance known to the chemist or awaiting 

 discovery ; at least such is the intention. 

 Chemical Bibliography is divided into six 

 groups, to wit : 

 0000 Philosophy. 

 0010 History. 

 0020 Biography. 

 0030 Dictionaries, collected works, monographs, and 



text-books. 

 0040 Pedagogy. 

 0050 Addresses, lectures, essays and theses. 



Curiously, no symbol is provided for bib- 

 liographies of chemistrj', a topic that must 

 have been prominent in the minds of the 

 persons on the Committee. 



The second grand division ' 0100 Chem- 

 istry of the Elements ' is intended to em- 

 brace " all specifically chemical subject- 

 matter, and such other entries as may be 

 desirable, relating to the elements generally, 

 excepting carbon." In this category the 

 elements are arranged alphabetically and 

 to each a symbol is given, thus : 



0110 (Al) Aluminium. 



0120 (Sb) Antimony. 



0130 (A) Argon. 



-i X- » * * 



0200 (Cd) Cadmium. 

 0210 (Cs) Caesium. 



***** 

 0250 (CI) Chlorine. 

 0260 (Cr) Chromium. 



* * * * * 

 0800 (Va) Vanadium. 

 0810 (Yt) Ytterbium. 

 0820 (Y) Yttrium. 

 0830 (Zn) Zinc. 

 0840 (Zr) Zirconium. 



