512 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVII. No. 953 



JOHN SHAW BILLINGS 

 The New York Library Club has adopted 

 the following resolution: 



Resolved, That on the death of John Shaw Bil- 

 lings, The New York Library Club desires to 

 record its grateful recognition of the great part 

 which he played in the development of the library 

 service of New York City and of the United 

 States. 



While Dr. Billings gained distinction in the 

 profession of his first choice in medical service 

 during the Civil War, in the organization of the 

 U. S. Marine Hospital Service and of the Johns 

 Hopkins Hospital, as director of the University 

 of Pennsylvania Hospital and professor of hygiene 

 in that institution, as expert in charge of the 

 division of vital statistics of the tenth and eleventh 

 censuses, and as a writer upon medical subjects, it 

 is as one of the most eminent members of our own 

 profession that we honor his memory. 



Called in 1895 to be director of the newly 

 established New York Public Library, he gave an 

 impetus to the growth of its collections almost 

 without parallel in the history of libraries and 

 ensured their permanent value by making the 

 collections of government publications and period- 

 icals his first object. He was instrumental in the 

 establishment of a remarkable system of branch 

 libraries and planned the unique library building 

 which contains the library's reference collections 

 and is the center of its circulation department. 

 As members of this club we will honor Dr. Billings 

 as the most distinguished of all those who have 

 served the library interests of this community. 



As librarians, however, we will remember also 

 his remarkable achievements as librarian of the 

 Surgeon General's Office, in the development of 

 the largest medical library in the world, in the 

 publication of the most important of medical 

 bibliographies, the ' ' Index Catalogue, ' ' as well as 

 the most useful, the "Index medicus, " and in the 

 inauguration of a national library service. 



And as bibliographers we will remember also 

 his services as delegate of the United States to 

 the congress held in London in 1896 which estab- 

 lished the International Catalogue of Scientific 

 Literature. 



He was a member of this club and its president 

 in the year 1900, a member of the American 

 Library Association and its president in the year 

 1902, a member of many learned societies, honored 

 by learned institutions and societies, both at home 

 and in foreign lands. 



He gave to his profession the service of a scien- 

 tist interested in the most common problems, the 

 labors of a specialist with the broadest sympathies. 



THE CARNEGIE FOUNDATION FOB THE 

 ADVANCEMENT OF TEACHING^ 

 The seventh annual report of the president 

 and treasurer of the Carnegie Foundation, 

 which has just appeared, covers the year ended 

 September 30, 1912. 



The endowment in the hands of the trustees 

 at that time amounted to approximately $14,- 

 000,000, and the income for the year amounted 

 to $676,486, of which $634,497 was expended. 

 From its first pension payment in June, 1906, 

 to the end of the fiscal year September 30, 

 1912, the foundation has distributed $2,077,- 

 814 in retiring allowances to professors and 

 $238,590 in widows' pensions — a total of $2,- 

 316,404. In all 429 retiring allowances and 

 90 widows' pensions have been granted, of 

 which 98 have terminated through death and 

 23 at the expiration of temporary grants, 

 leaving 315 retiring allowances and 83 wid- 

 ows' pensions in force at the end of the year. 

 The report of the president, like the former 

 reports, is divided into two parts — the first 

 referring to the current business of the year 

 and dealing with questions more directly per- 

 taining to the administration of the founda- 

 tion ; the second part being devoted to current 

 educational problems of a larger and more 

 general nature. 



The first part of the report includes a care- 

 ful statement of the whole question of pen- 

 sions for teachers, for government employees 

 and for industrial employees. This statement 

 contains the results of the examination of 

 practically all of the pension systems now in 

 operation anywhere, and -leads finally to a 

 discussion of a feasible pension system for 

 the public school teachers of a state. This 

 discussion is particularly needful at this time, 

 since the question of teachers' pensions is a 

 matter under consideration by a number of 

 state legislatures. As the report points out, 

 the bills which have been introduced in the 

 various legislatures almost without exception 

 ^ Official summary sent by the foundation. 



