September 30, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



295 



abstract would be less than five per cent of 

 tbe article on the average, and if the sum- 

 mary usually placed at the end were omitted, 

 as could well be done because its function 

 would be served by the abstract, the increase 

 in length of the article would be little or noth- 

 ing. But, on the other hand, the addition of 

 abstracts would undoubtedly considerably in- 

 crease the burdens of the already overburdened 

 editors, and one would shrink from suggesting 

 that they add to their labors the drudgery as- 

 sociated with securing and editing the ab- 

 stracts if it were not clear that the gain to the 

 many investigators would be many times the 

 cost to the few. 



At present, in addition to the Astrophysical 

 Journal, Physical Review, and Journal of the 

 American Ceramic Society, which require ana- 

 lytic abstracts, the following fourteen scien- 

 tific and engineering journals give preliminary 

 abstracts: The group of biological journals 

 published by the Wistar Institute of Anatomy 

 and Biology — American Journal of Anatomy, 

 American Anatomical Memoirs, Anatomical 

 Record, Journal of Comparative Neurology, 

 Journal of Experimental Zoology, and Journal 

 of Morphology; Physiological Researches; 

 Proc. of London Physical Society, Trans, of 

 American Electrochemical Society, Trans, of 

 American Institute of Electrical Engineers, 

 Trans, of American Society of Civil Engineers, 

 Trans, of American, Society of Mechanical En- 

 gineers, Trans, of Society of Automotive Engi- 

 neers, and Trans, of American Poundrymen's 

 Association. The abstracts now being provided 

 by these journals are prepared as a rule by the 

 authors and vary greatly in quality. It would 

 be relatively easy for those journals whose ab- 

 stracts are not as useful as is desirable to 

 change their rules so as to require abstracts of 

 the quality of analytic abstracts. 



The directions and rules which have been 

 formulated for the guidance of authors in the 

 preparation of analytic abstracts may be found 

 in current numbers of the Astrophysical Jour- 

 nal and also, somewhat abbreviated, in those 

 of the Physical Review and of the Journal of 

 the American Ceramic Society. With slight 

 modification they would serve for any science. 



But while some authors will take the trouble 

 to master the technique and prepare satisfac- 

 tory abstracts, a uniformly high standard can 

 not be maintained unless all the abstracts for 

 each journal are checked and revised by a 

 competent abstractor. Therefore, after decid- 

 ing to require analytic abstracts, the first 

 step taken by a journal should be the selec- 

 tion of a suitable man as abstract editor. If 

 the man appointed should care to get in touch 

 with me, I should be glad to give any assis- 

 tance I can in getting the new policy started. 



In conclusion, attention should be directed 

 to the fact that those journals which provide 

 analytic abstracts may easily combine an in- 

 dex of the subtitles in the abstracts with the 

 usual index of author's titles, and thus greatly 

 increase the completeness and precision of 

 their subject indexes and hence the value of 

 the journal for reference purposes. 



It may not seem of much importance whe- 

 ther any particular journal provides efficient 

 abstracts or not. Yet it is clearly the duty of 

 each to do so. For when all have adopted this 

 policy and the abstract journals promptly 

 reprint all the abstracts and completely index 

 them, we shall have gone far toward making 

 our scientific information service really effi- 

 cient. And because of the cooperation in- 

 volved, it will require less effort to maintain 

 than our present much less efficient service. 



Gordon S. Fulchee 

 Corning Glass Works 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE ON MATHEMATI- 

 CAL REQUIREMENTS 



The National Committee on Mathematical 

 Requirements on September 5 held its last 

 meeting under its present form of organiza- 

 tion. The manuscript of a summary of the 

 final report of the Committee has been sent 

 to the U. S. Bureau of Education for publica- 

 tion. This summary, which will constitute a 

 bulletin of some eighty pages, virtually pre- 

 sents the first part of the complete report. 

 It contains the following chapters: 



I. A Brief Survey of the Eeport. 



