402 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL VI. No. 1191 



their behalf, and I, for my part, am much in 

 sympathy with most of what Mr. Josephson 

 says. 



Still, we must not forget that bibliography 

 is not an end, but simply a means, a method. 

 I am, of course, chiefly concerned, not with ex- 

 ternal bibliography such as is needed in li- 

 braries, but with internal, critical bibliography. 

 From this point of view, it is qioite clear that 

 the matter of essential importance is not the 

 mere bibliographical technique — however im- 

 portant it may be — ^but a deep knowledge of 

 the subject matter to be criticized. 



I am quite agreed with Mr. Josephson, that 

 many scientists show a deplorable lack of 

 bibliographical method. Yet, I do not think 

 it possible, as a rule, to train bibliographers 

 for very special critical work. Anyhow it 

 should be easier to teach bibliographical con- 

 sistency to the scientists, than to make the 

 bibliographers omniscient. 



I hope that Mr. Josephson will be pleased 

 with the following conclusion. There should 

 be on the stafE of the Institute at least one 

 highly trained bibliographer, whose duty it 

 would be to distribute the books and articles 

 among expert critics and to see to it that their 

 work, as far as externa^ bibliography is con- 

 cerned, be as accurate and uniform as possible. 

 His functions would chiefly be those of a 

 bibliographical editor. 



At the present time, excellent critical bibliog- 

 raphies are periodically published for almost 

 all the branches of science, but there is none 

 really satisfactory for their history, philosophy 

 or for the organization of the whole. I had 

 tried to organize such a bibliographical service 

 in Isis, but unfortunately this publication was 

 stopped by the war, just when I was beginning 

 to see my way to do it well. The publication 

 of such a bibliography would naturally be in- 

 cumbent on the institute; considerable pains 

 should be taken to make it as perfect as pos- 

 sible — but it would only be a means to a higher 

 end. 



George Sarton 



HAKVAKD TlNnrERSITT 



THE MEDICAL SCHOOL OF THE UNI- 

 VERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA AND 

 WAR SERVICE 1 



The same splendid equipment and patriot- 

 ism that enabled the graduates of Pennsyl- 

 vania's medical school to take a preeminent 

 position in the surgical and medical work of 

 the Civil War, both in the north and south, 

 promises to produce similar results in the 

 present great war. It is too early to compile 

 any trustworthy records of the great army 

 of physicans and surgeons who are now in 

 the service, but the lists grow longer every 

 day. 



Aside from what the medical alumni as a 

 class are doing, the medical school as a whole 

 is giving to the utmost of the skilled men on 

 its faculty. Already between sixty and 

 seventy members are in the government serv- 

 ice, many of them occupying positions of the 

 utmost importance. In fact, so many have 

 gone that the teaching staff is maintaining its 

 high standard only by the self-sacrificing effort 

 of those who have remained. 



Pennsylvania can take a pardonable pride 

 in the fact that five of the base hospital units 

 which have gone or are prepared to go from 

 this city are under the direction of Penn- 

 sylvania men, while graduates of the Uni- 

 versity comprise most of their staffs. The 

 University Base Hospital Unit ISTo. 20, which 

 has been ready to sail for several weeks, has 

 Dr. J. B. Carnett for its director. Episcopal 

 Base Hospital is under the direction of Dr. 

 A. P. C. Ashurst. Dr. John H. Jopson oc- 

 cupies a similar position with the Presby- 

 terian Base Hospital, while Dr. Eobert Le- 

 Conte, a member of the Board of Trustees, is 

 director of the ISTaval Base Hospital No. 5 

 from the Methodist Hospital. Dr. Richard H. 

 Harte is director of the Base Hospital !No. 10, 

 which the Pennsylvania Hospital sent to 

 France last June. 



In addition to the foregoing. Lieutenant 

 Colonel Henry Page, '94 M., is commander of 

 the Medical Training Camp at Fort Ogle- 

 thorpe, G-a. On this staff are such men of 

 national repute as Dean William Pepper, of 



1 From Old Penn. 



