April 14, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



389 



be to have them filed alphabetically bj" authoi's. 



In some essentials this procedure is already 

 followed hy the Archives de zoologie experi- 

 mental et general, by the Royal Society ia its 

 Transactions, by the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology, and lay the University of California 

 Publications. My suggestion, however, in- 

 volves an important additional element. So- 

 cietv^ subscriptions continuing as at present, 

 it would be a simple matter to have each mem- 

 ber receive a certain number of published pa- 

 pers, more or less equivalent in total bulk 

 to the journals now obtained. But it would be 

 possible for the subscriber to select, through 

 the Advance Abstract Bibliographic Cards, 

 those papers specifically desired. Additional 

 ])apei's, not regularly obtained in this way or 

 from the authors, could then be purchased at 

 small extra outlay. The American Anatomical 

 ]\Iemoirs and the few special reprints issued 

 by the Wistar Institute have made a begin- 

 ning in this direction. 



The actual working of this plan would per- 

 haps require that at, say quarterly, intervals 

 there be issued Bibliographic Cards carrying 

 the serial numbers assigned to the individual 

 papers about to be printed. An accompany- 

 ing order blank, by which articles desired could 

 be requested by number, would give a simple, 

 quick method of indicating one's needs. It 

 would at the same time serve to show the 

 printer the size of the issue to be prepared, 

 after allowance had been made for reserve 

 stock and for blanket suljscriptions. The three- 

 months' period mentioned is sufficiently long. 

 The experience of the Journal of General 

 Physiology shows that with efficient manage- 

 ment it is possible to print accepted articles 

 within less than that time, even under present 

 conditions. 



Authors should by this scheme be in some 

 degree relieved from the expense of purchas- 

 ing separata for extensive private distribution. 

 One's library shelves, moreover, would no long- 

 er be encumbered with joui'nal numbers which 

 must be bound at ruinous expense or else re- 

 main unsightly. 



Any working plan of this type must be con- 

 ceived as applying chiefly to contributions of 



the character and average length now appear- 

 ing in the journals. Incidentally, this scheme 

 may show the way out of the difficulties some- 

 times made in connection with the rather ar- 

 Ijitrary rule now enforced by the journaJs as 

 to the maximal length of acceptable contribu- 

 tions. Although sometimes abrogated for 

 reasons obscure, it has tended to be avoided by 

 authors splitting the material of an essentially 

 unitary piece of work into a number of ar-- 

 ticles. While the length rule has perhaps act- 

 ed to restrain some wordiness, it is hardly a 

 rational rule; one could wish it supplanted by 

 editorial persuasion ! 



It may be suspected, as a conceivable resiilt 

 of the plan outlined, that the quality of the 

 papers might be automatically improved. A 

 paper which from the first is to "stand alone," 

 rather than be supported fore and aft by com- 

 fortable neighbors, is likely to be more care- 

 fully written, peiliaps even more carefully 

 thought out. 



There will remain, however, distinct and ob- 

 vious need for the continuance of the journal 

 form for the publication of short notes; per- 

 haps also for periodicals in which the general 

 results of investigation may be summarized 

 and discussed; and certainly for at least one 

 periodical such as the Proceedings of the Na^ 

 tional Academy of Sciences. It is my belief 

 that under the operation of the plan I have 

 suggested such journals would have a distinct- 

 ly higher value than at present. 



W. J. Crozier 

 Zoological Laboratory, 

 Rutgers College 



CHARLES W. WAIDNER 



Dr. Charles W. Waidner, chief physicist 

 and head of the Division of Heat and Thermo- 

 metry of the Bureau of Standards, who died 

 on March 10, 1922, is the fourth leader this 

 bureau has lost by death since last May. The 

 others are E. B. Rosa, chief of the Electrical 

 Division; L. A. Fischer, chief of Division of 

 Weights and Pleasures, and S. S. Voorhees, 

 engineer-chemist. Waidner, Rosa and Fischer 

 were of the original group gathered together 

 in 1901 at the time the Bureau of Standards 



