August 23, 1895.] 



science: 



235 



The ' Membres Associes ' undertake to look 

 after this matter and see that every publi- 

 cation of their district is brought to the 

 knowledge of the Bureau. The ' Associes ' 

 are 21 in number, and have already prom- 

 ised to do all in their power to accomplish 

 their mission. 



In addition to the ' Associes,' there is a 

 body of ' Correspondants ' whose duty is to 

 record such publications as are inaccessible 

 in any Swiss or Leipzig library. The ' Cor- 

 respondants ' are/ew in number and are all 

 persons able to give considerable time to 

 the work. A number of competent persons 

 have kindly offered to do both classes of work 

 in this country, and we can at least assume 

 that the same generosity will be shown by 

 publishing societies and publishers. 



It must be remembered that it is not pro- 

 posed to depend wholly upon these agencies 

 for obtaining the material on which the 

 work of the Bureau will be based ; but 

 that this organization is to supplement the 

 more ordinary means of consulting the liter- 

 ature, i. e., use of large libraries. Not only 

 will the Bureau have access to works in the 

 Swiss and Leipzig libraries; it will also 

 have at its disposition the library of the Zo- 

 ological Station of Naples. This arrange- 

 ment is due to the generous cooperation of 

 Geheimrath Dohrn, who, in addition to 

 making an annual appropriation towards 

 the support of the Bui-eau, has offered to 

 have sent through the Bureau those works 

 of which we may stand in need. 



In order to treat adequately the Bohe- 

 mian, Hungarian, Polish and Eussian pub- 

 lications, special ' Sub-bureaux ' are being 

 organized. In Eussia this is being provided 

 by the Eussian National Committee and by 

 Professor Mitrophanow, who has shown re- 

 markable activity in this connection. In 

 Gallicia similar steps have been taken by 

 Professors Hoyer, Sr. and Jr., and a Sub- 

 bureau will be organized at Krakow. 



Turning now to the system of recording, 



let it be noted, at the outset, that the staff 

 of the Bureau will consist of zoologists 

 rather than of librarians. This fact per- 

 mits it to undertake a task of immense value 

 to the investigator, viz.: that of basing the 

 subject index upon the text of the memoirs, 

 instead of upon the mere title. I do not 

 need to dwell upon the value of this feature. 

 The insufficiency of the .title for such pur- 

 poses is familiar to every worker. In a 

 previous note, I have already given a case 

 from va.y own personal experience, in which 

 the titles were absolutely valueless to the 

 bibliographer of the question I then had in 

 hand. An idea of the defectiveness of our 

 existing bibliographical means can readily 

 be obtained by anj^one who will take the 

 pains to compare the bibliographies found 

 at the end of a number of special memoirs 

 with the lists given under the corresponding 

 headings of the best of our present cata- 

 logues. The classification given by the 

 Bureau will then be based upon the text and 

 will use the individual observations — the 

 paragraph — as a unit, and not the paper as 

 a whole. Furthermore any incidental ob- 

 servations, though wholly different from 

 anything in the title, would be brought out 

 by the Bureau. 



The publications of the Bureau will con- 

 sist in two principal editions: (1) a fort- 

 nightly bulletin and (2) a card catalogue. 

 The morphological titles will also be reprint- 

 ed annually by the ' Zoologischer Jahres- 

 bericht,' and indexed according to authors. 

 It would be desirable if some similar ar- 

 rangement could be made for systematic 

 zoology ; but this has not been provided for. 

 It was our hope that the ' Zoological Eecord ' 

 might be transformed, so as to form to- 

 gether with the ' Zoologischer Jahresbericht ' 

 a complete annual record for zoology, but it 

 seems unlikely that its directors could ac- 

 cept such an arrangement. It must not be 

 forgotten by those who have urged this 

 upon us, that the Zoological Eecord is pub- 



