OCTOBEE 25, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



553 



publishers. It is tlie basis of the cooperation 

 that we aslt. . 



Dr. Goode's letter reads almost like an intro- 

 duction to our prospectus. I shall take up his 

 numbered paragraphs successively and note the 

 differences, where there are any. (1) The cata- 

 logue to be international, bearing the imprint 

 of no society or organization ; the same lan- 

 guage to be used in the notes added as in the 

 original, no restriction to English and French ; 

 Slavonic, Scandinavian and Oriental titles to be 

 translated into French, German or English. 

 The only way in which this would differ from 

 our decision relates to the Scandinavian lan- 

 guages, these being kept in the original just as 

 Italian or Spanish. (2) I fear that Dr. Goode 

 would set a higher standard of comprehensive- 

 ness than we have done. (3) Dr. Goode chooses 

 in favor of an annual form of publication, while 

 our Bulletin will be fortnightly. The morpho- 

 logical titles will, however, be reprinted in the 

 ' Jahresbericht, ' so that this requirement can in 

 part be met. It is possible that provision may 

 ultimately be made for similarly bringing to- 

 gether the systematic part. (4) The annual 

 lists would be indexed alphabetically under au- 

 thors' names, as suggested ; and, for cross refer- 

 ence, the year, the author's name and the run- 

 ning number will be used. A ' pasting ' edition 

 is also called for in the adopted regulations. In 

 regard to the suggestion that the Mahrenthaler 

 typesetter be used for this work, it may be of 

 interest to note that this has proved impossible; 

 the comi^any does not recommend its machine 

 for broken work in which several faces of type 

 are necessary. The remaining sections of the 

 letter relate principally to the comprehensive 

 scheme of a complete catalogue of science. They 

 can, in my opinion, best be attained by the 

 creation of federated bureaus for the branches. 

 In this way it is possible to adapt the system to 

 the special needs of each science, and yet to 

 have the entire field adequately covered, as de- 

 sired by the Eoyal Society. The criticism 

 which Dr. Goode makes of the card system 

 seems to be fully justified. It is a bulky 

 contrivance, and, while it is doubtless indis- 

 pensable to the worker and to libraries, yet it 

 cannot wholly supplant other forms of publica- 

 tion. The New Bureau will combine both 



methods, using the same type to print the sev- 

 eral editions. 



Mr. Weeks has also very fairly indicated the 

 limitations of the card catalogue, and makes 

 many of the same suggestions as Dr. Goode. I 

 fancy that our Bureau would meet the needs 

 set forth by Mr. Eamsay, each person being able 

 to arrange his cards as he might see fit. 



Finally, I find the methods of the Bureau in 

 substantial agreement with the methods of Dr. 

 Josephson, except that his ' Bureau for Natural 

 and Physical Science ' seems too little special- 

 ized. 



In conclusion, let me refer to certain modifi- 

 cations of the system, which have been pro- 

 posed in articles in other periodicals, or in per- 

 sonal letters to me or to one of the National 

 Committees. In an interesting Russian note 

 advocating the new Bureau, Prof. Mitrophanov 

 suggests that a larger part of the work be left 

 to National Bureaus. This step has not seemed 

 wise for the reason that the work could not be 

 uniformly done unless centralized. 



Prof. Nachtrieb, who has been kind enough 

 to abandon a similar enterprise in order not to 

 conflict with our own, urges the adoption of 

 descriptive words in place of the symbols which 

 it is proposed to use ; and a similar suggestion 

 is made in an Italian article which I have 

 received from Prof. Camerano. I think that 

 these critics do not realize the fact that these 

 symbols will often be very numerous, and that 

 they are to be used in classifying the card when 

 received rather than in consulting the catalogue. 

 It is undoubtedly easier to run through a pack- 

 age of cards in search of the number 7 than to 

 read each word in search of a long polysyllable ; 

 but when the cards are once classed, there is no 

 need of even doing this ; the guide cards would 

 then be used. It must be remembered that it 

 is not necessary to use these symbols save when 

 they are needed, i. e. , in ha^dng the cards put in 

 place by a person unfamiliar with the science. 

 In fact this has been a feature which has been 

 especially recommended by a number of per- 

 sons. Mr. Dewey and Mr. Peckman Mann have 

 gone still further in this direction and have 

 urged the adoption of the 'Dewey System.' 

 It remains to be seen whether this system would 

 not become too complicated when applied to the 



