50 
fined attention to the titles; but they would 
not disappear, as the examples show, while 
the value of the catalogue would be greatly 
reduced. Of course, the difficulties are 
due largely to the unorganized condition of 
the science; yet it does seem practically 
certain that any single anthropologist, well 
abreast of the science and working con- 
structively, might have evolved a homo- 
geneous and consistent scheme, by which 
anthropologic cataloguing would be facili- 
tated rather than burdened. 
Inspection of the scheme raises the ques- 
tion whether it is designed primarily for the 
use of librarians, or for the convenience of sci- 
entific workers; and the arbitrary features 
at once suggest that the users contemplated 
cannot be investigators, of whom the great 
majority are accustomed to methods of gain- 
ing and maintaining acquaintance with 
scientific literature quite unlike those em- 
bodied in thescheme. These usage-honored 
methods are epitomized in the systematic 
lists of contents and (more especially) the 
indexes with which respectable scientific 
books are provided. Now the character of 
current indexes of anthropologie books 
(particularly those prepared by authors 
themselves) indicates that the ideas of in- 
vestigators are crystallized about certain 
nuclei, which are essentially denotive— 
names of men, names of books, names of 
races or nations or tribes, names of places, 
ete.; there is relatively slight attempt, so 
far as the indexes show, to crystallize ideas 
about necessarily vague connotive nuclei. 
It is true that the typical list of contents is 
much more largely connotive than the 
typical index; but even here there is a 
strong tendency toward arrangement in 
terms of trenchant concepts, 7. e., in deno- 
tive terms. What is true of anthropologic 
literature is measurably true of the litera- 
ture of other branches of science, though 
most or all of the other branches are so well 
organized as to yield larger series of specific 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Von. X. No. 237. 
terms habitually used in denotive sense. 
The scientific makers and users of indexes 
are concerned with the essentials of scien- 
tific literature, rather than with the mere 
externals which appeal to the librarian per 
se; and the weakness of the scheme herein 
noted would seem to lie in the fact that it 
gives no promise of guiding or aiding the 
investigator in any useful way, howsoever 
convenient it may be as a guide to book- 
handlers concerned only with the external 
aspects of anthropologic publications. 
The final test of the value of any cata- 
logue is found in the practical operation of 
the law of supply and demand, with respect 
to both raw material and finished product. 
As bearing on this test, it may be observed 
that no working anthropologist in the 
Bureau of American Ethnology would 
seriously undertake the cataloguing of an- 
thropologic literature, or any branch thereof, 
in accordance with the extravagantly com- 
plex scheme of the Royal Society Com- 
mittee, and that the library of the Bureau 
could not be arranged under it; also that, 
while the office would probably subscribe 
for author cards and the lustral book-cata- 
logue, the subscription for the latter would 
be made much more freely if it were a 
simple author list. And the arbitrary sym- 
bols on cards and pages would be regarded 
merely as trivial blemishes, unsightly but 
not necessarily mischievous. 
W J McGee. 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA. 
THE eighteenth annual meeting of the 
Royal Society of Canada was held at Ot- 
tawa from May 22d to 26th. Fellows from 
the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Bruns- 
wick, Quebec, Ontario and British Colum- 
bia were present. The Council met in the 
office of Sir John Bourinot, House of Com- 
mons on Monday, and Tuesday morning the 
regular work of the Sections began. The 
readers of ScreNcE will recall to mind that 
