142 
mittee states that even under the most fa- 
vorable circumstances 130 subscribers would 
be needed. The Concilium has seven sub- 
scribers to its authors’ catalogue. Can it be 
that the Royal Society will be nearly twenty 
times as successful? For the ‘complete 
catalogue’ the Royal Society must find 286 
subscribers. The Concilium has 18; but 
the price of its complete set is only about 
one-third that proposed by the Royal 
Society for the corresponding cards, and 
the bulk corresponding less. How many 
institutions will care to receive 90 or more 
eards a day, knowing that the entire ex- 
pense will not fall far short of $500 a year? 
To summarize, then, the project of the 
Royal Society can be shown to be utterly 
impractical, whether viewed from the tech- 
nical side or from that of its finances. It 
has been elaborated by distinguished scien- 
tists, who have made the primordial error 
of supposing that experience was superflu- 
ous in dealing with such problems. It isa 
natural error to have made. Itis one which 
I once also made without having the excuse 
of scientific eminence. I can frankly con- 
fess that 5 years ago my ideas on this sub- 
ject were utterly immature and that it was 
my inexperience that made the first years of 
our work so unsuccessful. The Royal So- 
ciety schedules might, of course, be applied 
to a book bibliography. Most of the objec- 
tions which I have made would not exist, 
but for the special needs of a card bibliography 
the zoological part is a complete failwre and 
many other parts inspire grave objections. 
The most serious aspect of the case re- 
mains yet’ to be considered. The new en- 
terprise is being organized without any con- 
sideration being taken of existing work. To 
succeed, the Royal Society must destroy all 
that exists, and it asks fora guarantee fund 
of $200,000, in addition to an annual ex- 
penditure in individual countries, which has 
been estimated at $20,000 as a minimum. 
The Committee, however, states that the 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Von. X. No. 240. 
work is to be regarded as an experiment and 
should be abandoned unless it should prove 
self-supporting. It will be evident to any 
one who has read attentively this note that 
the work can not be self-supporting if con- 
ducted as contemplated, and if given up 
nothing but devastation will have resulted 
from the action of the Royal Society. It 
was this perspective that caused Professor 
Carus to express the fervent wish that 
science might be spared this calamity. 
Under such circumstances one may well 
ask one’s self what should be the attitude of 
the Concilium Bibliographicum, which has 
been built up through thoroughgoing self- 
sacrifice. It was after the preparations for 
its foundation had been largely completed 
that the intentions of the Royal Society were 
first made known. Concerned lest the task 
that I had undertaken might be robbed of 
its utility by this greater enterprise, I ap- 
plied for further information. No definite 
answer could be given, save the assurance 
that it was intended ‘‘to make use of all 
fitting existing institutions, certainly not to 
rival them.’’ This answer was, however, 
regarded as sufficient by myself and my ad- 
visors, and it was decided to continue the 
work. Later a subsidy was granted to us 
with the distinct understanding that our 
mission was to be that of solving the tech- 
nical difficulties involved in a great scien- 
tific card bibliography, and of forming a 
nucleus for the larger organization. It was 
‘thus that in our prospectus we freely pledged 
allegiance to the Royal Society’s proj- 
ect, and our course has been uniformly 
directed to this end. To-day the conditions 
are strangely changed. The promoters of 
the new bibliography did not subscribe to 
the cards, nor has the slightest attempt been 
made to profit by our experience. The 
Concilium Bibliographicum has not been 
consulted regarding a single decision that 
has been taken. Indeed, the existence of 
an organization publishing one-third the 
