486 
and lay them before the International Coun- 
cil at its first meeting. 
If this would allow the first issue to take 
place early in 1901, the desired object will 
be gained, but no greater speed will be at- 
tained by entrusting more responsibility to 
the Royal Society as it could not make defi- 
nite contracts till after the next Conference. 
It was agreed that the resolution preced- 
ing this statement shall be interpreted in 
accordance therewith. 
The English members of the Committee 
undertook to bring the resolution under 
the notice of the Royal Society, and the 
other members to call the attention of their 
governments thereto. 
After full consideration, the following 
statement as to the financial position was 
adopted : 
The finances of the Catalogue will be 
controlled by the International Council, 
which, in accordance with regulations 
adopted by the International Conference of 
1898 (Report 27, p. 11), will be bound to 
“make a report of its doings, and submit a 
balance sheet, copies of which shall be 
distributed to the several Regional Bu- 
reaux, etc.” 
The plan which seems the most generally 
favored is that the contributions of the Re- 
gional Bureaux shall take the form of un- 
dertakings to purchase a certain number of 
copies of the Catalogue annually. Various 
estimates point to the fact that the average 
contribution thus made by Regional Bu- 
reaux of the first rank (which may be called 
a whole share) will be equivalent to between 
one-eighth and one-tenth of the whole cost 
of producing the Book Catalogue. 
For the purposes of this report, sales to 
private persons are not considered, or are 
supposed to be included in the sum guaran- 
teed by each constituent country. Insome 
cases the Regional Bureau will probably sell 
to individuals, either directly or through a 
publisher, those volumes which it does not 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Vou. X. No. 249. 
dispose of to institutions, and will thus take 
the risk of the private sales. Whether this 
plan be adopted elsewhere or not, it is es- 
sential that the number of copies which 
constituent countries undertake to purchase 
shall together cover the cost of the produc- 
tion of the Catalogue. 
Taking the original estimate formed by 
the Royal Society, the cost of the Book Cat- 
alogue would be £5,600 annually, so that 
a whole share would be between £700 and 
£560 per annum. If the lowest remuner- 
ative number of sales is equivalent to 350 
complete subscriptions at £16 each, this 
would mean that a whole share entailed the 
purchase of between 44 and 35 complete sets 
or an equivalent. 
These figures are, however, based upon 
assumptions which will require revision. 
The Card Catalogue will, no doubt, be 
abandoned, and itis proposed that it should 
be replaced by bi-monthly or quarterly is- 
sues. This, therefore, is an expense which 
has not been allowed for. The number of 
volumes has been increased from 16 to 17. 
There is also a general opinion that the es- 
timates of the number of papers to be dealt 
with on which the original financial esti- 
mates were based were too small. Until 
all these matters have been fully considered 
and fresh estimates prepared, it appears to 
be impossible to say more than that it is 
hoped that the cost of a whole share will 
not be very much greater than the original 
estimates. 
Estimates on the new conditions will be 
prepared and circulated during the autumn. 
There are, however, three other points to 
consider : 
‘ It will be necessary to establish the Cen- 
tral Bureau and to appoint the officials 
some months before the first issue of the 
Catalogue begins. Funds for this purpose, 
which may be estimated at £2,500, are not 
included in the annual balance sheet which 
alone has been prepared. 
