458 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 300. 



more than 45 complete sets (or tlie equiv- 

 alent) had been already subscribed. The 

 Catalogue, therefore, will be begun at once. 

 Considering that the appeal of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution was made under most 

 unfavorable conditions, namely in the mid- 

 dle of the vacation, I cannot but regard the 

 result as a most encouraging proof that 

 America is determined to give its character- 

 istic support to what I think I may venture 

 to call a most important international 

 scientific undertaking. And I can myself 

 all the more fully appreciate the value of 

 this support because I am well aware that 

 several features of the scheme for the con- 

 duct of the Catalogue have been severely 

 criticised in this country, in which above 

 all other countries much thought and labor 

 has been spent on the problems of index- 

 ing. 



May I take the opportunity of expressing 

 on the part of the Royal Society of London 

 a grateful recognition of that support, and 

 at the same time of making, on my own 

 responsibility, a few remarks on the whole 

 subject. 



1. Two different plans of indexing scien- 

 tific literature by international cooperation 

 present themselves. One is that this or that 

 country should undertake the indexing of 

 this or that branch of science, taking in 

 hand the whole literature of that branch, 

 the several countries agreeing among them- 

 selves to cover in this way the whole field 

 of science. Another plan is for each 

 country to collect the data of its own liter- 

 ature in all branches of science and for the 

 final collation and editing of all the litera- 

 ture to be conducted in some international 

 central ofBce. Each plan has its advan- 

 tages and disadvantages. The Interna- 

 tional Conference adopted the second plan ; 

 but this has necessarily had the drawback 

 that it could not provide at once and di- 

 rectly for attaching to its organization un- 

 dertakings already existing upon the other 



plan. An alliance of such organizations 

 with its own could only be brought about, 

 if at all, by prolonged and difficult negotia- 

 tions, however desirable such an alliance 

 might seem. 



2. The Catalogue is intended for two 

 classes : for the scientific investigator and 

 for libraries. So far perhaps the chief at- 

 tention has been directed to the needs of 

 the scientific investigator, as was natural 

 seeing that the most active workers in the 

 undertaking have been men of science en- 

 gaged in investigation. But I think I am 

 justified in saying that the men of science 

 in question are fully aware of the great im- 

 portance of making the Catalogue of value 

 to libraries as well as to individual workers 

 in science, and trust that in time it may be 

 made equally useful to both. 



3. At the first Conference it was decided 

 that the Catalogue should be in a ' card ' 

 form as well as in a book form ; but it was 

 subsequently decided to give up the ' card ' 

 form for the present. This decision was based 

 simply on the complexity of organization 

 and expense which the card issue would in- 

 volve. It was thought wiser to begin at 

 least with the simpler book issue alone ; 

 but it is hoped by some that should the 

 simpler enterprise prove successful, and the 

 machinery be found to be manageable, the 

 issue of cards may at some future day be 

 undertaken. 



4. No part of the scheme has met with 

 more severe criticism than the schedules of 

 classifications. With regard to these I ven- 

 ture to say that few persons, save those be- 

 hind the scenes, can know the amount of 

 labor which has been spent upon them. In 

 the course of my life I have met with vari- 

 ous things fertile in disagreements ; but for 

 a real apple of discord, nothing that I know 

 of comes near to a schedule of classifica- 

 tion ; and it is, I imagine, unnecessary to 

 say that the schedules as adopted represent 

 the results of compromises, compromises in 



