1024 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 417. 



subscriptions complete eacli other, so that 

 everything is present save the authors' 

 catalogue in anatomy and physiology. The 

 same may be said of Harvard University, 

 if we take the Cambridge and Boston 

 departments together. Disregarding the 

 authors' catalogue, a complete methodical 

 arrangement is to be found in Cornell 

 University, in Columbia University, in the 

 City Library in Springfield, i\Iass., in the 

 State Library in Albany and (excepting 

 physiology) in the John Crerar Library, 

 Chicago. Leaving out of accoimt anatomy 

 and physiologj', the complete methodical 

 set of cards is to be found, fiirthermore, 

 in the University of IMichigan, the Univer- 

 sity of Kansas, the Univei-sity of Xebraska, 

 the University of Wisconsin, Carleton Col- 

 lege and Princeton University. As the 

 above statement shows, there are great 

 scientific centers, including, for example, 

 all points west of Lincoln, Xebr., and south 

 of Princeton, X. J., whei'e oiir work is not 

 accessible in such form that we should be 

 willing for it to be taken as a test. This 

 point we desire to emphasize, for we have 

 reason to believe that, in every ease where 

 o\ir bibliography has proved ineflSeient, it 

 has been solely due to a complete miscon- 

 ception of the possibilities really oftVred. 

 Only such peirsons as have access to the 

 above-mentioned sets of cards will be able 

 to verify the following accoi;nt.* 



1. THE PKINTED CARD CATALOGli:. 



In reviewing the progress of the work 

 since 1S9S, the most salient feature is the 



* At present all the topical cards issued prior 

 to 1S9S are out of print. Two sets tolerably com- 

 plete from the middle of ISOS on are still on hand. 

 When these have been disposed of. nothing vrill 

 remain of the issues prior to 1S99, which itself 

 is nearinjr exhaustion. Finally, a single copy 

 of the anthoi-s' catalogue can still be had com- 

 plete from 1S96. Save for this one set, the au- 

 thors' catalogue is already entirely out of print 

 up to January. 1002. 



far greater completeness of the record. 

 Perfection has not of course j-et been at- 

 tained in this respect : but, since a com- 

 plete register is kept of every fascicule 

 excerpted, we know preeiselj' where every 

 gap oeeiirs and it will eventually be filled. 

 In any event, our bibliography for zoology 

 is probably to-day more complete than any 

 other in existence. The ntunber of entries 

 in the methodical set of cards already ex- 

 ceeds 92,690, and the individual cards pub- 

 lished 11,000,000. 



The arrangement of the complete 

 methodical set is such that there is 

 scarcely any limit to its possibilities in 

 matter supplying bibliographical informa- 

 tion. That one can at once ascertain the 

 works having as their object a given gemas, 

 or a given group of animals, is of course 

 evident. With equal facility, the bibliog- 

 raphy of such questions as viviparity, 

 regeneration, flight, spermatogenesis, gas- 

 tnilation, mechanics of development, struc- 

 ture of the vascular system, songs and 

 cries, hibernation, centrosome, recent and 

 fossil fauna of Kansas, studies on IMiocene 

 mammals, etc. 



Such groupings existed already in 1S9S ; 

 but since that time a change has taken 

 place in the entries, which constitutes a 

 veritable revolution in bibliographical 

 methods and atl'ords a precision which 

 even those intimately connected with the 

 work at first thought unattainable. 



Let us compare the procedure at present 

 followed in the Concilium with the ad- 

 mirable bibliography in the ZooJogischer 

 Aiizeigcr. which certainly represents the 

 greatest perfection heretofore attained. 



I have taken the pains to look up the 

 entries in the Auzeiger recorded under 

 fauna of Ehode Island from 1S96 to 1901, 

 and find a single reference to a paper by 

 Eaton on the 'Prehistoric Fatma of Block 

 Island": Hollick's 'Xotes on Block Island' 

 and G. W. Field's 'Plankton Studies' hav- 



