1026 



SCIENCE. 



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



subsidiary symbols stating that only the 

 eyes, the heart and the kidney are treated, 

 that classed under Fauna of North America 

 will enumerate all the states concerned, 

 while finally the card intended for entry 

 under MoUusca will state that Lamelli- 

 branchs, Prosobranchs and Pulmonates are 

 included. 



Such a card would have the following 

 appearance : 

 Doe, John. 4 (7) 



1902. New Land and Fresh-water Mol- 

 luscs, with Notes on Anatomy. Proc. 

 Townville Nat. Hist. Soc, Vol. 4, p. 3-24, 

 3 figs. [6 nn. spp. in Roeina n. g. 2, 

 Helix 4] 

 4.1,.32,.38 (71.3, 74.1-.6, 78.9, 79.4) 



Such notices are given in terms of the 

 decimal classification. Thus the main card 

 would appear under 4 Mollusca, and at the 

 end of the text the sorters would find in 

 inconspicuous type the instructions 4.1 

 (Lamellibranchs), 4.32 (Prosobranchs) 

 and 4.38 (Pubnonates), or, as it is ab- 

 breviated, 4.1,.32,.38. These check num- 

 bers are of course useful to any subscriber 

 who has taken the pains to study our sys- 

 tem of classification, but the main pur- 

 pose is to guide the sorters in dividing up 

 the cards classified under general heading-s. 

 Each subscriber then to the fauna of 

 Rhode Island would receive notices of 

 papers treating Rhode Island quite inci- 

 dentally. 



Since 1899 record has been kept of every 

 new species, etc., even though thirty or 

 more lines of print may have been neces- 

 sary to give the citation. Repeatedly an 

 entire day has been devoted to excerpting 

 a single monograph. In regard to this, 

 however, we can be more explicit in the 

 second part of this communication. 



Before terminating this first article at- 

 tention should be frankly drawn to the 

 defective state of our anatomical and phys- 



iological bibliographies. Financial dif- 

 ficulties have here alone stood in the way; 

 each year we have hoped to be able to make 

 these two sections worthy of the underta- 

 king; but as often have we been obliged to 

 postpone such action. Practical reasons 

 make it wiser to apply the most approved 

 methods to the excerpting of the zoological 

 articles rather than to ever do this work 

 in a less perfect manner. Delay in pub- 

 lishing the anatomical and physiological 

 parts can eventually be made good. Hasty, 

 incomplete work in reading and classify- 

 ing a zoological memoir leaves no out- 

 wardly visible trace, but is a lasting 

 blemish. 



The Concilium has a right to expect 

 from America subsidies, similar to those 

 offered to it in Europe. It never can be 

 self-supporting without raising its prices, 

 so as to place it at the service of the 

 privileged few instead of being open to 

 all. Nevertheless, the present state of its 

 subscription list can only be explained by 

 an extraordinary ignorance of the facilities 

 offered. Is it possible that there is not a 

 person in Rhode Island, not a library, not 

 a laboratory, willing to purchase (for ten 

 cents) the bibliography of the fauna of 

 this state during seven years? I should 

 have supposed there would be fifty in 

 Providence alone. We have separate 

 special bibliographies for each state in the 

 Union. Not one of them has yet found 

 a subscriber! For completeness we must 

 continue them, no matter how great the 

 loss. And so it is with every other de- 

 partment. Personally I can scarcely con- 

 ceive that there is a serious Avorker in 

 zoology who would not find it to his ad- 

 vantage to enter into relations with the 

 Concilimn. The institution has solved the 

 bibliographical problems that stood before 

 it in a most satisfactory fashion. All that 

 remains is for workers the world over,. 



