804 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 490. 



ography felt himself, however, called upon to 

 denounce an enterprise which, breaking with 

 all sound bibliographical traditions, sought to 

 evolve around the diplomatic green table a 

 plan for a vast and disordered compilation, 

 which through the simple fact of financial 

 superiority was to sujsplant the product of all 

 the individual labor of which Professor Caru3 

 offered in his own life the noblest example. 

 It is not too much to say that this contemptu- 

 ous neglect cast a deep shadow over the last 

 years of his life. He lived, however, long 

 enough to see his contention justified by 

 events and to be freed, as he expressed it, 

 from a dreadful nightmare. 



Financially the year closed with a def- 

 icit, which, in view of the complications of 

 the year, was quite inevitable. Fortunately, 

 the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science and the Elizabeth Thompson 

 Science Fund again came to the rescue. It 

 has been generally taken for granted that the 

 petition of ±he American Society of Natural- 

 ists and the American Association ensured 

 favorable action on our request for adequate 

 aid from the Carnegie Institution; but in 

 spite of endorsement by the zoological ad- 

 visory committee, no grant has been awarded. 

 We are, therefore, again forced to make a 

 strenuous appeal to private generosity. 



The public expressions of approval of our 

 work have been even more numerous in the 

 past year than in those that have preceded. 

 Besides the resolutions of the societies above 

 mentioned and the discussion at the Library 

 Congress, we may mention the articles pub- 

 lished by Mr. Van den Broeck in which he 

 declares that the work of the concilium is the 

 ideal which other enterprises must endeavor 

 to attain. In the ensuing correspondence, a 

 plan for enlarging the scope of the concilium 

 towards geology was elaborated, and could be 

 realized if the necessary fiTnds were forth- 

 coming. 



At the congress of the International Asso- 

 ciation of Botanists held in Leiden in April, 

 a day was given to the discussion of a project 

 of forming a botanical section of the con- 

 ciliiim, and resolutions were unanimously 

 passed advocating such action and offering as 



a contribution to the section the same sum 

 that the association had hitherto devoted to 

 its own bibliography. This offer was accepted 

 by the concilium, to take effect as soon as an 

 equal sum from some other source should be 

 obtainable. The committee of the association 

 has generously left the entire question open 

 for a year pending the endeavor to obtain 

 adequate support for the concilium. 



During the summer of 1903, an interna- 

 tional congress of forestry took up the ques- 

 tion of bibliography and appointed a com- 

 mittee to consider the question of founding a 

 bibliography in connection with the concilium. 

 This action, of which we had no knowledge in 

 advance, shows how far our work is being ap- 

 preciated. The international committee is to 

 meet soon in Ziirich. 



Arrangements have been perfected for the 

 organization of a new bibliography in connec- 

 tion with the Archiv filr Rassen- und Gesell- 

 schaftshiologie. This bibliography will be 

 the beginning of the realization of the plans 

 for an exhaustive treatment of anthropology. 



A promising project of extending the ac- 

 tivity qf the concilium to certain applications 

 of science has been quite unexpectedly brought 

 to us. One of the workers in the concilium 

 is devoting himself to it. 



The close of the year has finally seen the 

 opening of a series of negotiations of great 

 importance for the future organization of 

 scientific bibliography, and which all tend to 

 bring existing bibliographies one by one into 

 harmony with our work. Though unsought 

 by us, this new tendency is certainly to the 

 advantage of all parties concerned and in the 

 interest of science. 



Further evidence of the reputation which 

 the concilium has won is to be found in the 

 great increase in the number of publications 

 sent to this office for notice. With scientific 

 societies this practice has become quite gen- 

 eral and publishers are rapidly following the 

 example. 



Besides the innovations to which allusion 

 has been made in the preceding pages, three 

 new publications will be undertaken in 1904. 



One of these will be a list of the journals 



