Apeil 10, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



579 



high steam pressures in locomotive service 

 and on the performance of screw pro- 

 pellers, by Professor W. F. M. Goss and 

 Professor W. F. Durand, respectively; to 

 the Vulgate Version of the Arthurian 

 Romances, by Dr. H. Oskar Sommer; to a 

 reproduction, with translation and annota- 

 tions, of " The Old Yellow Book," the 

 source of Browning's "The Ring and the 

 Book," by Professor Charles W. Hodell; 

 to a monograph on The Fossil Turtles of 

 North America, by Dr. 0. P. Hay; to a 

 treatise on dynamic meteorology and hy- 

 drology, by Professor V. Bjerknes and 

 Mr. J. W. Sandstrom, of the University 

 of Christiania ; and tlie report of the Cali- 

 fornia State Earthquake Commission. 



GRATUITOUS DISTRIBUTION OF PUBLICATIONS 



In his report for the year 1905 the 

 president indicated that the distribution 

 of the publications of the institution was 

 likely to present some difficulties. Under 

 provisional rules approved by the execu- 

 tive committee in January, 1905, and pub- 

 lished in the annual report for that year 

 all publications of the institution except 

 the "Index Medicus" are sent free of 

 charge to a list of about three hundred 

 leading libraries of the world. This list 

 was compiled with great care from a much 

 larger list selected by a competent libra- 

 rian, with a view to include every im- 

 portant library of educational and learned 

 institutions of the world. Pains were 

 taken also to secure as effective geograph- 

 ical distribution as practicable. 



In accordance with the same rules, 

 authors, in addition to receiving 25 copies 

 of their works, were authorized to desig- 

 nate 100 addresses to which complimentary 

 copies might be sent by the institution. 

 The president was also given discretionary 

 authority to distribute gratis 100 copies of 



any work. The possible maximum free 

 list for any work was thus about 525 

 copies. 



The standard edition of our publications 

 approved by the executive committee at 

 the same time is 1,000 copies; and copies 

 not disposed of in the ways just men- 

 tioned were offered for sale at a cost only 

 sufficient to cover the expense of publica- 

 tion and transportation to purchasers. 



While the rules referred to have been 

 justified by the necessity which confronted 

 the institution at the time of announcing 

 some mode of distribution, many difficul- 

 ties have been met in their application. 

 The most serious of these arise from the 

 importunities of institutions and indi- 

 viduals claiming rights to the free receipt 

 of all our publications or to the free receipt 

 of certain of them. No amount of cour- 

 teous endeavor or painstaking research into 

 the relative merits of applicants for such 

 favors can overcome these difficulties. The 

 simple fact is that the demand for a 

 gratuitous distribution of the publications 

 of the institution is much larger than its 

 income can bear. An attempt to meet this 

 demand in a limited way by means of edi- 

 tions of 5,000 to 10,000 copies of our works 

 Avould require, at the present rate of issue 

 of 25 to 30 volumes per year, a quarter to 

 a half of our income. 



Some serious objections have developed 

 also against the liberal terms accorded to 

 authors in the distribution of compli- 

 mentary copies of their works. One of 

 these objections rests on the charge of 

 favoritism brought against the institution 

 by many who have not been thus com- 

 plimented ; a second rests on the complaint 

 of book-dealers who, having filed orders for 

 books published by the institution, find 

 their clients disposed to cancel such orders 

 by reason of the receipt of presentation 

 copies; while a third rests on the fact that 



