APBn, 24, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



661 



peared in the publications of various socie- 

 ties ; possibly a similar course might be fol- 

 lowed by other journals. 



Of the reasons which have been given in 

 support of the habit of publishing in Ger- 

 man journals, three only need be con- 

 sidered very seriously. An article may ap- 

 pear in the "Berichte" six weeks after the 

 copy has been mailed from this side of the 

 water, but if it be sent to one of the 

 American journals the time which elapses 

 before publication is often greater. The 

 fact that the domestic journals are all 

 monthlies, whereas the "Berichte" appears 

 seventeen times per annum, accounts for 

 some of the delay, which, in any case, is not 

 very great. I am informed that the aver- 

 age length of time required for publication 

 in the Journal of the American Chemical 

 Society is five to nine weeks, according to 

 the date of the receipt of the manuscript. 

 As a rule, the delay, as compared with 

 the "Berichte" is not greater than 

 the length of time, three weeks, required 

 for the double journey across the ocean. 

 In the case of very brief papers, or when 

 special reason can be shown for haste, the 

 time mentioned above can almost always 

 be shortened. In my own experience of 

 this journal a paper appeared about two 

 weeks after the copy was sent to the editor. 

 During the Chicago meeting of the Ameri- 

 can Chemical Society statements were made 

 to me by several people regarding the great 

 delay attending publication in the Ameri- 

 can Chemical Journal. One gentleman 

 from the middle west declared that a rela- 

 tively short paper of his would have to 

 wait six months before appearing. In 

 some cases even a longer period is neces- 

 sary, as I have found, but it was also the 

 custom of the editor of this journal to ex- 

 pedite the printing of papers when the 

 authors showed that their interests would 

 suffer materially from delay. 



The second of the three reasons referred 

 to is embodied in the following statement: 

 "Germany is the leader of the chemical 

 world, and papers published there reach 

 directly, with a minimum expenditure of 

 time and trouble, those for whom the con- 

 tents are specially designed." As regards 

 the first part of this statement, it may be 

 pointed out that Germany is likely to con- 

 tinue to lead the world so long as the 

 results of the best work done in other 

 countries are published within her borders. 

 Are we all to publish everything in Ger- 

 man? If not, where is the line to be 

 drawn? 



The third reason referred to above sur- 

 prised me a good deal, but it was made by 

 a high authority. "Few Germans can 

 read English with facility, whereas most 

 English-speaking chemists have no diffi- 

 culty in dealing with German, and it is 

 not right to say to the Teuton 'if you will 

 not learn my language you shall not know 

 of my work. ' " To this it may be replied 

 that the German chemist shows no indica- 

 tion of any anxiety to consider the sus- 

 ceptibilities of other people concerning the 

 language question and, consequently, there 

 is no special necessity to consider his feel- 

 ings. If he can not or will not trouble to 

 learn English let him get his information 

 at second hand, from abstract journals, or 

 let there be duplicate publication in each 

 language. Provided that the paper ap- 

 pears first in English, and a clear indica- 

 tion is given in the German edition that 

 this latter is a reprint, then, personally, I 

 have no serious objection to offer to its 

 duplication. The question is essentially 

 one between the German editor and his 

 subscribers. As regards the general ability 

 of the English-speaking chemists to read 

 German I fear that my friend has over- 

 rated them. Enquiry shows that it is very 

 doubtful if fifteen per cent, of the mem- 



