July 23, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



115 



of the Physical Sciences and Its Idealistic 

 Significance." 



His scientific activity was profound and 

 many-sided. His splendid knowledge of phys- 

 ics, in the progress of which he was interested 

 all his life, and his tremendous general erudi- 

 tion, enabled him to work in many departments 

 of physical science. The names of some of 

 his works are very suggestive of this mani- 

 f oldness of interest : " A Theory of Action at 

 a Distance and Its Application to the Laws 

 of Electrostatics and Electrodynamics," " The 

 Laws of the Solution of Certain Salts," " The 

 Geometrical Significance of Erenkel's Inte- 

 grals," " An Attempt of Discovering the Laws 

 of Heat Energy in Chemical Reactions," 

 "Uber eine Methode objektiver Darstellung 

 der Eigenschaften des polarisiert«n Lichtes," 

 " The Formation of Drops in a Magnetic and 

 an Electric Eield." 



In physics he was equally at home in ex- 

 perimental methods and in the mathematical 

 analysis. After leaving the University of 

 Moscow, however, he gave himself up almost 

 exclusively to theoretical work, especially in 

 the domain of the principle of relativity. 

 Some of his results in this direction were de- 

 scribed in a speech on " The Characteristic 

 Features and Problems of the Modern Scien- 

 tific Thought," delivered before the general 

 meeting of the second Mendelejev Congress.^ 



Oumov was the president of several scientific 

 societies in which he was invariably the guid- 

 ing spirit. For a short time he edited a 

 splendid scientific magazine, The Word of 

 Science, which, however, did not exist long. 

 Leo Pasvolsky 



New Yoek City 



CLASSIFICATION OF TECHNICAL 

 LITEBATVBE 

 Delegates from about twenty national tech- 

 nical and scientific societies met in the United 

 Engineering Society Building, 29 West 39th 

 street. New York City, on May 21, 1915, to 

 perfect a permanent organization, the purpose 

 being to prepare a classification of the litera- 



3 Unfortunately the speech is not available in 

 this country. 



ture of applied science which might be gener- 

 ally accepted and adopted by these and other 

 organizations. 



There was a generally expressed opinion 

 that such a classification, if properly prepared, 

 might well serve as a basis for the filing of 

 clippings, for cards in a card index, and for 

 printed indexes; and that the publishers of 

 technical periodicals might be induced to print 

 against each important article the symbol of 

 the appropriate class in this system, so that by 

 clipping these articles a file might be easily 

 made which would combine in one system 

 these clippings, together with trade cata- 

 logues, maps, drawings, blue prints, photo- 

 graphs, pamphlets and letters classified by the 

 same system. 



By request, Mr. W. P. Cutter, the librarian 

 of the Engineering Societies' Library, and a 

 delegate from the American Institute of Min- 

 ing Engineers, read a paper on " The Classifica- 

 tion of Applied Science " in which, after de- 

 scribing the existing classifications, of one 

 of which he is the author, he stated that, in his 

 opinion, no one of these, although having ex- 

 cellent features, was complete and satisfactory 

 enough to be worthy of general adoption. He 

 outlined a plan whereby a central office could 

 collate all the existing classifications, and, 

 with the help of specialists in the various na- 

 tional societies interested, might compile a 

 general system, which, although perhaps not 

 absolutely perfect, might meet with general 

 acceptance and adoption. 



Permanent organization was effected by the 

 election of the following officers: Chairman, 

 Fred E. Low; secretary, W. P. Cutter; execu- 

 tive committee; the above, with Edgar Mar- 

 burg, H. W. Peck, Samuel Sheldon. 



It was agreed that a special invitation to 

 participate by the appointment of a delegate 

 be sent to other national societies which 

 might be interested in the general plan. 



The following societies were represented by 

 delegates: Samuel Sheldon, library board. 

 United Engineering Society; Eichard Mol- 

 denke, American Foundrymen's Association; 

 C. Clifford Kuh, Society for Electrical Devel- 

 opment; CuUen W. Parmelee, American 



