190 
moreover, precisely the one in which the 
most interesting discoveries are being 
made.” Professor Schwalbe gave as a 
further reason for adhering to nations that 
it would be easier for a national commis- 
sion to get the material and, moreover, 
that in countries in which different lan- 
guages were employed it would be easier to 
arrange for classifying the material in that 
way. The resolution was unanimously 
agreed to. 
The next resolution proposed read as fol- 
lows: ‘‘Thatany constituent country which 
shall declare its willingness to undertake 
the task shall be entrusted with the duty 
of collecting, provisionally classifying, and 
transmitting to the Central Office, in accord- 
ance with the rules laid down by the Inter- 
national Council, all the entries belonging 
to the scientific literature of that country, 
the work of the Central Bureau being in 
such cases limited to revising and incor- 
porating into the catalogue the entries so 
received.” 
Dr. John S. Billings moved an amend- 
ment to have the word ‘constituent’ 
stricken out and have it read ‘ any country.’ 
Dr. Ludwig Mond proposed that the 
words ‘“‘the work of the Central Bureau 
being, in such cases, limited to revising and 
incorporating into the catalogue the entries 
so received ”’ be omitted. This motion, as 
amended, was unanimously agreed to. 
The next resolution was: ‘‘ That, in the 
classification according to subject-matter, 
regard shall be had not only to the title (of 
a paper or book), but also to the nature of 
the contents.” Professor Armstrong ex- 
plained that this meant that papers would 
have to be read and studied in order that 
proper indexes might be prepared. He said, 
further, that it was his belief that in the 
future it would be necessary to insist that 
the author of every paper supply with his 
paper the material for-a subject-index, 
which, of course, could be revised at the 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Von. VI. No. 136. 
headquarters and subsequently at the Cen- 
tral Office. Dr. Billings moved that the 
word ‘ indexing’ be substituted for ‘ classi- 
fication,’ which word he thought had been 
used wrongly. M. Deniker, representing 
France, pointed out that, while it was a 
comparatively simple matter to furnish 
titles, it was extremely difficult to analyze 
the contents. He asserted that a single 
article on zoology describing new species 
might require two hundred cards. M. Dar- 
boux seconded this observation. It is very 
necessary to zoology, he said, to know 
whether families or species were to be re- 
corded. If the latter the number of cards 
would reach immense proportions, and he 
thought the success of the catalogue de- 
pended upon the solution of this question. 
The next resolution was: ‘‘ That the cata- 
logue shall comprise all published original 
contributions to science, as hereinafter de- 
fined, whether appearing in periodicals or 
in the publications of societies, or as inde- 
pendent pamphlets, memoirs or books.” 
Professor Armstrong pointed out that the 
object of this resolution was to include in 
the catalogue of the future all original sci- 
entific literature. He stated that in the 
past it had been the habit of the Royal So- 
ciety to take note only of periodicals and of 
the publications of societies, so that the 
whole of Darwin’s work which had not ap- 
peared in the publications of a society had 
been omitted, which was obviously absurd. 
Professor Newcomb objected to the words 
‘to science as hereinafter defined,’ and sug- 
gested, ‘to the branches of science herein- 
after mentioned,’ which suggestion was ac- 
cepted. Professor Dziatzko pointed out a 
difficulty. Periodicals, he said, can be pro- 
cured through exchange, but the matter of 
books is a much more serious problem, as in 
the larger countries it would be difficult to 
get all the titles of books, not to speak of 
copies of the books themselves; in England, 
the United States and France this matter 
