1016 



SCIENCE. 



[N. K Vol. XVII. No. 443. 



vantage over a card bibliography. No one 

 need hesitate long to sacrifice two lines of 

 print even to an almost worthless publication. 

 But when it is a case of publishing a com- 

 plete bibliographical card it becomes a most 

 serious matter. For many years the Con- 

 cilium tried various subterfuges; it issued 

 many cards that seemed scarcely worthy of 

 notice; it then experimented with printing 

 the references on gummed paper to be pasted 

 on cards by the subscriber, if desired. It 

 also tried holding back such references till 

 the end of the year and then publishing a 

 •dozen or more entries on a single card. 



None of these means was successful. Fi- 

 nally, in 1902, a great catalogue of manu- 

 script entries was founded. Such entries be- 

 ing omitted from the printed bibliography, 

 the total number of cards sent to subscribers 

 will be reduced annually by a thousand or 

 more. The new cards are similar to the ordi- 

 nary bibliographical cards in every respect, 

 save that instead of being printed they are 

 in manuscript. They can, however, be sup- 

 plied when desired. Thus a subscriber in Cali- 

 fornia will not be burdened by innumerable 

 tales of beetles found in the county of Kent, 

 FJngland. For the inhabitant of Kent the 

 note may have value, for the Californian it 

 is rather superfluous. In future the Kent 

 entomologists can receive the reference if they 

 ■care for it; but the Californian ornithologist 

 need not. This new departure means a loss 

 to the Concilium of several hundred dollars an- 

 nually. The maintenance of the manuscript 

 catalogue is costly and the income from the 

 printed card catalogue is reduced by leaving 

 out such notes. It is merely a case of what I 

 may conscientiously declare to have been the 

 uniform policy of the Concilium, that of never 

 deviating a particle from its disinterested 

 aims. Every innovation of recent years has 

 Tseen attended with financial loss; but never 

 liave we faltered in assuming it. We have 

 perhaps often imperiled the very existence 

 of the work by such scruples, but at the same 

 time we have, I believe, won the unqualified 

 approval of every one who has taken the pains 

 to examine closely our work and can with 

 justice appeal for support to those who have 



the interests of science at heart. I am con- 

 fident that the disaster which the abandon- 

 ment of the work would entail is not a danger 

 which is seriously threatened. The irome- 

 diate needs of the institute seem to us great; 

 but they are only so in comparison with the 

 modest means which have thus far succeeded 

 in keeping the enterprise alive. A debt of 

 $4,000 ought not to burden indefinitely the 

 work. $3,500 for new machinery ought not 

 to be a hopelessly large sum to secure. A 

 yearly grant from an American source equal 

 to that offered by little Switzerland ($1,500) 

 seems least of all exaggerated. And yet this 

 is all that is needed to inaugurate a period of 

 prosperity and work without preoccupations 

 of a financial character. Doubtless new possi- 

 bilities and new needs would open as the years 

 passed ; but the present program could be fully 

 carried out with the support that I have 

 sketched. 



Herbert Haviland Field. 



REPORT OF TBE IGETEYOLOOIOAL RE- 

 SEARCH COMMITTEE.* 



We understand that the committee ap- 

 pointed by the Board of Trade in August last 

 year ' to inquire and report as to the best 

 means by which the State or local authorities 

 can assist scientific research as applied to 

 problems affecting the fisheries of Great Brit- 

 ain and Ireland, and, in particular, whether 

 the object in view would be best attained by 

 the creation of one central body or depart- 

 ment acting for England, Scotland, and Ire- 

 land, or by means of separate departments or 

 agencies in each of the three countries,' have 

 come to the conclusion that, while no sufii- 

 cient reason has been adduced for suggesting 

 any changes as to the central authority for 

 conducting scientific fishery investigations in 

 Scotland and Ireland, it is desirable that the 

 functions of the Fisheries and Harbor De- 

 partment of the Board of Trade, which is the 

 central authority for England, should be con- 

 siderably enlarged. They recommend, there- 

 fore, that the Board of Trade should have 

 power not only to delegate to any satisfactory 

 fishery authority the conduct of such fishery 



* From the London Times. 



