April in, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



435 



in consultation and a vast amovint of pains- 

 taking care to insert new cards and keep it 

 in order. Then, too, one of its features 

 wliich makes it particularly advantageous 

 in the hands of an individual scholar, is 

 that the cards may be continually sorted 

 and rearranged. This would be practically 

 impossible with a great card index intended 

 for the use of many in a public institution. 

 Volumes like those of the Royal Society 

 index may be carried to the desk of the 

 student. A card-catalogue he must consult 

 in its place of deposit, probably in a crowd- 

 ed and noisy library. Then, too, after a 

 period of years the card index will represent 

 the investment of hundreds and soon of 

 thousands of dollars, on the part of each pos- 

 sessor, and the tendency will be to place con- 

 stantly narrowing restrictions upon its 

 use. 



The needs of library workers might l>e 

 met in part by printing a special edition of 

 the catalogue on one side of the page, so that 

 the titles might be cut and pasted upon 

 cards.* Indeed, if there were a sufficient 

 demand, a special edition of the catalogue 

 might be printed on cards. Whatever may 

 be said of the advantages of the card sys- 

 tem, it is certain that it would not be ac- 

 cepted in Europe. 



Every one remembers the plan of Jewett, 

 who, in the early days of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, proposed a universal bibliog- 

 raphy. His plan was to electrotype each 

 title upon a sei>arate block, and to supply 

 these blocks, either for printing cards, or to 

 be made up into catalogues in any sj-s- 



* In order to Jacilitate this, the name o( the author 

 might well be printed in bold-faced type, and repeated 

 at the beijinning of eaeli title. Tliis increases the 

 cost but little, and a<Uls much to the usefulne.<s of 

 the bibliojrraphv, if it is to be cut up and rearranged, 

 either for a catalogue, a.s I have suggested, or as 

 'copy ' for (ithci- l)i 111 iographies. The width of the 

 title as printed slniiild not exceed 41 inches, whether 

 the publication is in octavo fomi or larger. It will 

 then come within the limits of the standard cards. 



tern of arrangement desired. His project 

 almost succeeded fifty years ago, when 

 there was much less demand, much less 

 monej-, and much more in the way of 

 mechanical obstacles, than at present. 

 The modern type-setting machine, which 

 casts each line of type in a single bar, 

 would lend itself admirably to such co- 

 operative work. 



5. A subject-index of the most exhaustive 

 character should be issued in connection 

 with each annual publication, but since this 

 index cannot so conveniently be made until 

 the catalogue itself has been set in type, it 

 might be well not to delay the distribution 

 of the catalogue itself until the index is 

 readj-, but cause the latter to follow as soon 

 as practicable. 



6. The adoption of this index as a part 

 of the plan would render it practicable to 

 issue the entire record of the year's work 

 in one single alphabetical series, if this 

 were deemed desirable. It might be, how- 

 ever, that it would be more convenient, 

 and less expensive to subscribers inter- 

 ested in special branches of science, if 

 the titles were arranged in more than one 

 series. To divide it into two — one for 

 the j)hj^sical and one for the natural 

 sciences — would be ([uite practicable; per- 

 haps philology, historj^, economics and 

 mechanical science might each have a vol- 

 ume of its own. Whether further subdi- 

 vision would answer, is a question for 

 careful discussion. 



7. The catalogue should embrace within 

 its determined scope all publications in the 

 following categories : 



(a). Publications of scientific academies 

 and societies. 



(b). Scientific publications of univer- 

 sities, colleges, and technical schools. 



(c). Publications of scientific exi)edi- 

 tions. 



(d). Scientilic publications of national, 

 municipal and other governments. 



