EARLY HISTORY OF THE SOCIETY 19 



The Constitution places the publications entirely In the control of the Coun- 

 cil. At the organization meeting an "Advisory Committee on Publications" 

 was named, with McGee as its Secretary (volume 1, pages 14, 15). With his 

 characteristic enthusiasm and energy, McGee made, as preliminary to the 

 report, a comprehensive study of scientific publications. The data of the com- 

 parative study were not presented to the Society, but the results as pertinent 

 to the needs of the Society were embodied in a set of rules and a sample form 

 of publication, which McGee presented at the second meeting of the Society, 

 at Toronto, in August, 1889. This work w^as so thorough, refined, and every 

 way commendable that the Council immediately made McGee Editor, and he 

 was able to carry his plan into effect. He elaborated the "Rules Relating to 

 Publication," and they were formally adopted by the Council April 21, 1891 

 (volume 5, pages 647-652; volume 21, pages 49-52). 



The rules and the form and typography of the Bulletin have remained un- 

 changed through these 25 years, which is the highest testimony to McGee's 

 work. There has been some change in the style of paper, because of the im- 

 possibility of uniformity without extra cost, and some changes have been made 

 in the form of distribution. Originally each article was bound and distributed 

 as a separate brochure. About 1892 the Secretary, who has always had charge 

 of the distribution and sale of the Bulletin, made a saving by having bound 

 in brochure form only the number required for immediate brochure distribu- 

 tion, leaving the balance in sheets for collation as complete volumes. Since 

 1910 the matter has not been distributed even to the Fellows as separate 

 brochures, but has been massed in quarterly issues, in order to secure second- 

 class postal rates and for the sake of economy, about $200 per annum being 

 saved. 



Dr. McGee edited three volumes of the Bulletin and then selected as his 

 successor Joseph Stanley-Brown, who has done the laborious and not always 

 agreeable or appreciated editorial work for 21 years, with small compensation. 

 The Society owes him a great debt. The sustained high standard of the 

 Bulletin as scientific literature and its uniform excellence as an example of 

 fine book-making is due to his devoted work. He has held to typographical 

 consistency in spite of criticism. His editorial inflexibility sometimes crosses 

 an author's views on capitalization or punctuation, but we always yield to his 

 knowledge of rhetorical technique. 



The work of Editor is probably the least agreeable, and certainly the least 

 appreciated, of all the duties of the ofliciary. Here is a problem : Which is 

 the more unsatisfactory task — that of the Treasurer in rounding up the de- 

 linquent Fellows every year or that of the Editor in reading hundreds of pages 

 of perhaps illegible manuscript and making it conform to the style of the 

 Bulletin, possibly against the author's views? 



Many of the younger Fellows have never met the Editor, whose work as a 

 financier in the Wall Street district has kept him from the meetings of the 

 Society, and to some of whom he is an invisible and rather mythical editorial 

 autocrat; but those who know him well wish continued strength to the edi- 

 torial hand. 



All the matter of the Bulletin may not rank in the highest class of geologic 

 literature, but as a whole the Bulletin probably outranks all other geologic 

 publications of its kind. We have to balance between the claims of Fellows 



