224 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



be accompanied by full bibliographic references. This programme 

 has now (May 1911) so far matured, that portions of the volume 

 for 1910 are already in the press, while the manuscript of the 

 remaining portions is approaching completion. 



Owing to the immense volume of scientific and technical literature 

 which is continually being produced, the difficulties in the way of 

 finding out whether any given measurement has been made or not 

 are increasing year by year. Existing systems of indexing and 

 abstracting offer only limited help, since a large number of 

 measurements are made in the course of researches to which they 

 are purely subsidiary, so that their existence cannot be inferred 

 from the titles and subtitles of the papers in which they are 

 recorded. Also Tables which appear only at long intervals such as 

 those of Landolt and Bornstein, can of necessity cover only a small 

 part of the ground ; and moreover, in most cases they are hampered 

 by the limitations of private enterprise. The Annual Tables 

 should therefore fill a serious gap which has hitherto existed in the 

 systematic indexing of scientific and technical results. 



It is hoped that ultimately the enterprise may become self- 

 supporting ; but obviously this cannot be the case for some time to 

 come. The Commission has been greatly assisted by grants from 

 various Societies, for example, in this Country, from the British 

 Association, Chemical Society, Faraday Society, Royal Dublin 

 Society, Royal Irish Academy, Royal Society of Edinburgh, and 

 the Society of Chemical Industry. Donations have also been 

 received from a few private persons, notably from the Rt. Hon. 

 the Earl of Berkeley, E.R.S. The financial position is, however, 

 still far from satisfactory ; and further help from Societies and 

 private donors is urgently needed. In this connexion it may be 

 mentioned that neither the General Secretary nor the Members 

 of the Commission receive payment for their services, except in 

 so far as they may perform actual compiling or abstracting. 



The organization of the Commission is sufficiently complete to 

 deal effectively with the periodical literature, but it happens 

 occasionally that data are published only in non-periodical publi- 

 cations, such as books or monographs ; and such data may easily 

 be overlooked. Accordingly, in order that the Annual Tables may 

 be as complete as possible, the authors of such books, monographs, 

 .&c, are requested to communicate with one or other of the 

 members of the Commission. In cases where the data are 

 numerous, specimen copies or corrected proofs of the tables 

 containing the data would be very acceptable. 



The members of the International Commission for the United 

 Kingdom are: Dr. Alex. Findlay, The University, Edgbaston, 

 Birmingham ; Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, C.B., E.R.S., The National 

 Physical Laboratory, Teddington, Middlesex ; and Dr. N. T. M. 

 Wilsmore, University College, Gower Street, London, W.C. The 

 General Secretary is Dr. Charles Marie, 98 Rue du Cherche-Midi, 

 Paris VI. 



