78 Annwersary Address by Lord Rayleigh.  [Nov. 30, 
everything that we do must specially sympathise with those unfortunates 
who are deprived of this most precious gift. A movement is on foot, and 
has already received valuable support, to promote the publication of standard 
scientific works in embossed type suitable for the use of the blind. Such 
publication is costly and can hardly be undertaken upon an adequate scale 
without external aid. My friend, Mr. H. M. Taylor, a Fellow of this Society, 
tells me that in the course of the last 12 months he has written out the 
whole of Mr. C. Smith’s Elementary Algebra in Braille type, has afterwards 
read the copy with his fingers and again, later, read the whole in proof. 
There can be no doubt that books in embossed type on such subjects as 
Mechanics, Physics, Astronomy, Geology, not to mention the various Biological 
Sciences, would be an immense boon to many blind readers. I commend the 
proposal heartily to your notice. 
Another remedy for the confusion into which scientific literature is liable 
to fall may he in the direction of restricting the amount of unessential 
detail that is sometimes prevalent in the publication of scientific results. In 
comparing the outputs of the present time, and of, say, 30 years ago, the 
most striking feature that appears is doubtless the increase of bulk, in recent 
years coming especially from young workers stimulated by the healthy 
encouragement of direct research as a part of scientific education. But 
I think it may also be observed, and not alone in the case of such early 
dissertations, that there is, on the whole, less care taken for the concise 
presentation of results, and that the main principles are often submerged 
under a flood of experimental detail. When the author himself has not 
taken the trouble to digest his material or to prepare it properly for the 
press, the reader may be tempted to judge of the care taken in the work 
from the pains taken in its presentation. The tendency in some subjects to 
submit for immediate publication the undigested contents of note-books is 
one that we hear much of at the present time. It is a matter that is 
difficult for publishing bodies to deal with, except by simple refusal of 
imperfectly prepared material, with its danger of giving offence to authors of 
recognised standing, but it seems not unlikely that at present public 
scientific opinion would endorse such a course of action. A related difficulty 
and one that contributes to this trouble, is the tendency, noticeable in some 
public scientific organisations, to imagine that their activity is estimated by 
the number of pages of printed matter they can produce in the year. 
Probably no consideration is further removed than this from the minds of 
the educated public, whose judgment is alone worth considering. 
