156 



SCIEXCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 159 



this department of science, he would have a 

 large building erected, and liberal appropriations 

 made. We doubt the entire feasibility of such a 

 scheme. In the first place, to restrict the presi- 

 dent in the choice of members of his cabinet to 

 any given body of men, no matter how eminent 

 that body may be, is simply out of the question : 

 nor would this restriction, be desirable. Members 

 of the National academy are such because they 

 are eminent specialists, and a specialist should be 

 the last to control a department of this kind. 

 Dr. Shufeldt also proposes, that commissioned 

 army and navy officers who show scientific abili- 

 ties should be encouraged and provided for by 

 the government : this, too, has certain objections. 

 Why the United States should hold out induce- 

 ments to its commissioned officers to abandon 

 the duties for which they were appointed, one 

 cannot see. A surgeon or lieutenant of artillery 

 has certain specific duties for which he enjoys 

 a salary and future competency. By all means, 

 he should be encouraged to excel in those duties, 

 and he should not be discouraged in any other 

 commendable work that he may undertake with- 

 out detriment to them ; but should government 

 hold out direct reasons for him to become an 

 archeologist, a philologist, a naturalist, or a phys- 

 icist? Are army officers government wards, or 

 government servants? and why should they have 

 greater inducements to become Sanscrit scholars, 

 chemists, and comparative anatomists, than the 

 general public ? 



The great cost of elaborate printed catalogues, 

 in which many of our wealthier libraries are now 

 indulging, suggests the desirability of a scheme 

 of co-operative cataloguing, which is stated at 

 some length in this week's number of The nation, 

 by Mr. Fletcher, the librarian at Amherst. He 

 calls attention to the fact that nearly all our 

 considerable libraries are making, or keeping up, 

 elaborate catalogues, which are, to a large extent, 

 repetitions of one another. As the suggestion of 

 an experienced librarian, we incline to attach 

 considerable significance to his saying that a very 

 large share of the present cataloguing expense 

 borne by these libraries is " wasted in the redupli- 

 cation of that which ought to be done once for all. 

 . . . Already this system of elaborate cataloguing, 

 repeating itself in scores, even hundreds, of libra- 

 ries, is breaking down of its own weight.'' Mr. 

 Fletcher regards co-operation as furnishing the only 



solution of this important question, — a solution, 

 too, capable of meeting the needs of the twen- 

 tieth century, when our libraries will be numbered 

 by thousands, and the volumes in scores of them 

 by millions. . . . The time must soon come when 

 the libraries will no longer undertake to provide 

 subject catalogues of their own. The author 

 catalogues will necessarily be kept up, as each 

 library must have a list of its books. But in 

 place of the subject catalogues we shall have 

 printed bibliographies of subjects, issued, for the 

 most part, periodically, and serving equally for 

 one library or another." These bibliographies 

 may often indicate which libraries contain the 

 rarer publications, on the plan admirably executed 

 in Dr. Bolton's list of scientific periodicals, lately 

 issued by the Smithsonian institution. Such a 

 scheme of bibliographies and subject-indexes is 

 unquestionably feasible, and Mr. Fletcher thinks 

 it furnishes the only possible solution of the prob- 

 lem. It is to be hoped that the directors of our 

 public and college libraries will show themselves 

 ready to co-operate in whatever manner the co- 

 operation committee of the American library 

 association, of which Mr. Fletcher is the chair- 

 man, may decide upon. The committee invite 

 any suggestions which may assist in forwarding 

 the proposed reform. 



The leading spirits of the theosophical socic J / 

 are evidently undismayed by the testimony against 

 their honesty and candor, as adduced in the inves- 

 tigation carried on under the auspices of the 

 English society for psychical research. A protest 

 is now commenced against the conclusions of 

 that investigation, prepared by A. P. Sinnett and 

 Madame Blavatsky. The report of the psychical 

 research society was noticed in Science (vol. vii. 

 p. 81) ; and any effectual protest against conclu- 

 sions so clear and decided as those of that report 

 must be accompanied by the strongest evidence 

 possible. 



PROGRESS IN INDIA. 



The possibility of any national movement 

 among the natives of India, looking toward state 

 organization and self-government, has scarcely 

 ever been accepted by her rulers and other civilized 

 nations. Recent developments, however, seem 

 to indicate that the Indian capacity has been 

 underrated. A correspondent of the London 

 Times states that the Bombay leaders have lately 



