NOTES AND COMMENT 



U'e have received an announcement of the prospective appearance 

 of a series of publications entitled Physiological Researches, under the 

 editorship of Professor B. E. Livingston, Dr. D. T. MacDougal, and 

 Dr. H. M. Richards. The numbers will appear at irregular intervals, 

 and will each consist of a single paper of a more or less extended char- 

 acter. The fii'st number is promised at an early date. The growing 

 community of interest between plant and animal physiology', and the 

 overcrowded condition of all existing avenues of publication in this 

 field, have been the actuating causes in the establishment of Physiological 

 Researches. Its financial support, aside from subscriptions, will be 

 derived from the contributors, who themselves become participating 

 owners in the completed volumes of 450 pages, and are reimbursed 

 through their sale and the sale of single numbers. Preliminary abstracts 

 of the published researches will be printed, and may be subscribed for 

 separately. 



The general scheme of Physiological Researches is similar to that with 

 which we are already familiar in Watson's Behavior Monographs and 

 in Ule's Geographische Arbeiten, and it is one which can only be highly 

 commended. Among its advantages are, for the author, the securing 

 of prompt publication, and, for the reader, the possibility of purchasing 

 a given paper without having to pay for several other papers published 

 with it. 



There are relatively few scientific men who realize the expense which 

 is involved in the pubUcation and dis.semination of their contributions. 

 A manuscript is sent to a given journal or other organ of publication, is 

 accepted and printed, and the cost of the operation is distributed over 

 the scientific public through subscription charges, or falls upon a single 

 society or special publication fund. The scheme by which Professor 

 Livingston proposes to finance Physiological Researches is not only an 

 expedient one, but it is also one that serves to make the contributor 

 realize the cost of the publication of his work, and the fact that the 

 benefits derived from such publication are partly his. If such a plan 

 impels any TVTiter to be succinct and direct in his statements, to omit 

 lengthy dis ; lisitions on the past and future of his problem, to give only 



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