489 
1880.J Report on Scientific Societies . 
PS. — Of a not quite unimportant function the Royal 
College, by its members, will be able, and made, to fulfil 
with regard to scientific literature, I think it preferable to 
speak in my next letter, in which the latter subject shall be 
treated as a whole. 
C. K. A. 
Pesth , June 28, 1870. 
My Dear Sir, 
Conforming to the order adopted in my first letter, in 
enumerating the subject matters to be discussed, I shall 
treat in this present letter— 
Of Scientific Literature , Periodic and Non-periodic . — The 
class of works which comes here under consideration is 
composed of three different categories : the first comprising 
the works intended for specialists or scientific men exclu- 
sively ; the second , those designed for amateurs, if not 
wholly yet principally ; and, finally, the third, those written 
simply for popular readers. 
To the category first mentioned belong, independently of 
treatises and similar works, the manifold scientific journals, 
periodicals, proceedings, and transactions, published partly 
by booksellers and partly by societies. Now nothing can 
exceed the unsatisfactory state of this latter species of lite- 
rature. A physicist, for instance, in order to become familiar 
with the current progress of his science, has to consult 
some twenty different works published periodically, yet at 
times more or less uncertain ; but if he be a little more 
scrupulous or comprehensive in his tastes, and have a 
mastery of other languages besides English, German, and 
French, which in the above estimate I have alone taken into 
account — then, instead of twenty, there will be even two or 
three times twenty such works to call for his attention. 
The statement holds as good for most other sciences as it 
does for natural philosophy ; and in one or two branches 
only has there recently been any attempt made to condense, 
rather than to concentrate or centralise , all new publications 
scattered periodically through a great variety of works and 
bearing upon some distinct portion of science. But, with- 
out wishing to detract from the usefulness of these under- 
takings, it may be asserted that they rather indicate than 
supply a want. 
As far as the inconvenience just referred to goes, men of 
science are the only sufferers; but there is another perplexiity 
