428 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1889. 
The necessity for a binding fund becomes more urgent, only one 
hundred and thirty-eight of the volumes most constantly in use having 
been bound during the year. 
A priced catalogue of the duplicates in the library has been pre¬ 
pared. To derive the most benefit from the list it should be printed 
and distributed to those likely to be interested in separate numbers 
and incomplete sets of periodicals of which the collection for the 
most part consists. 
A large and valuable collection of maps, the extent of which had 
not been suspected, has been classified and catalogued. It is very 
desirable that special receptacles be prepared for these so that they 
may be more readily examined than is at present possible. 
Early in the year the title entries of journals and periodicals were 
completed and the catalogue arranged in the drawers for use. The 
work has been supplemented by a convenient hand-list or guide to 
the arrangement of periodicals on the shelves and also by a general 
subject index. 
These lists are all, of course, kept complete to date so that noth¬ 
ing remains to be done in the department of journals and periodi¬ 
cals short of a subject-catalogue of scientific communications which 
is an undertaking of such extent as to be at present beyond the 
means of the Academy. Such a work would be an invaluable aid 
to the naturalist, supplying to him what the superb Index-Catalogue 
of the Surgeon-General’s Office provides for the physician, but it 
must be either the result of co-operation among several scientific 
societies or the cost must be defrayed by government appropriation, 
as in the case of the work referred to, or by an institution possessed 
of a large income such as the Royal Society of London, to which we 
are indebted for the indispensable author-catalogue of scientific papers. 
Although such work on the periodicals of the library must, there¬ 
fore, be deferred, satisfactory progress has been made on a subject- 
catalogue of the special departments. The subject-registry of Voy¬ 
ages and Travels and Geology has been completed and the work is 
now going on rapidly in the section of General Natural History. 
The arrangement of the cards will be continuously alphabetical 
without any sub-division into classes other than that which depends 
on the initial subject word. It is believed that clearness and sim¬ 
plicity will be thus secured and that those who use the library will 
be able to avail themselves of the catalogue without the assistance of 
the trained attendants or pages who are usually required to interpret 
