290 The American Geologist. November, i8iJ2 
schools are teaching. That the sets of standard journals are get- 
ting out of print is a somewhat infirm objection. They have no 
right to be out of print in these days when they give us twentj^ 
pages of blanlvet newspaper at breakfast, and offer us Scott's 
novels in full for less than the cost of a day's entertainment. As 
for the limited editions of the old sets, until reproduced by new 
types, they may be multiplied through photographic methods. 
When there is a due demand for the original literature of chem- 
istry, a demand in accord with the prospective need for its use, 
the supply will come, let us believe, more nearly within the 
means of those who require it than it now does. 
What I have said of the literature of one science can be said, 
in the main, of the literature of the other sciences. And other 
things ought to be said, of what is wanted to make the literature 
of science more accessible to consulting readers. A great deal 
of indexing is wanted. Systematic bibliography, both of pre- 
vious and of current literature, would add a third to the pro- 
ductive power of a large number of workers. It would promote 
common acquaintance with the original communications of re- 
search, and a general demand for the serial sets. Topical bibli- 
ogi'aphies are of great service. In this regard I desire to ask 
attention to the annual reports of the committee on Indexing 
Chemical Literature, in this association for nine years past, as 
well to recent systematic undertakings in geology, and like move- 
ments in zoology and other sciences. Also to the Index Medicus, 
as a continuous bibliography of current professional literature. 
Societies and institutions of science may well act as patrons to 
the bibliography of research, the importance of which has been 
recognized by the fathers of this Association. In 1855, Joseph 
Henr}', then a past president of this body, memorialized the Brit- 
ish Association for cor)peration in bibliography, offering that aid 
of the Smithsonian Institution which has so often been afforded 
to publications of special service. The British Association ap- 
pointed a committee, who reported in 1857, after which the under- 
taking was proposed to the Royal Society. The Royal Society 
made an appeal to her Majesty's government, and obtained the 
necessary stipend. Such was the inception of the Royal Societ}' 
Catalogue of scientific papers of this century, in eight quarto 
volumes, as issued in 1867 and 1877. Seriously curtailed from 
the generous plan of the committee who proposed it, limited to 
