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MCGEE. 
adversaries and adjust themselves to the rhythm of the 
waves. But while the general tendencies of serial publica¬ 
tion are more or less obvious, and while modern societies 
have noted and profited by them, their raisons d’etre appear 
not to have been sought hitherto. Yet they are not far to 
seek. 
The Causes of Evolution of the Serials. 
In their relations to the serials published by scientific 
societies, the people of a country or of the world may be 
classed as book-makers and book-users; but in order to under¬ 
stand fully the relations of these general classes, a more 
refined classification must be employed. So the book-makers 
may be divided into authors and publishers ; and the book- 
users may be separated into librarians, bibliographers, and 
readers who may be assumed to be students. The require¬ 
ments and influence of these classes of people control serial 
publication and the character of the serials. The facts (1) 
that the student is sometimes his own bibliographer and 
librarian, (2) that the author may be practically his own 
publisher, (3) that the functions of the bibliographer are not 
well differentiated particularly from those of the librarian, 
and (4) that the society frequently combines various func¬ 
tions, do not run counter to this classification. 
Now, it is evident that the requirements of the student are 
paramount; it is for him that treatises are written ; it is for 
his use that they are printed and bound ; and it is to afford 
access to these treatises that bibliographies are prepared and 
libraries formed. The student demands not only that books 
shall be made but that they shall be promptly published 
while yet their subject matter is new, and so planned that 
they may be easily handled, conveniently entered in cata¬ 
logues under intelligible . and not misleading titles, and 
readily found in the library; he needs and is beginning to 
demand that the author’s work shall be carefully and well 
done, that the text shall be clear and succinct, and that 
graphic expression shall be used so far as may be expedient • 
