238 
MCGEE. 
mechanical slovenliness is inevitably accompanied by slov¬ 
enliness of expression, this illegitimate interest of the author 
is injurious to the student and so indirectly suicidal. 
Last in order of importance, at least as viewed from the 
standpoint of author, librarian, bibliographer and student, 
are the requirements of the publisher. He justly demands, 
first, that his copy shall be carefuly prepared ; second, that 
sufficient time shall be permitted for the reproduction of 
illustrations as well as the composition of the letterpress; 
and it is generally a convenience to him to keep a consider¬ 
able amount of copy on hand and to issue the publication 
in complete volumes or in large parts. The demand of the. 
student and author for prompt publication *is immediately 
antagonistic to his interests; and his disposition is to com¬ 
bine with the librarian, and perhaps also the bibliographer, 
in delaying publication. The publisher, too, fixes the cost, 
and thus tangibly represents the condition limiting the 
volume of the publication; and in this function, too, the 
interests of the author and publisher are opposed. 
On applying these principles to the serials published by 
the eight representative scientific societies, the reasons for 
the instability betrayed by some and the stability displayed 
by others becomes manifest: 
Multiplicity of paginations in a volume, of series in a 
serial, or of serials issued by the same society are all objec¬ 
tionable to the student; the last two conditions impose a 
burden on the bibliographer; the last condition occasions 
inconvenience to the librarian, particularly when the serials 
are unlike in size; and, moreover, the cost of publishing and 
distributing serials generally increases with the number of 
serials issued. So the unification of serials represents pro¬ 
gress in the direction of economy in labor on the part of 
students, bibliographers, and librarians and in the monetary 
cost of publication. 
The paramount requirement of student and author 
alike is prompt publication ; and while this requirement 
