MEETING OF CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES.
buried in these Transactions and Journals, information which cannot be
obtained from any other sources. A classical instance may be men-
tioned of Mendel's work lying unknown for over thirty years.
Methods.—Some suggestions as to methods may be put forward. The
British Association should supply index-slips to each society. The societies
should undertake to catalogue (under Subjects and Authors) by means
of such slips the more important papers and notes which have been
published in their journals during the whole course of their existence. In
doing this it should be borne in mind that even short papers may be of
great importance as containing local facts or giving suggestions for future
work. And the active officers of each society would be the best judges
of the value of such papers and notes. The index-slips should then be
forwarded to an expert bibliographer appointed by the British Association.
Each society should also furnish full information as to the titles and
mode of publication of their Journals and other works published by them,
together with notification of such libraries as are known to contain these
books.
The Bibliography might be published in two forms:—
(1) Ordinary book form printed on both sides of the paper.
(2) Slip-index form.
By means of the second mode of publication each society would be
able to obtain an index of its own publications separately from the complete
bibliography. As many societies have acquired extensive libraries by
exchange, such a bibliography as the one suggested would be an invaluable
adjunct to their catalogue of publications. Each society whose publica-
tions are thus indexed might be asked to subscribe for at least one copy
of the bibliography, and inasmuch as this would serve in many cases as
an index catalogue to their own libraries, doubtless a very considerable
number of individual members would also subscribe. And a great number
of public libraries, and libraries of societies, both here and in America,
would also subscribe, so that in all probability the publication of the
bibliography would pay for itself.
Although scientific periodicals other than those published by societies
have been excluded from our scheme, the publishers of important scientific
journals should be approached in order to see if it would be possible to
extend the bibliography in this direction.
We merely put these terse suggestions forward as a basis for future
discussion. The full working out of the scheme could be elaborated
later. But we are fully impressed with the importance and interest of
the work.
Wm. Cole,
Hon. Secretary and Curator of the Essex Museum of Nat. Hist.
Henry Whitehead,
Assistant Curator.