A Subject-Index to Scientific Periodical Literature

I BEG permission to ventilate in your columns a subject which must make itself felt more or less to all your readers, viz., the want of some subject-index to the vast amount of material scattered about in the numerous scientific periodical publications of the present day. It is true we have the admirable catalogue of the Royal Society, but unless you are acquainted with the name of every author who has written on your subject, it is nearly hopeless attempting a complete bibliography of it. Now I would suggest whether an index to the Royal Society's catalogue cannot be made on the same plan that has been adopted by the committee of the new edition of ``Poole's Index,'' viz., by getting different societies, libraries, or individuals to take certain parts of the work. The following is a short abstract of how this committee have set about their work; any of your readers who wish for further information will find it at pp. 109-206 of the ``Transactions and Proceedings of the Conference of Librarians, London, 1878,'' and on p. 201 a short specimen may be seen. The index is made on sheets of foolscap, and the indexer has nothing to do with alphabetical arrangement; he makes his entries in the order the articles occur in the volume at which he is working; these sheets are then sent to the editors, who cut them into slips and work them into alphabetical order with the material coming in from other sources. By this method complete uniformity is maintained; for should the indexer have a peculiar idea of his own how any particular part should be done, his peculiarity is put right at the central bureau or editorial office.