form the actual significant contributions in a paper regardless of its title.

(2) The editorial requirement that a suitable abstract prepared in accordance with these rules be submitted

with a manuscript when offered for publication. (3) That this author's abstract, after proper editing, be published in a periodical abstract journal (possibly monthly) for the appropriate science.

(4) That all abstracts be held in type for at least one

year, in order that the materials may be reclassified according to subject and reprinted as an annual topical review.

(5) That as essential parts of this annual topical review for any given field of science, there be also published complete author and subject lists.

(6) That such lists be accumulated and published in separate volumes at intervals of five or ten years.

The ideal execution of this general plan will demand international coöperation by developing methods, and by the assistance of special scientific groups, to establish suitable abstract or other periodicals. As a matter of fact, encouraging progress has already been made with several of the more important scientific journals which have adopted the substance of the proposals involved in this program. (h) Although this Division is in no sense primarily responsible for the publication policies of the Council, it has contributed substantially to their development. These policies involve the publication in a bulletin series of important scientific papers which do not find any natural place in extant scientific journals, and also the circulation of reprints of important papers published in media reaching but a limited circle of readers. Already there have appeared several reprints and the following bulletins Number 1, "The National Importance of

Scientific and Industrial Research," by George Ellery Hale and others; Number 2, "Research Laboratories in Industrial Establishments of the United States of America," compiled by Alfred D. Flinn; and Number 3, "Periodical Bibliographies and Abstracts for the Scientific and Technological Journals of the World," compiled by R. Cobb. It may be added in this general connection that the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences constitute the official organ of the National Research Council, and that in addition to the record of the Council's transactions, there are here published certain of its scientific contributions, including reports of its more important committees.

It is out of the question within the limits of space available to enter in any complete way upon the work of the seven Divisions of Science and Technology, mentioned in the opening paragraphs of this chapter. Including, as these do, the interests of physics, mathematics, astronomy, geodesy, meteorology, seismology, vulcanology, engineering in all its branches, chemistry and chemical technology, geology and geography, the medical sciences, zoölogy, botany, and agriculture, anthropology and psychology, it would obviously be impracticable to attempt any detailed description of the scientific research work which is being developed. Two considerations, however, deserve explicit emphasis.

In the first place, these Divisions are composed of scientific men, selected by their peers for their reputation as competent investigators in their several fields of work. These groups come together and discuss with exhaustive detail the most urgent needs in their own research fields and the most practicable methods of meeting these. The projects which they then decide upon as deserving immediate attention represent the most mature and well-considered opinions of the men best qualified to judge. In this sense the projects to which the

Council commits itself are based upon a scientific concensus of opinion such as has never before been available in this country.

The second consideration, and one of perhaps equal importance, is that the Council in its effort to stimulate and promote research has found one of its largest fields in the development of coöperative research enterprises, for which there has also been hitherto no adequate national provision. This coöperation may occur as between individual scientists working in the same field, for example, physics or chemistry, as between scientists in different fields, as between research organizations like universities and government bureaus, as between state agencies or state and federal agencies, and finally, as between the consumers, so to speak, of research represented by the interests of commerce and industry. Every one of the great fundamental problems confronting modern society leads out in the effort to solve it into a large group of related but often distinct sciences. For example, the problem of fuels is in part one of chemistry, in part one of geology, in some portions of the world one of forestry, in part one of transportation, etc. Food production, distribution, and consumption similarly involve a wide range of scientific problems, partly zoölogical, partly botanical and agricultural, partly chemical, partly bacteriological, etc.

The organization of the Council is peculiarly adapted to permit the easy assemblage of groups of competent scientists to deal with such fundamental issues as these, with which no single government agency and no other single scientific agency is at the moment at all competent to cope. One or two illustrations of the kind of thing the scientific Divisions of the Council are attempting to accomplish may be permitted.

We may take one instance from the field of coöperation among scientists and one from that of coöperation among the users of scientific research in the industries. The cases are chosen to exhibit the possibilities of coöperation, because it is at that point that our present national organization of research is most defective, and the need for an agency such as the

Council most conspicuous. During the war, the Council was able to bring about a large number of coöperative research undertakings, but these were mainly represented by the appointment of committees, each of whose members was a specialist in the same scientific field, and they worked together by dividing the problem and allocating its several phases to one or another of their members. This is a highly profitable form of procedure where time is of crucial importance, as in war, but it is less likely to commend itself to scientists in time of peace. Meantime, there are abundant problems, and among them many of fundamental national importance, which can only be solved coöperatively and by the joint action of specialists representing quite diverse scientific interests.

The Division of Biology and Agriculture has created a committee for the study of the problems of food and nutrition. The general field of work has been subdivided into that of human nutrition and of animal nutrition. A group of some fifteen eminent scientists have come together and made a preparatory survey of the general problem. These scientists represent chemistry, physiology, zoölogy, physiological and biological chemistry, vital statistics, agriculture, animal husbandry, and household economics. If, as their work develops, need arises, they will take in representatives of other branches of science. The war made it quite plain that there is a problem of national nutrition quite distinct from that of merely individual nutrition, and to this the committee will also give attention. It will at best be several years before the full fruits of this work will begin to come in, but the coercive and essentially practical character of the problem is evident the moment one faces the facts, and particularly in our own country, where the preparation of large parts of the food material of the people is in the hands of a few great industries. The old-fashioned community lived mainly upon its own immediate neighborhood. The modern community puts under contribution for its food the remotest corners of the earth. The committee has already made an excellent beginning in its work, the cost of which will

probably be largely met by the more directly interested industrial concerns.

The Institute of Baking may serve to illustrate coöperation among the consumers of research. The big industrial concern can often afford to establish its own research laboratory, and many instances of such procedure might be cited. But the small manufacturer cannot afford this luxury, and he must either go without it or join with other small concerns to establish a coöperative research enterprise. The National Research Council has been carrying on an active campaign to introduce the formation of such coöperative arrangements in a considerable group of industries, and thus far with very encouraging success. The Institute of Baking is one in which the Council, through its Research Extension Division, has had some part.

The Institute has secured the use of an admirably equipped laboratory, has engaged a scientific director, who has entered into advisory relations with the Council, where he can command suggestions from the ablest men in the country in the various problems of physics, chemistry, bacteriology, etc., involved in the industry. The 28,000 members of the baking trade in this country will be the direct beneficiaries of this work, and indirectly the entire community will profit by it.

Many other instances of research work inaugurated by the Divisions of Science and Technology might be adduced, but these must suffice, and may serve to convey some impression of the character of their activities.

Through its system of publications, to which reference has already been made, the Council attempts to give some publicity to its own work and to the scientific results which accrue from it, although the extant agencies for scientific publication will no doubt care for the larger part of such requirements. In addition, however, to this attempt to bring its work before the public, the Council has entered upon a system of exhibits, which deserves brief mention.

In a new building, which will serve as a permanent home for the National Academy of Sciences as well as for the Council,