Royal Society of London, Catalogue of Scientific Papers, 1800–1900

Abstract

THE output of the scientific world is now so great that considerable attention has been devoted of late to devising means of acquainting those engaged in scientific research with the results attained by other investigators. With the publication of the first volume of the Royal Society Index, the student of mathematics is now particularly well provided in this respect. No one work could provide for his needs, and in fact they are at present supplied by several publications. The helps which have been provided for him naturally fall into three groups. The first of his needs is a means of obtaining a rapid survey of any department of his subject which will make him acquainted with the principal writings on it. Numerous encyclopædic works have been published which aim at supplying this want, the most important being the “Encyklopädie der mathematischen Wissenschaften,” which is at present in course of publication. A more important need is a means of following the course of current publications without an impracticable amount of reference to the papers themselves. This want is admirably supplied by the “Jahrbuch über die Fortschritte der Mathematik.” This valuable work, which appeared first in 1871, gives abstracts of all papers dealing with mathematics which have appeared within a space of twelve months, but it does not appear until two years after the one with which it deals. The abstracts in this work are arranged by subjects and indexed under the authors' names.

Royal Society of London, Catalogue of Scientific Papers, 1800–1900.

Subject Index Vol. I. Pure Mathematics. Pp. lviii+666. (Cambridge: University Press, 1908.) Price 21s. net.