SOURCE MATERIAL FOR PRIZE ESSAY CONTESTS GEORGEW. BENNETT, GROVECITYCOLLEGE, GROVE CITY,PENNSYLVANIA
The problem of obtaining suitable material for assigned readings in general chemistry, for the science or chemistry club programs, or for prize essay contests often proves most troublesome. The first- or second-year college student is not usually in a sufficiently advanced stage of progress in chemistry to be referred to the technical journals with either pleasure or profit, and even the third- and fourth-year students have some trouble in using what technical journals are available. This situation in recent years has been alleviated by the publications of The Chemical Foundation and EDUCATION.There is, however, a rather by the JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL extensive literature of chemistry appearing in contemporary non-technical magazines that is well adapted to the needs of undergraduate students for general purposes. These articles are written in language for the layman, but are largely authoritative for they are often written by the most eminent chemists of our day. A surprisingly large number of people do not know that the periodical literature is well indexed, but it is, and an abundance of material is available in the smallest library. There is no one index to all the periodical literature, but rather a number of indexes, each of which serves a particular purpose. Of these indexes the one which has the greatest utility for the topic suggested is the "Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature."' This guide is found in most libraries. The "Readers' Guide" appears in four-, three-, and later two-year summations, with annual, semi-annual, and monthly summations to bring the index up to date from 1900 inclusive. For this period over 1000 titles are listed under the headings "chemical," "chemistry," and "chemists," and there is a multitude of related topics such as "colloids," "fuels," "metallurgy," etc. The range of topics is great. Information can be found, for instance, on every topic suggested as desirable for a course in pandemic chemistry ( I ) , or for The American Chemical Society prize essay subjects ( 2 ) . A list of names of authors of these articles would be an international roll of honor of great chemists and physicists, and would include more than one Nobel prize winner. An item of importance for the small library not to be overlooked in passing is that the magazines indexed are fairly common and include such sources as Current History, Current Opinion, Literary Digest, Popular Mechanics, Radio Broadcast, Science, Scientific American, Scientific Monthly, and other similar magazines. Of less utility, perhaps, is the "International Index to Periodicals."' This index covers a differentseries of magazines from that of the Readers' Guide. The articles indexed are more technical in subject matter, but there is the novel advantage of articles in French, German, and English, if the appropriate magazines are available. Published by H. W. Wilson Co., New York City.
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The "Annual Magazine Subject-Index,"% appears annually since 1907 and covers some 160 magazines. Its field is generally inclusive, supplementing the "Readers' Guide" and the "International Index," but i t does not list much under "chemistry." The "Industrial Arts Index,"' is more technical than either the "Readers' Guide" or the "International Index," indexing articles in some 250 technical and trade journals. The field is better covered, of course, by Chemical Abstracts. This index appeared in annual volumes from 1913 to 1917, and in two-year cumulations since that time. It also cites French, German, and English sources. The "Agricultural Index,"' is a mine of information on chemistry in agriculture, but i t is more difficult to use because the titles are not indexed, of course, with chemistry as a paramount interest. It indexes 150 agicultural journals, experiment station literature, and literature of the agricultural departments of many countries. References are to articles in French, German, Italian, Spanish, and English. This index appears in three-year cumulations beginning with 1916. "Poole's Index to the Periodical Literature'' was the first of such indexess The articles indexed begin with 1802 and conclude with 1907. A variable number of magazines were indexed in that period. The first volume covering the period 1802-1881 has an extensive list of topics on chemistry, but they would now be practically of historical interest only. When it comes to books the libray card.catalog probably will serve the student's interests best, but the "United S t a t 9 Catalog"' lists author, subject, and title indexes of all books in print. There are seven pages devoted to "chemistry" which covers about 1000 books. There are also separate sections for allotropy, alloys,atomic theory, phase rule, solutions, and numerous similar topics. The "Cumulative Book Index," by the same publishers, supplements the United States Catalog annually. It is unlikely that all these indexes will be found a t one time in all. libraries, but if one or more of them is available, as well as a reasonable range of current magazines, then a large amount of understandable, authoritative, and helpful material for assigned readings, club programs, or the essay contests may be readily found in what sometimes appears to be a welter of periodical literature. Literature Cited J. CHEM.EDUC.,3, 396 (Apr., 1926); SAMPEY,ibid., 5, 1243, (1) BANCROFT, 1249 (Oct., 1928); TIMM,ibid., 6, 1316 (July-Auk, 1929); HAYNES,Science, 65, 462 (1927). ( 2 ) "The A. C. S. Prize Essay Contest," J. CBEM.EDUC.,6, 1805-6 (Oct., 1929). Published by F. W. Faxon Co., Boston, Mass. It is published by Houghton, Mifflin, and Co., Boston and New York, who also pnhlished an abridged edition of this famous index.
