REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLICATION.

JUNE 1, 1880.

THE Committee of Publication have the honor to submit the following Report:

The Committee appointed at the last annual meeting of the Association consisted of Drs. Wm. B. Atkinson, T. M. Drysdale, Albert Frické, Samuel D. Gross, Caspar Wister, R. J. Dunglison, and William Lee. The meetings of the Committee were held at the office of Professor Gross, at the first of which Dr. Frické was chosen Chairman and Dr. Dunglison Secretary.

Immediately upon their organization they took active measures to meet the wishes of the Association as expressed in the following Resolution, passed at the last annual meeting, held at Atlanta, in May, 1879:

Resolved, That the Committee of Publication be instructed to advertise for proposals to publish the Transactions of this Association in six of the largest cities of the Union, and that the contract be awarded to the lowest and best responsible bidder.

Estimates were obtained, as herewith submitted, in response to proposals duly issued to eight cities, New York, Boston, Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis, Brooklyn, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. The responses were in reply to the Committee's queries as to cost of composition per 1000 ems, press work per token, paper per ream, and binding as per sample.

Messrs. John Murphy & Co., of Baltimore; Cushings & Bailey, of Baltimore; Jansen, McClurg & Co., of Chicago; and Wm. Wood & Co., of New York, declined to furnish estimates.

A careful consideration and absolutely impartial analysis of these estimates were made by the Committee, and in accordance

with those submitted, the Collins Printing House, being the lowest responsible bidder, was duly awarded the printing of Vol. XXX. of the Transactions.

Strenuous efforts were made by the Committee to procure an early publication of the Volume of Transactions, but it was found impracticable to accomplish this result until the last days of 1879. It is always difficult to publish a volume abounding in papers by numerous contributors, with the same facility and rapidity as the work of a single author, especially as each one so contributing is anxious to obtain proofs of his paper, and not always so prompt in returning them, even though he may be resident at a distance or most earnestly reminded by the Committee of the stringent rules adopted by them for their guid ance in this particular. Delay is especially augmented in the case of reports or papers containing illustrations, the proof of which, in most instances, must be seen repeatedly by the author, to insure accuracy and to give them their full value. In one case, notwithstanding the urgent appeal of the Committee by correspondence and telegrams, they were delayed for three or four weeks by the absence in Europe of the author of an important paper and the non-forwarding of proofs by a member of his family, who was desirous that the Committee should await his expected return. The duty entailed on the Committee by the Association itself of inviting bids for the publication of the Transactions was also a cause of delay, inasmuch as time was necessarily consumed in the analysis and consideration of the various estimates offered for the decision of the Committee.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

ALBERT FRICKÉ,

Chairman.