British Abstracts

Although CA and Referativnyi Zhurnal, Khimya are currently the only chemical abstracting publications that cover the entire field of chemistry, there were a number of earlier abstracting publications now defiinct. The most important are Chemisches Zentralblatt and British Abstracts. These publications are still valuable because they began before CA and can therefore supply abstracts for papers that appeared before 1907. Furthermore, even for papers published after 1907, Zentralblatt and British Abstracts are often more detailed. Zentralblatt was published, under various names, from 1830 to 1969. British Abstracts was a separate publication from 1926 to 1953, but earher abstracts from this source are available in the Journal of the Chemical Society from 1871 to 1925. 

British Abstract Painting of the 1860s The Spirit Drawings of Georgiana... 

Beil (Ref 1) this compd was not prepd in the free state but its prepn by Rathsburg (Ref 4) by oxidg amino tetr azole in ale sol ns with permanganate or persulfates is described in CA 17, 1147(1923). A diazotetrazole was prepd by diazotizing aminotetrazole The British abstract of the patent of Rathsburg (Ref 4) shows an azotetrazole with the structure ... 

Brit. Chem. Abstr. British Abstracts, Bureau of Abstracts, London. 

Other abstract and index journals. Subject indexes in British Abstracts and Chemi-sches Zentralblatt subject indexes in physical science and engineering subject indexes in biology, agriculture, and medicine. 

The system of subject indexing in British Abstracts [which ceased publication with the December 1953 issue] is described in the 1948 index (4). Subject indexing is used rather than word indexing, but the range of subject headings listed is very much narrower than that of Chemical Abstracts. These subject headings or key words do not always include the chemical name but are "the words under which the information is most likely to be sought. ... 

Chemical Abstracts, British Abstracts, and Chemisches Zentralblatt have patent indexes in which the numbers of the patents, issued in different countries and abstracted by them, are listed with the page of the abstracts on which they appear. When the number of a patent is known, finding an abstract of that patent presents no difficulties. 

In searching for patents on a certain subject, the index is used as in searching for information on any subject. In British Abstracts and Chemical Abstracts the reference entries under subject heading concerning patents are prefixed by the letter P, and in Chemisches Zentralblatt they are marked with an asterisk. The same prefixes are placed before the titles of patents in the author index, which also lists the names of the assignee. In Chemisches Zentralblatt the name of the country in which the patent was first issued is included after the title of the patent in the author index. 

Unfortunately there is, even in English, no generally accepted form of transliteration. In the United States we have the Chemical Abstracts system, the Library of Congress system, the Government Printing Office system, the New York Public Library system, and perhaps others as well. The system used by British Abstracts is similar to, but not absolutely identical to, the one used by Chemical Abstracts. 

The nearer the beginning of a word a spelling difference occurs the more trouble it can cause when using an index. In the following examples the first letter in British usage differs from the practice of Chemical Abstracts cedema, cestrin, and oestrous, all of which are to be found in British Abstracts or the abstracts in the Journal of Applied Chemistry under o instead of e. 

While not precisely a different word in British Abstracts or the abstracts in the Journals of Applied Chemistry there are the two entries Moulds, biological, and Moulds, foundry, written m-o-u-l-d in both cases. In some British indexes of the early nineteen thirties the term used for what is known in the United States as deuterium is diplogen. Later indexes of the same periodicals conform to the American usage. 

Few literature searches can remain within the Chemical Abstracts system of abbreviations for any length of time. Even within the confines of Chemical Abstracts, Beilstein, British Abstracts (which discontinued in 1953), Chemisches Zentralblatt, and the Referativnyi Zhurnal, Khimiya the abbreviation of Justus Liebig s Anruden der Chemie will vary from Ann. to A to Annalen to Liebig s Ann, Chem., or Liebigs Ann. Chem. Other examples could easily be appended. 

In addition to the problem of which word order is to be used, there is the question of which words or parts of words shall be omitted or retained. For instance, the word American might appear as A, Am., Amer., or Amern. Abbreviations for the word Journal are similarly varied. The letter A might also stand for Annalen, annaler, annales, annali, Annalen der Chemie, abstracts, age, or even British Abstracts, Section A. 

Chemisches Zentralblatt Different Dates British Abstracts Chemical Abstracts ... 

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