46 



NATURAL SCIENCE. 



July, 



of the Dewey scheme is the wide appHcation of many of its groups of 

 numbers : for example, each branch of science has the following 

 divisions 



1 Philosophy, Theories, Nomenclature. 



2 Handbooks (" Compends " of Dewey). 

 Dictionaries. 

 Essays, Tracts. 

 Periodicals. 



Societies C" Academies" of the Brit. Mus. Cat.). 

 Study, Teaching, Museums. 

 Collected Works. 

 History. 



These are applied alike to all main divisions from " Religion " to 

 " Useful Arts"; whereas in the Royal Society scheme nothing is said 

 of these subdivisions in Anthropology or Zoology, in Botany the 

 Dewey plan is followed, and in Geology and its subdivisions we 

 have : — 



Here "teaching" and " museums," .though intimately connected in 

 practice, are disjoined, and no place is left for collected works. 



Again, as we have already mentioned, the geographical numbers 

 of Dewey form a single rational system of universal application, and 

 therefore easily remembered, but here we have the following choice 

 assortment : — 



It seems hardly worth while to criticise these schemes individu- 

 ally ; they may be allowed to answer one another. The alternative 

 classification of zoology, however, calls for a few comments. There 

 can be no doubt that although the faunistic regions of Wallace and 

 Sclater may be more scientific, nevertheless the old political divisions 

 are far more frequently used by zoological writers, and a scheme 

 based upon them would be of far wider utility than one based on the 



