PREFACE TO FOURTH SERIES 



The Fourth Series of the Royal Society's Catalogue of Scientific Papers, of which 

 this is the first volume, comprises the titles of papers published or read during the 

 period 1884 to 1900, and concludes the work undertaken by the Royal Society. The 

 Catalogue thus completed will contain titles of papers for the whole of the nineteenth 

 century. The continuation of the work is now in the hands of the authorities of the 

 International Catalogue of Scientific Literature, which deals with the titles and subjects 

 of papers published after the end of the year 1900. 



In order to obtain the material for the present Catalogue arranged according to 

 Authors, and also for the Subject Indexes of the various sciences, the serial publications 

 on the list for the period 1884-1900 were submitted to Referees conversant with the sciences 

 treated in them, who selected the papers that ought to be catalogued. The Referees 

 have, in addition, advised the inclusion of parts of some Serials which had been omitted 

 in previous volumes of the Catalogue either by accident or in consequence of their being 

 at the time inaccessible. These and all other entries relating to papers previous to 1884 

 are marked by asterisks in accordance with the method adopted in the earlier series of 

 the Catalogue. 



In consequence of the selection of the papers having been made by different Referees, 

 and especially on account of the different characters of the subject matter, there will probably 

 be found some differences of method of selection as regards the less exactly defined 

 sciences, especially in the cases of Anthropology and Geography. 



When the preparation of the slips was commenced, it was intended to number the 

 entries consecutively under each author, as had been the practice in the previous twelve 

 volumes ; but, in consideration of the time occupied in identifying the authors in order to 

 connect the numbers with those in former parts of the Catalogue and the large quantity 

 of matter to be dealt with, the Committee decided that the numbering should be discon- 

 tinued. Thus the numbering is here confined to entries under the letter A. 



Where the full names of authors are not given at the headings of the papers, but 

 only their surnames, a dash has been placed after the surname, if there is no probability of 

 confusion with other authors. Where such confusion might occur, reference books have 

 been consulted or, as a last resort, application has been made, when possible, to the 

 authors themselves for information. In the cases in which names of authors have been 

 made complete by addition of parts not appended to the original papers the additions are 

 printed in square brackets. The preparation of Catalogues and hand lists would be much 



