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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 191 1. 



THE ENCYCLOPjEDIA BRITANNICA. 



The Encyclopaedia Britannica : A Dictionary of Arts, 

 Sciences, Literature, and General Information. 

 Eleventh edition. Vols, i.-xiv. (A — Italic.) (Cam- 

 bridge : University Press, 19 10.) 

 THE Encyclopaedia Britannica is of Scottish birth. 

 Its first edition appears in 1771. Its interesting 

 and rather chequered history occupies some three 

 pages of the present (eleventh) edition, and shows its 

 intimate connection with the land o*f its birth imtil 

 the reprint of the ninth edition issued by The Times 

 in 1898. Under the same auspices the eleven-volume 

 supplement to the ninth edition was issued, and, to- 

 gether with that edition, formed the tenth, in 1902, 

 and it is not a little curious to observe that the impres- 

 sion created by that issue appears to have been so 

 strong that few realise off-hand that the present new 

 edition has occupied eight years in the making. Its 

 preparation continued to be conducted from the office 

 of The Times until 1909, when the rights of publication 

 were taken over by the Cambridge University Press, 

 a step generally acknowledged to be peculiarly appro- 

 priate to the character of the work. It is proposed in 

 the present general notice to consider some of the most 

 notable characteristics of the work, such as distinguish 

 it from former editions and from other works of refer- 

 ence. For that it possesses such characteristics cannot 

 be questioned ; the new edition shows evidence of much 

 more than a simple reliance upon traditional form. 



Probably the two leading ideals before the editorial 

 staff in preparing the eleventh edition have been (i) 

 to make the whole work easy of reference and self- 

 explanatory, and (2) to ensure that ever}' article should 

 possess, so far as possible, a permanent value, giving 

 preference (within reason) to the established fact over 

 the statement of the moment or over prophecy. The 

 Encyclopaedia Britannica has been traditionally dis- 

 tinguished for certain individual features, such as a 

 high literarA- standard and the existence of " omnibus " 

 articles — practically complete treatises — on each great 

 main division of knowledge. The simple addition of 

 many short separate articles, while sufficient to make 

 reference easier, might have tended to obscure the 

 literary standard and to duplicate the information con- 

 tained in the omnibus articles. But the old omnibus 

 article could not always be self-explanaton,' ; it could 

 not guide the unlearned reader along the main line of 

 his subject without taking him incidentally along the 

 branches, whereas the specialist, desiring to find a 

 particular branch, must follow up the main line to 

 reach it. It has now been assumed that the principal 

 function of such an omnibus article as "geolog}'" is 

 to indicate the main lines of that science, with free 

 reference to branches of the subject dealt with more 

 fully under separate headings. Thus the reader desir- 

 ous of studying the glacial period now finds that 

 heading in its own place, instead of having to search 

 the treatise on geology for it. Again, not even the 

 glacial period and the glacier itself fall under one 

 general head, but each has its own. By this method 

 it has been sought to ensure that the elementary 

 NO. 2153, VOL. 85] 



student may find his elements, and the specialist his 

 special subject, unobscured the one by the other. The 

 single illustration given is that of a principle which 

 has been applied so far as possible in ever}' depart- 

 ment of the work. 



The introduction of what has been called the "dic- 

 tionary feature " is of a piece with this same principle. 

 There are ver}- many terms which a specialist uses 

 naturally without considering that they may call for 

 explanation ; especially there are many the meaning 

 and connotation of which vary in general and in 

 particular application. Few such terms, and for many 

 others in commonest use, the origin of which is 

 peculiar or obscure, definitions on an etymological 

 basis have been introduced — often a short separate 

 article has been inserted for this purpose alone. This 

 feature is an expression of the ideal of making the 

 work self-explanaton,'. 



The attempt to make every article as nearly as may 

 be of permanent value has imposed a heav}- responsi- 

 bility' on the editorial staff. The system of employing 

 statistics offers an illustration. In the previous 

 editions they were used very freely, and in many cases 

 simply for their own sake, the reader being left to 

 draw his own conclusions from them. It has now 

 been felt that this practice (subject, of course, to the 

 inclusion of certain essential figures like vital statistics) 

 is far rather the function of an annual register than 

 of an encyclopaedia, and that the proper encyclopaedic 

 function of statistics is to illustrate statements of fact, 

 so that they ought not as a rule to stand alone. They 

 have, therefore, been used much more sparingly than 

 before, and in many cases even without reference to 

 the latest figures available, when others better illus- 

 trate the particular point under notice. 



On more general grounds, it is always difficult to 

 appraise a current event at its historical value, with 

 due allowance for its momentary' appeal to the minds 

 of men. Here again the editorial responsibiHt\- has 

 been heav\-, the heavier owing to the almost simul- 

 taneous publication of the complete work. For it may 

 be assumed, and ought to be remembered, that the 

 copy for twent>'-eight textual volumes of nearly a 

 thousand pages each cannot be kept under the editorial 

 hand until one month, or two months, or three, before 

 the date of publication, and the order be then given 

 to the printers. It may be taken for granted, for 

 instance, that the article on the kingdom of Portugal 

 was in its final form when the revolution created a 

 republic instead, and much of the article must be 

 recast. The result of the last general election was due 

 on a certain day ; the proper alphabetical place must 

 be held open in the text to include that result, while 

 the presses continued their work on either side of the 

 waiting page. We recognise something of the jour- 

 nalistic method here, in the judgment as to which 

 events of the moment are to be dealt with in this 

 way and which are not, and the journalistic experi- 

 ence of the editor, Mr. Chisholm, must have stood him 

 in good stead. 



The simultaneous publication of the eleventh edition 

 is a remarkable achievement in various obvious ways ; 

 it has certain less obvious bearings on the character 



