432 



NATURE 



[February 2, 191 1 



of the book. It should be a guarantee, for instance, 

 of a well-balanced treatment of all subjects from A to 

 Z. Not a few great works of reference, including the 

 encyclopaedia itself in former editions, appearing 

 volume by volume over the period of a generation, 

 have shown signs (so to speak) of fatigue in about 

 the last quarter of the alphabet. In some instances it 

 may have been financial fatigue, in others merely the 

 realisation that the proportions of the first few 

 volumes, if maintained, would bring the completed 

 work to an impossible bulk. But the promise of 

 simultaneous publication disposed of any such possi- 

 bilities in the present edition, for in order to carry it 

 out the cost must have been counted and the scheme 

 laid out, not volume by volume, but for the whole 

 work at once. And this treatment of the whole con- 

 notes the similar treatment of every part, not merelv 

 as regards the laying-out of each group of main and 

 subsidiary articles, but as regards questions of general 

 policy. The illustrations are a case in point. The 

 editorial ideal has been to illustrate where illustration 

 is a genuine assistance or supplement to textual 

 description, and only in that way, not including 

 pictures simply for their own sake. So every sugges- 

 tion or possibility of illustration has been brought, 

 so to say, under one standard test. 



It is the same with the maps. The tenth edition set 

 the precedent of an atlas volume. The editors of the 

 eleventh have put this precedent aside. Their view may 

 be open to criticism ; there are undoubtedly arguments 

 in favour of an atlas volume. But the advantage of 

 having the article on each important territory accom- 

 panied by its appropriate map has been considered 

 stronger. Moreover, the possibility of allocating to 

 each such territorial article its map according to a 

 graduated scale— double-plate, single-plate, or small 

 text map, coloured map or black only— has given the 

 geographical editors an opportunity in the direction 

 of proportional treatment which would have been 

 precluded by the construction of an atlas, at any 

 rate of the size of an encyclopaedia scheme. 

 At the same time, the proper indexing of the 

 maps has been undertaken, so that they may 

 fulfil the atlas-function. Here the editorial ideal 

 has been to set before the cartographers either the 

 actual text of the articles to be. illustrated or the most 

 precise instructions as the scope and orthography of 

 each map, to carry out the indexing in the editorial 

 office, and to apply as part of that process a careful 

 system of checking and correction. This method 

 presupposes the manufacture of a complete series of 

 new maps for the book; there has been no use of 

 cartographers' stock. 



Mention of map-indexing leads to the subject of 

 text-indexing. The indexing of the tenth edition was 

 a great conception, and of course added enormously to 

 ease of reference. But it was an after-thought, 

 whereas the work of preparing the index entries for 

 the eleventh edition has proceeded concurrently with 

 practically the whole work, the pagination being added 

 at the last. It has been possible, therefore, to put 

 the indexing to an editorial use, in this way— that 

 when the index-references on any subject were put 

 together, they have been found sometimes to indicate 

 NO. 2153, VOL. 85] 



the existence of unnecessary duplications or of incon- 

 sistencies of view or even of fact, between articles by 

 different authors — such duplications or inconsistencies 

 as could not possibly have been discovered by any 

 other editorial method. 



The eleventh edition bears a clear international 

 imprint. If the conception of certain articles dealing 

 with subjects of world-wide interest be compared in 

 this and former editions, evidence will be found of 

 another editorial ideal. For example, on matters of 

 government, sociology, law and the like, it has been 

 sought to explain not British practice only, but 

 American and foreign as well. The work has an extra- 

 British reputation already ; it has palpably been 

 attempted to justify and increase that reputation. 

 The multinational list of contributors illustrates the 

 same ideal. 



It has been said above that one tradition of the 

 Encyclopaedia Britannica is a high literary standard. 

 This has been preserved. No man reads a dictionary 

 or ordinarj' book of reference for its own sake as 

 literature. The editors of such works have no room 

 to ofTer their contributors any literary opportunity. 

 But while it would be unfair to forget that the problem 

 of the best utilisation of available space must have 

 been as constantly present to the editor of the Encyclo- 

 paedia Britannica as to the printer of a finger-prayer- 

 bcok, the fact remains that twenty-eight large volumes 

 do offer a literary opportunity ; if they did not, they 

 would not justify their existence. On any subject 

 capable of literary treatment (and few are not) the 

 Encyclopaedia appears to apply that treatment ; it is 

 impossible to turn many pages (except one should 

 light on such a topic as higher mathematics) without 

 reaching some subject or fact which is presented so as 

 to arouse the casual, as distinct from the special, 

 interest. The India-paper edition makes it possible to 

 do this without physical discomfort, and the production 

 of that edition is in itself an unprecedented achieve- 

 ment, for it must necessarily presuppose that paper- 

 mills of some half-a-dozen countries have been laid 

 under contribution to meet a demand of such magni- 

 tude, and that the printing must have been carried 

 out with a rapidity the possibility of which, as apply- 

 ing to India paper, was probably unrealised before. 

 On these grounds the manufacture of the book must 

 be pronounced admirable. 



Such, then, have been some of the ideals of the 

 editors and publishers. There is. every evidence that 

 they view the finished work with enthusiasm, knowing 

 more than others can of the difficulties which have 

 been overcome; judged upon these general grounds, 

 their enthusiasm appears justified. 



ELECTROMAGNETS. 



Solenoids Electromagnets and Electromagnetic Wind- 

 ings. By Charles R. Underbill. Pp. xix + 342. 

 (London: Constable and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 

 Ss. net. 



THIS is a book dealing generally with electro- 

 magnets, and so far as the author records experi- 

 mental results will be found useful, but the explanation 

 of the experiments is not given as fully as is desirable 



