vi. Preface. 



General works like those of Watts, Kayser, Lorenz, or 

 Brunet, wonderful as they are in their gigantic undertaking, 

 are yet necessarily very imperfect and altogether inadequate 

 to the requirements of the age. Had Brunet indeed con- 

 fined himself exclusively to recording the works written 

 before the seventeenth century, it would have been more 

 satisfactory to succeeding bibliographers, inasmuch as his 

 researches would have acquired additional value, in pro- 

 portion to their concentration on a period now too distant 

 to be easily retraced. 



In view therefore of the utter incapability of General 

 Bibliography to cope with the ever increasing mass of 

 special and technical information, it becomes every day 

 more of a necessity to index the various branches of 

 literature separately and fully. 



Much has been done already as may be seen by Petz- 

 holdt's Bibliotheca Bibliographica ; much has been done so 

 well, that it may be said to have been done for all time, 

 such as Baker's Biographia Dramatical and the Guide to 

 the Literature of Botany by Mr. Jackson, published by the 

 Index Society ; much however remains to be done before 

 the reader will be in a position to see at a glance what 

 treasures of research are at his command. 



This object, to be properly and thoroughly attained, 

 should be carried out by a Society. Such a Society already 

 exists in the above named Index Society, and it is much 

 to be regretted that its labours should be restricted for 



