xxxviii 



In printing this Catalogue the form originally adopted and followed in the 

 Second or Supplemental volume has been continued, with a slight modification 

 in the direction of condensing the printed matter, thereby saving space and 

 consequently expense. 



To accomplish this, certain omissions and abbreviations have been enjoined, 

 as will be observed in the " Instructions for Printing." 



The Abbreviations are intelligible and the same throughout. Unimportant 

 as these may seem to be, examples of the economy of space and cost thus 

 accomplished by the saving of short lines may be ascertained on a comparison 

 of a page of this Catalogue with one of any other Library. 



By the adoption of these in some instances more than ten lines have found 

 room in a page of this Catalogue beyond the number in a similar page of either 

 of the preceding publications of the Trustees. If we take half that number as 

 an average of saving in each of about two thousand pages over which the 

 present Catalogue extends, the saving is very considerable, and has been attained 

 without any sacrifice of the fullness and clearness of information required. 



The Catalogue is now presented to the public. The preparation of it and 

 supervision of the printing has occupied the Librarian Mr. Sheffield and his 

 limited staff an unusually short time. To their credit be it said the accuracy 

 is most commendable. Embracing a large proportion of the whole field of 

 literature, ancient and modern, in its several divisions comprising more or less 

 amply works of the most eminent authors in each branch, including all the 

 leading authorities of modern times on scientific subjects, on those relating to 

 material industries, to mechanical and other pursuits, those connected with 

 the moral, social, learned, instructive, and interesting forms of intellectual 

 development which occupy the anxious attention of all civilized communities of 

 the present day the Catalogue shows that a collection of books has within the 

 comparatively brief period of a quarter of a century been assembled in a building 

 worthy of the country and, of the sacred cause of Literature, Science, and Art. 



