BIBLIOGRAPHY, A STUDY OF RESOURCES. 153 



assure you that in practice the plan is very convenient and 

 time-saving. Some of the best investigators prefer other 

 methods of citing authorities. I can only recommend the two 

 methods just indicated as best in my own judgment, and add 

 that it is more important to have a good method than to have 

 any special method. 



5. Spare your readers long abstracts of previous papers. 

 Omit most of the abstracts you are tempted to insert, and 

 make those you do give as brief as possible. Abstracts at best 

 are inadequate repetitions, and save in exceptional instances 

 should be avoided, especially since there has developed such 

 an elaborate machinery for the publication of abstracts of all 

 important and many unimportant papers. Too often an abstract 

 is tacked on not for any useful purpose, but only to prove that 

 the author has read the original. On the other hand, a compre- 

 hensive review of the results collated from a number of publi- 

 cations may often be valuable, while separate abstracts of the 

 same papers would be almost valueless. 



About the arrangement of one's own library let me inter- 

 polate a few observations. Of course if a library is small, by 

 which I mean of less than 500 volumes and pamphlets, no 

 special arrangement is needed, beyond what may be the out- 

 come of one's personal convenience. And, on the other hand, 

 if your library be very large, you must adopt a thorough library 

 system. Most working naturalists have, however, libraries of 

 moderate size, the orderly and convenient arrangement of 

 which is often a perplexing problem. The perplexity arises 

 chiefly from the accumulation of pamphlets, which are a very 

 valuable part of a worker's scientific library, being for the most 

 part reprints of articles in his own special field. Now, there 

 are three prevalent ways of treating pamphlets. 



1. Bind them in volumes by authors. 



2. Bind them in volumes by subjects. 



3. Arrange them in boxes. 



Of these three methods the last is the simplest, most expedi- 

 tious, and for a library without a catalogue the most convenient. 

 The boxes readily serve for a classification either by authors or 

 subjects, as you may prefer. Of boxes for this purpose I 



