A Librarian's Work. 353 



exasperating initials, for a clue to which you may 

 perhaps spend an hour or two in fruitless inquiry. 

 In accurate cataloguing, all such adjuncts to a 

 book must be noticed, and often require distinct 

 reference - cards. Curious difficulties are some- 

 times presented by the phenomena of compound 

 or complex authorship, as in works like the Bol- 

 landist " Acta Sanctorum," conducted by a group 

 of men, some of whom are removed by death, 

 while their places are supplied by new collabora- 

 tors. Some other immense work, like Migne's u Pa- 

 trologiae Cursus Completus," will give rise to nice 

 questions owing to the indefiniteness with which 

 its various parts are demarcated from each other. 

 Many German books, on the other hand, are 

 troublesome from the excessive explicitness with 

 which they are divided, with sub-titles and sub- 

 sub-titles innumerable, in accordance with some 

 subtle principle not always to be detected at the 

 first glance. The proper mode of entry for re- 

 ports of legal cases and trials, periodicals, and 

 publications of learned societies, governments, 

 and boards of commissioners, is sure to call for 

 more or less technical skill and practical discrim- 

 ination. Anonymous and pseudonymous works 

 are very common, and even the best bibliograph- 

 ical dictionaries cannot keep pace with the issue 



23 



