360 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



library received twenty -one volumes, of which 

 eighteen were gifts, while three were bought at 

 a total cost of 814.50 ! But either these were ex- 

 ceptionally unfruitful years, or what is more 

 likely the record was not carefully kept, for 

 the ordinary rate of increase in those days was by 

 no means so small as this, though small enough 

 when compared with the present rate. The ac- 

 cessions-catalogue has grown until it now fills 

 twenty-one large folio volumes. The entries in it 

 are made with considerable fulness by transcrip- 

 tion from the long cards. Usually a month's ac- 

 cessions are entered at once, and when this has 

 been done the long card is ready to take its place 

 in the catalogue. 



In this account of the career of a book, from its 

 reception to the time when it is duly entered on 

 all the catalogues, we find some explanation of 

 the way in which a librarian employs his time. 

 For while the work of cataloguing is done almost 

 entirely by assistants, yet unless every detail of it 

 passes under the librarian's eye there is no ade- 

 quate security for systematic unity in the results. 

 The librarian must not indeed spend his time in 

 proof-reading or in verifying authors' names; it 

 is essential that there should be some assistants 

 who can be depended upon for absolute accuracy 



