Preface 



experience shows that important contributions that have once dropped out 

 of sight may for a long time, or indeed ever afterwards, be overlooked. 

 When the whole literature is set out systematically and exhaustively under 

 appropriate headings as in the present volume, such accidents are guarded 

 against so far as seems to be possible. 



The present volume dealing with Pure Mathematics is the first instal- 

 ment of the Subject Index : it contains 38748 entries referring to 700 serials. 

 It is believed that these entries cover all the contents of the serials indexed 

 with the exception of about 750 short notes (mostly falling under 6810 and 

 7210) which were not thought of sufficient permanent interest to be entered. 



The Index titles for papers published from 1884 to 1900 inclusive have 

 been made by Referees familiar with the subjects, who have consulted the 

 original papers and have made the titles from the contents of the papers 

 and not merely from their headings. It was intended that the Index entries 

 for the papers from 1800 to 1883 should be made from the titles as printed 

 in the Catalogue of Authors, but it was soon found that many of the titles 

 were too indefinite for such minute classification, and reference has had to 

 be made to the original papers in a large number of cases. The latter part 

 of this work was commenced by the late Mr George Griffith of Harrow, whose 

 untimely death was a great loss to the Committee. 



The entries in the Index are arranged so that reference can be made 

 to the complete titles in the Catalogue of Scientific Papers. Generally the 

 author's name together with the date will indicate the volume in which the 

 title of the paper may be found. These clues are insufficient when the 

 paper is anonymous or occurs in Volume XII or in the additions to 

 Volume VI. They are also at fault for titles marked with an asterisk 

 showing that they belong to previous volumes ; in these cases the number 

 of the volume is given in the Index entry in small Roman numerals within 

 brackets. 



When an error has been found in an author's name in the Catalogue, it 

 is corrected in the Index by a reference made to the error. 



The Index contains references to some papers of dates earlier than 1884 

 which were omitted in previous volumes of the Catalogue : these are 

 indicated by an asterisk placed before the date ; the full titles of these 

 papers will be given in the continuation of the Catalogue of Authors. 



When an author's personal name does not appear in the heading of an 

 original paper, no attempt has been made to find the name for the Index, 

 but this will be done for the Catalogue of Authors. 



The Catalogue of Authors for the period 1884 to 1900 is in preparation; 

 the material will not however be quite complete until the Subject Indexes 

 for the various Sciences have been reduced into order. 



Entries on the same subject are arranged, so far as possible, in order of 



