''Supplement to NATURE, October ii, 1900. 



Do pou Realise tDat tbe Book is a 

 Book Tor you? 



Whatever may be your profession, what- 

 ever may be the nature of your interests 

 and the direction of your ambitions, you 

 will find in the Encyclopaedia Britannica 

 much to help you at your work, to forward' 

 you in your hobby, to encourage you in your 

 ambitions. No man, however wide may be 

 his activities, however quick his under- 

 standing, can satisfactorily live off his own 

 personal experience. The Encyclopasdia 

 Britannica takes the reader over the whole 

 world, giving him the experience of others 

 who have travelled further afield or whose 

 path in life has fallen in other places. It 

 is a book calculated to appeal to everyone, 

 and since it has been brought within the 

 reach of everyone, it is interesting to remark 

 what a comprehensive list is to be made 

 from those who have purchased " The 

 Times" Reprint. The fifty-two peers in- 

 clude Lord Salisbury ; there are 20 bishops, 

 and 80 officers in the Army and Navy, 

 starting with Lord Roberts. Mr. Kipling is among the long list of authors, and the late Lord 

 Russell appears in the roll of judges. Finance and manufacture are represented by some of 

 the biggest names. Such a hst shows in what respect the Encyclopaedia Britannica is held 

 by the most distinguished men in the country. But there is another list which may be 

 made, a list no less significant, for it shows how the work is rated by those who still have 

 their way to make. There are clergymen who are not yet bishops (sixty out of the first 

 thousand subscribers to the Daily Mail offer were clergymen), officers who are not yet 

 generals, lawyers, doctors, engineers, architects, who still have names and a fortune to make. 

 Perhaps you think that these professions account for most of the names upon the registers, 

 but this is not so. Manufacturers, men engaged in business of every sort, accountants, lancl 

 agents, auctioneers, Government inspectors, make up a total as great as that of the learned 

 professions. The man of business is no less keen to possess a book which may be of 

 practical use to him. The third highest figure in the list belongs to merchants. They are 

 followed by manufacturers and managers in every sort of works, iron foundries, chemical 

 works, cycle manufactories, breweries, lace factories, collieries, boot and shoe factories, 

 cotton mills, laundries. The appeal of the book to practical men, moreover, could hardly 

 be better exemplified than by the number of farmers and market gardeners who are down 

 among the subscribers. 



in the last announcement in which we put before readers of Nature the unique offer of 

 the great library, we attempted to suggest the grasp, the fulness, the brilliance which 

 characterises the scientific side of the many-sided book. The contributors whose names we 

 mentioned (such names as Lord Kelvin, Sir William Crookes, Professor Newton, Professor 

 Ray Lankester, Sir Robert Ball, Sir Archibald Geikie, Sir Norman Lockyer, Lord Rayleigh, 

 Professor St. George Mivart, Professor Dewar) are much more than experts fully equipped 

 with information, they are men who have not only written the history of their various 

 branches, but also helped to make that history by their own original researches. They are 

 men whose names are not only for to-day. It was on such a noble scheme that the editors 

 prepared the whole of the famous 9th Edition. In every department of knowledge they 

 claimed the services of men who were making history, of original thinkers. There is a very 



jl Book tbat can neuer a^ain be sold on sucD 

 extraordinarp terms* 



