DISCOVERY 



197 



series, showed that much work still remained to be 

 done in order to render the material adequate for the 

 purpose. Accordingly a new appeal was made to 

 volunteers to collect additional quotations from 

 specified books, of which lists were from time to time 

 issued. More than eight hundred readers in Great 

 Britain, the United States, and elsewhere, responded 

 to this appeal, and in the course of three years a million 

 additional quotations were furnished, raising the total 

 number to three and a half millions, selected by about 

 thirteen hundred readers, from the works of more than 

 five thousand authors of all periods. About thirty 

 sub-editors (including a few who have never ceased to 

 work for the Dictionary) offered their gratuitous ser- 

 vices in arranging quotations, preparing definitions, 

 and other\vise contributing to the progress of the work. 

 Without the aid of these generous contributors and 

 fellow-labourers so great a task could never have been 

 undertaken." 



***** 

 These immense collections, which even before the 

 printing of the work had begun were already thirty-five 

 times larger than had been contemplated in i860, 

 would have been sufficient in themselves to ensure the 

 sup)ereminence of the Dictionary. No other book has 

 had, and very few ever will have, foundations laid in 

 an inductive investigation of so wide a character. A 

 simple classification of the available material for the 

 various words, an intelligent selection from it, and a 

 careful verification of the references, would have 

 resulted in producing a work of the greatest value and 

 usefulness. The adoption of such a course, however, 

 which in itself would have involved no small amount 

 of labour, was rendered wtually impossible by the 

 very wealth of the material. This continually raised 

 problems and presented difficulties which had not 

 confronted any previous lexicographer, and the 

 solution of these constantly involved prolonged 

 researches in many different fields of study. A single 

 quotation, containing a rare word or some unusual 

 sense of a word, frequently became the starting-point 

 of an investigation, historical or etymological, which 

 might lead to some interesting discovery and explain 

 something previously unknown or misunderstood. At 

 an early stage of the work it became apparent that 

 such researches, if they were to be adequately carried 

 out, would demand ample limits of time and space, 

 and that satisfactory results could only be achieved 

 by the organisation of a large and highly skilled editorieJ 

 staff, which could have easy access to one or other of 

 the great libraries, and profit by the assistance of 

 many scholars and men of science. To attain this 

 end. Dr. Murray with his staff removed to Oxford in 

 1885. He was fortunate in the widespread interest 

 which his work excited in this and other countries, 



and in the many lasting friendships which it made for 

 him. Without the generous help which this interest 

 and these friendships drew from many quarters, it 

 would have been almost impossible to collect adequate 

 materials for the Dictionary. The list of voluntary 

 helpers within the British Islands, many of whom have 

 rendered inestimable ser\dce, is so extensive that it 

 must be sought in the prefaces to the various volumes ; 

 but something may be said here of the assistance which 

 has come from ov'er the seas. In early stages much 

 help was given by American scholars, whose work was 

 organised and superintended by Professor F. A. March, 

 of Lafayette College, Penn. The preface to Vol. I 

 (p. 15) records large contributions of materials from 

 several Americans, while here, or in other volumes, the 

 names of Fitzedward Hall, W. C. Minor, A. Matthews, 

 C. W. Ernst, etc., are mentioned among those to whom 

 special recognition is due. In another direction, across 

 the North Sea, Mr. Caland, of Wageningen, was for 

 many years a devoted contributor and critical proof- 

 reader. 



***** 



Even with all the assistance thus freely given, it 

 became evident, within a few years from the start, that 

 the magnitude of the task undertaken by Sir James 

 Murray had not been fuOy realised. To hasten the 

 completion of the work, additional editors were ap- 

 pointed. 



Dr. Bradley, who had previously worked in London, 

 first giving help with the letter B, undertook the 

 editing of E, and removed to Oxford in 1896. Dr. 

 Craigie, who joined the staff at Oxford in 1897, first 

 assisted in the preparation of G, I, and K, and began 

 independent editing with 0. Mr. Onions, after com- 

 pleting ten years of service with Sir James Murray and 

 Dr. Bradley, was engaged in specially preparing 

 p>ortions of M, N, R, and S, and at the beginning of 

 1914 undertook the independent editing of Su-Sz. 



Thus the editorial list stands at October i, 1919 : 



The late Sir James Murray, editor of A B C D, 



H I J K, O P, T. 

 Henry Bradley, editor of E F G, L M, S-Sh, and St. 

 William A. Craigie, editor of N, Q R, Si-Sq, and 



V. 

 C. T. Onions, editor of Su-Sz. 



***** 

 Sir James Murray died on July 26, 1915. His great 

 wish that he should live to finish the Dictionary on 

 his eightieth birthday, in 1917, had not been fulfilled ; 

 the unceasing labour of threc-and-thirty years ended 

 when less than a tenth part of the work remained to 

 be done. Almost within a week of his death he was 

 still spending long hours at his desk. At the beginning 

 he laid the lines and drew the plan ; in the prosecution 



