334 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



use of private libraries and households) are sent 

 in from time to time ; and books from Europe ar- 

 rive every few weeks in lots of from fifty to three 

 or four hundred. -It is in the case of foreign books 

 that our process is most thoroughly systematized, 

 and here let us take up our illustrative example. 



When a box containing three or four hundred 

 foreign books has been unpacked, the volumes are 

 placed, backs uppermost, on large tables, and are 

 then looked over by the principal assistant, with 

 two or three subordinates, to ascertain if the 

 books at hand correspond with those charged in 

 the invoice. As the titles are read from the in- 

 voice, the volumes are hunted out and arranged 

 side by side in the order in which their titles are 

 read, while the entry on the invoice is checked in 

 the margin with a pencil. These pencil-checks 

 are afterwards copied into the margins of the 

 book in which our lists of foreign orders are regis- 

 tered, so that we may always be able to deter- 

 mine, by a reference to this book, whether any 

 particular work has been received or not. This 

 order-book, with its marginal checks, is the only 

 immediate specific register of accessions kept by 

 us, as our peculiar system entails considerable 

 delay in bringing up the " accessions-catalogue." 



After this preliminary examination and regis- 



