340 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



besides depending after all on the ready memory 

 of some library official as to the books which have 

 come in since the last supplement was published. 



This inconvenience is so great that printed 

 catalogues have gone into discredit in all the 

 principal libraries of Europe. Catalogues are in- 

 deed printed, from time to time, by way of pub- 

 lishing the treasures of the library, and as biblio- 

 graphical helps to other institutions ; but for the 

 use of those who daily consult the library, man- 

 uscript titles have quite superseded the printed 

 catalogue. In European libraries this is done in 

 what seems to us a rather crude way. Their 

 catalogues are enormous brown paper blank- 

 books or scrap-books, on the leaves of which are 

 pasted thin paper slips bearing the titles of the 

 books in the library. Large spaces are left for 

 the insertion of subsequent titles in their alpha- 

 betical order; and as a result of this method, the 

 admirable catalogue of the library of the British 

 Museum fills more than a thousand elephant 

 folios ! An athletic man, who has served his 

 time at base-ball and rowing, may think little of 

 lifting these gigantic tomes, but for a lady who 

 wishes to look up some subject one would think 

 it desirable to employ a pair of oxen and a wind- 

 lass. 



