PREFACE 



A CATALOGUE of Periodical Publications in the Royal Society's 

 Library was last printed in 1881 and the large number of acces- 

 sions to this section of the Library in the succeeding thirty 

 years has rendered it imperative to compile a new Catalogue. The 

 Library Committee, after full consideration of the question, decided that 

 a mere revision of the existing Catalogue would not be sufficient, and 

 that the compilation of a new Catalogue from the works on the shelves 

 was the only satisfactory way of meeting the requirements of the 

 Library. They were also of opinion that the old Catalogue, classified 

 under eight separate alphabets, was inconvenient for reference, and 

 decided that the new Catalogue should be arranged under one alphabet 

 and restricted as closely as possible to works which might properly be 

 termed periodical, leaving many of the publications entered in the old 

 Catalogue of Serials to be transferred to the Catalogue of Books, which 

 has always been maintained as a separate list. 



The new Catalogue contains the titles of all the works issued in a 

 serial form which were in the Society's Library on December 31st, 1911. 

 Some publications are included which are not, strictly speaking, issued 

 as periodicals (e. g. the Publications of the Ray Society), and there are 

 a few others as to which it is doubtful whether they are rightly classed 

 as periodicals : but in both these cases it has been thought better to 

 include something which may not be a serial rather than to exclude a 

 work which might possibly be looked for in a catalogue of periodicals. 



Every periodical is entered under the first word (the definite and in- 

 definite articles only excepted) in the title. The entries are numbered 

 consecutively to facilitate cross-references and are arranged in alpha- 

 betical order. Where the title of a periodical changes, the second and 

 any following titles are entered immediately after the original one ; 

 the later titles are also entered in their own places and cross-references 



