PREFACE. 



C f HIS Catalogue was begun in 1906 as that of a large collection of 

 J[ books in exact and applied science, and was expected to reach to 

 about three hundred pages. It grew as it went, and by the end 

 of the alphabet so many more works in allied subjects, as well as 

 other and interesting copies of books already described, had come in 

 that a Supplement was begun, still more fully annotated, which far 

 exceeded the size of the original scheme. To this a final Supplement 

 was added, and the whole ivas indexed under a full classification of 

 subjects. 



The result is, perhaps, the first Historical Catalogue of Science 

 published in any country, at least as giving at once the current price 

 of each book included, bibliographical particulars, and many bio- 

 graphical and historical references both in the descriptions themselves 

 and in the notes. In fact, it is felt that it ^vill be found to have very 

 considerable human interest. The pioneers of science have never been 

 of the dryasdust order, and still less confined to one class, but have 

 ranged from the ancients, the Arabs, and the great company of the 

 Mediaeval and after- He format ion clergy, ivith the remarkable contingent 

 of the Jesuits, to the Lord Mayor of London who first Englished Euclid. 

 Hoiv many coluere disciplinam tenui avend! And how many ivhy 

 not acknowledge it ? are of our own race ! 



As the Catalogue is one of actual books for sale it is of course not 

 complete, but it is believed that feiv of the great books will be found 

 lacking. 



The complement to the Catalogue is the INDEX. There is no com- 

 prehensive bibliography of exact science, in spite of numerous lists of 

 special subjects. These have often the defect of excluding the older 

 works as being out of date for practical purposes. But these very books 

 are the landmarks in the history of life. The Index, from the nature 



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