NAIVRE 



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A SCIENTIFIC CATALOGUE 

 Bernard Quaritch's General Catalogue. Part II. Natural 

 History and Science. Part III. Periodicals, Journals, 

 and Transactions. (London: 1881-83.; 



TN few instances that a political economist could hold 

 up as an example is the function of the merchant in 

 the processes of supply and demand so clearly and simply 

 displayed as in that of Mr. Bernard Ouaritch, the wealthy 

 merchant in the book trade. He is especially a merchant- 

 man seeking goodly pearls, whose great qualification 

 must be that he knows the e.xact demand for, and the 

 exact scarcity of, what is to be bought and sold. His 

 catalogue does not aim at completeness as did the one 

 which we noticed lately. Scarcely more than one-tenth 

 of the titles carefully entered in Mr. Friedlander's lists are 

 to be found here ; but these make a collection, and a very 

 large one, of books brought together by "natural'' selec- 

 tion with the same good results in this case of intelligent 

 working, as in the more automatic world around us. 

 Many eminent men in various branches of science have 

 first selected books bearing upon their own subject;', and 

 then, on the dispersion of such libraries, Mr. Quaritch 

 selects those works which have a higher value through 

 their own superior merit, or the often doubtful though 

 highly-prized recommendation of rarity. Accordingly 

 Mr. Quaritch's catalogue is considerably like the sum 

 total of British legislation. Each item of it was the 

 supply of an existing want according to the best light of 

 the time of its production. While circumstances, how- 

 ever, have changed and fresh laws have been devised to 

 meet the changed circumstances, old laws have remained 

 upon the statute book, and the existing code contains at 

 the same time both inconsistent repetitions and grave 

 deficiencies, and lacks both symmetry and completeness. 

 While the catalogue of Mr. Friedlander shows the German 

 love of both these good qualities and the scientific tastes of 

 the compiler, that of Mr. Quaritch does not profess to be 

 complete in any sense ; it is a list of an immense stock 

 of books brought together, as their former possessors 

 ceased to require them, by a shrewd man of business who 

 knew their market value. Hence in examining these 

 bound up volumes which contain the many rich prizes of 

 scientific literature constituting Part II. and Part 111. of 

 a new " General Catalogue," one is not surprised to find 

 that a book like Agassiz's " Nomenclator Zoologicus" is 

 to be found in four different places in one of them ; that 

 five copies of Owen's "Odontography" are offered, and 

 a variety of copies of many others. 



In Friedliinder's catalogue we had to complain of too 

 much classifying ; not because classification is not of 

 extreme value as a ready guide to the contents of a 

 catalogue or library, but because many books refuse to 

 fall under one head only, however discreet may be the 

 arrangement. Mr. Bernard Quaritch's catalogue is just 

 the reverse. In these volumes there is no attempt at 

 either alphabetical or subject-divisions of the whole 

 collection ; different divisions are lists of books purchased 

 at particular sales. A concise index makes up perhaps 

 in the best way for this utter confusion of subjects, 'i'he 

 table of contents, to which one would look first in trying 

 to understand such a catalogue, is not printed in a way 

 to clearly express the arrangement of those titles which 



are classified in subjects. A list of thirteen natural 

 history headings follows " Egypt and North Africa " in 

 exactly the same way as a nearly similar list of fourteen 

 follows "The British Isles," but the former has nothing 

 to do with Egypt as the latter had to do with the British 

 Isles. 



But Mr. Quaritch is the great connoisseur in a difterent 

 class of books from the works which draw our attention 

 in his catalogue. This class it would hardly come within 

 our province to notice, were it not for the evidence given 

 here, on the one hand, that costly books are purchased 

 now as much as of old by the " patron " of literature, and 

 on the other, that scientific w-orks of original value and 

 present scarcity are bought up by mere book collectors 

 or bibliolaters, who would in many cases fret while one 

 of their precious volumes was being turned over for con- 

 sultation, lest it should end in a crack in its beautiful 

 binding ! Mr. Quaritch labours abundantly, and not 

 without love, we think, for these purchasers. Here are a 

 few of the feminine pomps and vanities with which he 

 tickles the ears of bibliomaniacs: — " Grolier binding," 

 " variegated leathers," " gold scroll tooling," " purple 

 morocco super extra," "veau fauve," "veau marbre," 



"arms and cypher of ," "vellum fly-leaves," 



"large paper," "tall copy," "magnificent specimen of 

 bibliopegistic skill." Here is a titbit : — " First Aldine 

 edition, very large, fine copy, in blue morocco, gold tool- 

 ing, silk lining, vellum fly-leaves, gilt gaufri^ edges, by 

 Bozerian." 



A distinguishing feature in Mr. Quaritch's catalogues 

 are the valuable notes appended to nearly all the most 

 important of the works he offers. These notes as to the 

 scarcity, completeness, market value, and often the his- 

 tory of the book testify to both the extent of his business 

 and the minute accuracy of his knowledge of it. They 

 are a mine of valuable information to any one whose 

 business is in books, either commercially or as a librarian 

 intrusted with the care and also the completion of import- 

 ant collections. In few cases will a book only professing 

 to be a stock-list itself command a price in the market. 

 Mr. Quaritch's catalogues command a high price, and 

 the new edition of his general one, of which seven parts 

 are now out, and which will probably not be completed 

 for another year, if it should be the last which our veteran 

 publishes, will doubtless remain for some time to come a 

 standard work upon literature. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[ The Editor does not hold hwtseif responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, 

 or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. 

 No notice is taken 0/ anonymous communications. 



{The Editor urgently requests con espondents to keep their letters 

 as short as possible. The pressure on his space is so great 

 that it is impossible otherwise to insure the appearance even 

 of commuttications containing interesting and novel facts.'] 



Elevation and Subsidence 

 For several months past articles ai.d letters have appeared in 

 N.\TURE on the subject of subsidence and elevation of the 

 earth's crust by addition and removal of weight. In this con- 

 nection also much has been said in regard to the history of the 

 idea. I wish therefore to draw attention to the fact that in 1S59 

 I read a paper before the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science on the subject of the " Formation of Continents 



