124 



NA TURE 



{Dec. 9, i: 



Library of the British Museum in the Years 1880-85," the 

 latest of the series of indexes pulilished under the auspices 

 of our great national library. Having recently had occa- 

 sion to consult the same \\\\\\ reference to certain bio- 

 logical works, I experienced so much difficulty in finding 

 what I wanted, that I thought it worth «hile to inquire more 

 fully into the trustworthiness of the volume as an aid to the 

 working naturalist. I append my notes, in the interest of 

 workers in a field the literature of which is already over- 

 burdened. 



The book is printed in unnecessarily large type, whence there 

 results a ponderous volume of 1044 p.iges quarto. Upon the 

 immensity of the task before the bibliographer set to compile 

 such a work I neei not comment. If the duty be well jier- 

 formed, there can only result a product useful to all, and heljiful 

 to the specialist ; if otherwise, confusion becomes confounded, 

 and there ensues to the worker loss of time, if not actual disaster. 



Printers' errors and minor inaccuracies are to be expected in a 

 work of the kind, and any such compilation must of necessity be 

 faulty. It is not surprising, therefore, to find "travel" for 

 " translation " in recording the title of Scott Russell's work, on 

 p. 1016. Other similar defects could be quoted, but why are the 

 press-marks occasionally omitted ? surely they are next in im- 

 portance to the titles themselves? The compositor cannot be 

 at fault here. 



The compiler sets forth his scheme in a short preface, by no 

 means a bad one if fol'owed. One of the chief provisions reads 

 thus: " Headings and sub-headings are in strictly alphabetical 

 order ; precedence being given under each to the larger and more 

 important works." It is in the execution of this self-imposed 

 dictum th,it the compiler is seen at his best. Who is to be the 

 judge of the relative merits of the collected works, and what is 

 to be the standard of comparison ? Presumably, the com|)iler 

 performs the difficult task in person, but it is indeed well that 

 his method is not revealed, for Huxley's "Crayfish" heads the 

 list of general works upon Mollusca (p. 653), and Miss 

 Buckley's "Life and her Children" that upon Micro- 

 organisms. The thing must be a joke ! Nothing of the kind ! ! 

 " Corallinen Algen " brings up the rear of Corals (p. 212), 

 while " Les Batrachospermes " are exalted to an equality with 

 the Batrachians — a truly novel means this of demonjtrating 

 the unity of the biological science^. The aforenamed in- 

 accuracies amount almost to incredibilities, and it is difficult to 

 realise that they are perpetrated in earnest. It is inconceivable 

 that they can have resulted from mere carelessness ; but, even 

 were that so, the fact that they exist at all would be sufficient 

 in itself to disqualify the compiler. We can only regard them 

 as the natural outcome of giving to one man the work of half a 

 dozen; they disfigure the work, and shake our confidence in 

 much that remains. A little less pardonable, perhaps, is the 

 relegation of " Der Tasman-Gletscher " to the Column Tas- 

 mania. 



" The choice of headings is often ill-advised. Four works are 

 recorded upon the I'olyzoa ; these are equally divided between 

 Polyzoa and Bryozoa, to neither of which headings is there a cross- 

 reference. Writings upon organisms in air generally are dis- 

 tributed between sections Air and Atmosphere, Micro-organisms, 

 and Bacilli and Bacteria, with no cross-references. Papers deal- 

 ing with the broadest generalisations and the subtlest of details 

 are muddled together regardless of system ; while under Micro- 

 organisms there is a cross-reference to Infusoria, sole possessor of 

 which department is Kent's well-known Manual. Section Palzeon- 

 tology is especially introspective. It is divided into the sub- 

 heads General, Bibliographical, Collections of Fossils &c., 

 Fossil Fauna, and Flora — a sufficiently inconsistent arrangement 

 in itself. Conspicuous among the general works is Brongniart's 

 " Recherches sur les graines fossiles silicifiees. " A knowledge 

 of the publications of his own department ought certainly to be 

 expected of the compiler, through whose hands the covers of the 

 said works must surely pass. But no ; for while there has been 

 recorded under the last-named heading Rupert Jones's "Catalogue 

 of Fossil Foraminifera," we look in vain for the companion 

 volumes of Hinde and Lydekker, both of which were published 

 within the period embraced. » There is here something akin to 

 contempt for authority! Marsh's " Odontornithes," divorced 

 from Palceontology, finds a home among the Birds. 



Having found that the leading tenet of the scheme w.as vio- 

 lated — that relating to the precedence of important works — I 

 turned next to the second one. It reads: "AH books are, so 

 far as possible, grouped together according to their language, in 



the following order — English, French, German, Italian. . . . 

 There are, however, some deviations from this system — for ex- 

 ample, in the history of each country the titles follow each other 

 in chronological sequence, irrespective of language. " How the 

 two methods of arrangement thus vaguely formulated are to be 

 simultaneously adopted, we are not informed ; and in this 

 ingenious attempt to combine two schemes into one neither has 

 been adhered to — both have suffered. A cursory glance at some 

 of the more important sections, e.g. Birds, shows that the con- 

 ditions have not been in the least fulfilled, so far as pertains to 

 precedence of language ; while, to go afield, we find under Clergy, 

 Priesthood, &c., a unique arrangement in which the languages 

 run thus— Spanish, English, German, French, Italian, English, 

 ad fincin. Where, here, is the professed patriotism ? It deserts 

 the author under the inspiration of Clergy, Priesthood, &c., and 

 leaves him reckless. What now of the chronological sequence ? 

 One turns instinctively to various historic headings. In none of 

 those examined did I find the exception to be the rule. 



The major scheme nullified, the preface becomes a blank ; but 

 the details of the superstructure are no more to be relied upon 

 than is the foundation itself. Under Insects, to which the 

 reader is referred from Entomology, there are titles in abund- 

 ance in which the two catchwords occur ; but he looks in vain 

 for references to the fact that the majority of entomological 

 papers are scattered among Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, 

 Lepidoptera, Ants, Wasps, Bees and Bee-keeping, and other 

 headings. The Colorado Beetle figures under that heading and 

 under Potato, but not under Coleoptera ; while, to complicate 

 matters, a German and an English work upon the subject 

 appear under Potato, the place of the former being, under 

 Colorado Beetle, usurped by a Spanish rival. Fish and Fisheries 

 embraces all branches down to Oyster-Culture, but why not 

 .Salmon Fisheries ? It appears to suffice that they should take 

 shelter under Salmon, with no cross-references. A special 

 heading is set up for Angling, but several definite works thereon 

 are to be found onHy under Fish and Fisheries, no references 

 being given under Angling. 



Titles of works are not unfrequently repeated, and that un- 

 necessarily. For ex.ample : Morris's "Letters about Birds" 

 occurs under Birds (sub-headings — General, and Great Britain 

 and Ireland) ; Dixon's, .Swaysland's, and Watkins's books are 

 not under their appropriate headings ; while Patterson's " Birds, 

 Fishes, and Cetacea frequenting Belfast Lough," which should 

 be under Fauna, Local, is misplaced. Under the last-named 

 heading Canon Tristram's "Fauna of Palestine" appears 

 beneath sub-section Italy — the compiler seems doomed to 

 disaster in his relations with the clergy. In one or two cases 

 where comprehensive titles occur, a process of dismemberment 

 has crept in. For example : Romanes" "Jelly-Fish, Star- Fish, 

 and .Sea-Urchins " is to be found under Star- Fish and Sea- 

 Urchins, with the title mutilated beyond recognition, but not at 

 all under either Jelly-Fish, Medusa, or Echinoderm ; Scott 

 Russell's " Wave of Translation in the Oceans of Water, Air, 

 and Ether," to which allusion has already been made, occurs, 

 also with a misquoted title, under Water, but under neither Ether 

 nor Air and Atmosphere. 



Such are the' results of an attempt to gauge the working 

 capacity of the " Index " mainly from a single stand-point. I 

 leave other specialists to inquire for themselves. It has been 

 said that this " work proves the ability and industry of its com- 

 piler, and that the Trustees are anxious to make the treasures of 

 the great library a success." Granted the good intentions of 

 the governing body and the industry of the compiler ; of the 

 rest the reader must judge for himself — I refrain from further 

 comment thereon. It cannot, however, be admitted that the 

 compiler has done his best ; errors cannot be avoided where 

 non-technical hands are applied to technical work, but slovenli- 

 ness is ever intolerable. I submit that a distribution of labour 

 is demanded for the success of the next essay of the kind. 



* JUSTITIA 



The Origin of Species 



In a recent issue of Nature (Nov. 25, p. 77) Mr. Catchpool 

 writes : — " Is it, or is it not, the fact that allied species, which 

 are confined each to a particular island, prove, when brought 

 together, far less frequently infertile than species, equally dis- 

 similar, which had lived in the same district, might be expected 

 to prove ? On the answer to this question depends, as far as I 



