S PEroRT — 1873. 



having rcftTciicc to the first or largest table in the work, and insert cross 

 references under each of the articles concerned with the other tables in-, 

 eluded in the work ; or {2) to describe all collections of tables in a section. 

 by themselves, and pivo references to each of the tables thej' contain under 

 the appropriate article in § 3. The second course was clearly the more 

 proper, for three reasons — (1) because it was free from the arbitrary element 

 involved in the choice of the leading table, which would be required in the 

 first method, (2) because it M'as undesirable to overload the articles of § 3 

 with descriptions of tables not belonging to them, and (3) because reference 

 to the works would be greatly facilitated by placing them in an article by 

 themselves ; § 4 therefore contains all woi'ks the contents of which do not 

 belong wholly to one of the articles in § 3, or, in other words, which con- 

 tain at least two tables, the subjects of which are included in different 

 articles of § 3. As the works in § 4 will thus have to be continually re- 

 feiTcd to separately, they are arranged alphabeticalh', not chronologicallj', 

 § 5 is a complete list of all the works containing tables that are described 

 in this Eeport ; and to facilitate its use as an index, a reference is attached 

 to the section, or section and article, in which the work is described. 



To take an example of the manner in which the Report is intended to be 

 used. Supposing it were required to know what tables there were of log 

 versed sines ; the reader would turn to the beginning of § 3, and, looking 

 down the list of articles, see that, coming under the head of "logarithmic 

 trigonometrical functions," such tables belonged to art. 15. He would ac- 

 cordingly turn to art. 15, and read or glance through the introductory 

 remarks to that article, and the works described there ; not finding any book 

 containing log versed sines alone described in the article, he would conclude 

 that no separate table of the kind had come under the notice of the reporter ; 

 he would then look at the references to § 4 ; and if he wished for detailed 

 information with regard to any of those tables, he would examine the de- 

 scriptions in that section. Any one, on the other hand, desiring to know 

 the contents of any particular work would seek it in § 5 ; if it occurred there, 

 a reference would be found added either to § 4, or to § 3 and the article iu 

 which it is described. No difRcuhy will be experienced in finding the descrip- 

 tion if it be remembered that all the works are cited by the author's name and 

 the date ; and that while in § 4 they are arranged alphabetically, in the articles 

 of § 3 the arrangement is chronological. 



The date is throughout appended to the author's name in citing a work, in 

 order to identify the work in § 5 (the date given being always that assigned 

 to the work in § 5) ; there is also the further advantage, that any one who 

 requires information only with regard to modern tables, still procurable from 

 the bookseller, need not waste time in seeking the detailed descriptions of 

 works published in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 



It may be mentioned that a few works that ch contain tables of more than 

 one kind, arc nevertheless included in § 3 : this happens when the smaller 

 tables are insignificant compared with those under which the work is classed ; 

 references are then appended also in the articles to which the smaller tables 

 belong. 



An asterisk prefixed to an author's name (thus * Voisin or * Voisin) in- 

 dicates that the description of the work of his referred to has not been derived 

 from inspection. In ever}' ease where there is no asterisk, the description 

 has been written by the reporter with the book itself before him. 



Art. 5. In all eases where the author of a collection of tables has num- 

 bered or marked them himself, his numbering or marking has been followed 



