1906-7. TRANSACTIONS. 117 



eluded, the main contents being summaries of the various sciences. 

 The prominence given to science drew down upon the Encyclo- 

 paedia the denunciation of the literary world, Gray saying that 

 such works were a very unfavourable sign of the age, while Pope 

 pronounced their authors "blockheads". Fourteen years elapsed 

 before a third edition was ventured and, in 1797, eighteen volumes 

 were issued comprising 14,580 pages and 542 plates, and now 

 including articles on philosophy, metaphysics, etc., though it 

 still was published in cheap numbers and afterwards bound in 

 volumes. Such was the growth of its popularity that over 13,000 

 copies were sold in weekly parts and the publisher is said to have 

 realised about $210,000 by the edition. In 1810 a fourth edition 

 in twenty volumes appeared, in which the mathematical articles 

 by Professor Wallace were important, and the help of foreign 

 authors was enlisted for the first time in some of the more ab- 

 struse subjects. Arago and Biot wrote dissertations for the sup- 

 plement of the fourth edition. The fifth edition was merely a 

 reprint of the fourth edition; but in 1824 six supplementary 

 volumes were published, in which three long reviews or disserta- 

 tions appeared, on great subjects, a feature which has been re- 

 tained in all subsequent editions. The sixth edition was simply 

 a reprint of the fifth though the editor was a capable man, viz. 

 Professor Mackay Napier. A supplement was issued and included 

 articles by such men as Dr. David Irving. 



Now the work passed from Constable and Co. into the hands 

 of Adam and Charles Black, who have published it ever since and 

 the seventh edition (1830-1842) under Professor Napier was issued 

 in an enlarged and improved form to which previous editions 

 could not compare. Dr. Irving is said to have written no less 

 than twenty-seven articles, including biography. Jurisprudence, 

 Canon, Civil, and Feudal Law, an indication that of the staff of 

 contributors, numbering one hundred and sixtyseven, many 

 wrote upon a variety of diverse subjects. The ambitious nature 

 of the edition may be judged from the fact that more than $540,- 

 000 (£108766) was expended, of which the editor received $32,500 

 (£6500). Nearly five thousand copies were sold of the seventh 

 edition. In 1860, the eighth edition appeared, having occupied 

 seven years in its publication. It was disappointing in many 

 most important respects. It is true that Archbishop Whately, 

 Sir John Herschel, Professor Edward Forbes, and other leading 

 authorities contributed, but the editing was most unsatisfactory, 



