Notices respecting New Books. 307 



Great credit is due to editor and publishers for the regularity and 

 punctuality which have hitherto attended the issue of the monthly 

 Parts ; but it is to be feared that it will not be found possible to 

 complete the publication of the work at the same rapid rate. There 

 has appeared each month, since the publication began, a Part con- 

 taining 12 sheets of 16 pages, or altogether 192 pages, each con- 

 taining, on the average, ratiier more matter than two pages of the 

 Edinburgh or Quarterly Review. The mere revision of this quantity 

 of scientific matter is more than it seems to us possible for any one 

 to accomplish properly in the course of a month ; for the labour of 

 efficiently correcting the proof-sheets of a book like the present — 

 requiring, as it does, that the attention be directed simultaneously 

 to the matter, to the language, to the punctuation, and to the detec- 

 tion of errors of a technical kind, which in works on science are more 

 than commonly plentiful — is such as cannot be supported for more 

 than a few hours consecutively. Hence, unless the printing of the 

 Dictionary is at present very considerably in advance of the publica- 

 tion, a time will come, before the issue of the work is completed, 

 when, at the present rate, the whole of the printed matter will have 

 been given to the public. Should this occur, it would be most fatal 

 to the scientific character of the work to attempt to go on with the 

 issue of it as rapidly as at present ; for it appears to us clearly 

 impossible that it could then receive the amount of revision neces- 

 sary to ensure that degree of accuracy which, in a work of this kind, 

 is a matter of the very first importance. Unless, therefore, the 

 arrangements already made are such as to allow ample time for the 

 revision of the remaining portions, we would urge in the strongest 

 manner, either that the amount of matter issued each month should 

 be reduced, say to six sheets, or that the publication should take 

 place at longer intervals. 



We feel that the volume before us sufficiently justifies these remarks. 

 The known character of Mr. Watts, both as a writer and as a man 

 of science, is a guarantee that the fullest experience and most 

 thorough knowledge have been brought to bear on its production : 

 yet the last Part of the volume contains a list of errata extending to 

 nearly three pages. This alone is sufficient proof of the difficulty of 

 the undertaking ; for the careful revision after publication which is 

 evidenced by it, may be fairly taken to indicate that equal care had 

 been bestowed upon the work during its preparation. 



There is another point connected with the mode of publication of 

 works like the one at present under consideration, to which it is 

 worth while to direct attention. In Germany, where the publica- 

 tion of elaborate scientific works is of considerably more frequent 

 occurrence than it is in this country, the usual practice, in the case 

 of works issued in a considerable number of separate Parts, is to 

 publish each Part as soon as it is ready, without attempting to make 

 the separate issues follow each other at perfectly regular intervals of 

 time. Consequently the purchasers of such works receive each por- 

 tion with the smallest possible delay after the time of its actual com- 

 position, — a circumstance which is often hy no means unimportant 



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