408 



8CIUNCJE. 



[Vol. VI., No. 144. 



sizes can be bound together. Detailed reasons for 

 this choice of distances may be found in my article 

 entitled * Standard covers for temporary binding,' 

 in the Library journal, Jan., 1883, viii. 6, 7. 



Covers for these pamphlets are punched with holes 

 in the hinge or flap at the same distances, so that all 

 covers fit all pamphlets. One or one hundred pam- 

 phlets can be inserted in a cover. The backs are 

 made of heavy manila, as wide as the thickness of 

 the book, with a margin folded over to be punched 

 with holes, so that the back is laced between the 

 pamphlets and the cover. By lacing the backs to the 

 covers first, with thread or otherwise, and then in- 

 serting the pamphlets on a separate cord, the covers 

 do not fall away when the binding cords are with- 

 drawn. Of course, if desired, the backs can be 

 glued to the covers. 



One objection to Mr. Goode's method of having 

 stubs permanently bound in the covers is, that no 

 such re-arrangement can be made as may be desired. 

 The backs are also of definite width, and cannot be 

 enlarged as may be required for convenience. A 

 pamphlet cover made as I recommend, if not tightly 

 laced, will admit of laying in 50 per cent more pam- 

 phlets than are tied in, before it is necessary to re- 

 bind. 



If for any reason it is desired not to mutilate a 

 pamphlet by making holes in it, it can be glued to a 

 stub, or placed in an envelope glued to a stub, and the 

 stub can be perforated. 



Manila sheets can be prepared by the thousand, 

 perforated with the standard holes, and newspaper 

 scraps, etc., mounted upon them as desired, and 

 these bound with the pamphlets. By pasting only 

 on the recto, and marking the guide words or sym- 

 bols on u])per left-hand corner of verso, these words 

 or symbols can be readily caught by the eye as the 

 leaves are turned. When scraps occupy more than 

 one sheet, the several sheets can be glued or tied 

 together, so that they may afterward be handled as 

 units. It will be found better in the end to put but 

 one scrap on a sheet, so that the sheets may index 

 themselves in the arrangement. 



Next as to the arrangement and classification. The 

 Dewey decimal classification and relative index is 

 pronounced by many of the foremost librarians to be 

 the greatest invention of the century in library 

 economy. Its applicability ranges from that of assist- 

 ing the school-boy to keep his notes to that of the 

 president of the Royal astronomical society in 

 classifying his library. Its simplicity is that of the 

 Roman alphabet and the Arabic numerals ; its com- 

 prehensiveness is that of assigning a subject number, 

 for instance, to the * spherical excess in the com- 

 putation of a triangulation in geodetic work,' viz., 

 52,641 ; or separately indicating ' songs for male 

 voices ' (78,487), and ' songs for female voices ' 

 (78,488). Its index, in the new edition just issued, 

 contains nearly 9,000 topics, and three tables allow 

 these topics to be developed fully one hundred fold 

 without loss of simplicity. One reference usually 

 suffices to find the subject number of a topic, and by 

 it a set of ten manuscript notes could be marked so 

 that they need not be marked over to locate them in 

 a library of ten thousand volumes, for the symbols 

 would indicate not only what they were about, but 

 where they were. 



The use of this system can be seen in my own 

 library and manuscripts, or in the catalogue I am 

 making of the books and pamphlets in the entomo- 



logical division of the U. S. department of agricul- 

 ture. A description of the system is given in chapter 

 xxviii. (pp. 623-648) of the special report on libraries 

 published by the U. S. bureau of education in 1876. 

 I pay about one cent each for my pamphlet covers,, 

 octavo or quarto.^ They are serviceable, but not 

 elegant, but they hardly show on the shelves. 



B. PicKMAN Mann, 



Star catalogues. 



Would you please tell me where I could obtain a 

 catalogue of the stars, and what would be the cheap- 

 est price I would have to pay? H. C. I. 



[If our correspondent would state a little more 

 definitely the use for which the catalogue is desired,, 

 we should be glad to give the necessary information. 

 A great number of star catalogues are published, no 

 two just alike. The star list of the American ephem- 

 eris (to be obtained from the office of the American 

 ephemeris, Washington, price $1) would perhaps 

 answer his purpose ; while, for identifying the con- 

 stellations, etc., Heis's Atlas coelestis novus would 

 probably be found most useful ; and Webb's ' Celestial 

 objects,' giving a valuable list of colored stars, nebulae, 

 clusters, etc., should be owned by every one that 

 possesses an astronomical telescope. — Ed.] 



Calendar reform. 



I notice in the supplement to No. 140 an article on 

 reform in our calendar, by Mr. Paul. He refers to 

 two changes in our method of reckoning time pro- 

 posed by M. Jules Bon jean, one affecting the monthly 

 calendar, the other the weekly. 



Changes in the monthly calendar in past time have 

 by no means been infrequent, but of such a capri- 

 cious character as to result in great irregularities 

 and an inconvenient arrangement. This is a fair 

 subject for reform by way of simplification. But a 

 change or break in the weekly cycle, for the sake of 

 beginning every year with the same nominal day 

 of the week, is quite another affair. Here we should 

 touch upon questions of religious belief, which can- 

 not be discussed in the columns of Science. 



But the monthly calendar, being of human devis- 

 ing, is open to improvement. In regard to this, M. 

 Bonjean's proposal and my own, m No. 108 (Feb 27), 

 agree in placing the intercalary day at the end of the 

 year, and in making the months to consist alternately 

 of 30 and 81 days. But he would begin the year by- 

 giving January 30 days and February 31, and thus 

 proceed. This method would require a change in the 

 number of days in 8 months out of the 12 in ordinary 

 years. But by beginning the first half of the year 

 with a month of 31 days, and the second half with 

 one of 30 days, as in our present calendar, only 3 

 months would be changed in an ordinary year, 

 including December ; and in leap year only February 

 and July. Thus convenience and symmetry would 

 be secured with the least possible change. 



Edward P. Gray. 



The swindling geologist. 

 A thief representing himself as Leo Lesquereux, 

 jun., and also as one Strong, son of the geologist who 

 was drowned in this state some years since, has been 

 doing this part of the country of late, making way 

 with geological reports, instruments, and specimens. 

 He has been apprehended, and is now in the jail at 



