4+ 



no classification of books. Suppose, for instance, you are 

 a student and want to get up such books as have been 

 written on English history, or the geology of Great Britain, 

 or civil engineering, it is not in my power to offer you any 

 assistance. You must know something about the books 

 before I can help you to find them. This renders me 

 almost useless to learners. 



Q. Have you then any reason to believe that the present 

 system of cataloguing is a vicious one, and might easily be 

 improved 1 



A. Assuredly; and I can give illustrations of my meaning. 

 Had good chiefs existed, and had not the department 

 been crushed under its cumbersome system of cataloguing, 

 every book would have been catalogued years ago, and an 

 index to the catalogue would have enabled readers to find 

 what they want at once. How cumbersome the present 

 system is, and how hard for even employes who have nothing 

 else to do but to learn it, is proved by the fact that not uncom- 

 monly two copies of the same book are catalogued under 

 two completely different headings ; nay, three copies have 

 been known to be catalogued under three different headings. 

 Thus three employes took three different views of the law, and 

 yet they study nothing else in the British Museum but this law. 

 Again, books entered under initials are for the most part 

 completely lost. Very few people know that the initials 

 A. B. occurred at the end of the preface of some familiar 

 book. Very few books of reference mention these initials. 

 There are hundreds of books entered under initials. 

 Almost all of these are buried out of sight. Books under 

 the pseudonyms also are generally lost to sight. Thus, if 

 a writer signs his preface " Rusticus," the book is entered 

 under that head; if "Rusticus Expectans" no notice is 

 taken of the pseudonym. If the book is said to be 



