6 She^'horu : Notes on Bibliography^ Publication, etc. 



because all trace of the actual date of issue of the various parts- 

 is lost. Many other works are in the same condition, and large 

 sums have been offered for many books of this kind if they 

 could be supplied as issued. Further difficulties in dates are 

 seen in several of the numerous editions of Buffon, whose 

 publishers reissued various volumes with a newly dated title- 

 page at intervals. The misdating of Periodical and Academical 

 publications is often due to bad editing, and editors have been, 

 largely to blame in permitting authors to misdate their works 

 in order to gain priority. A notorious example of this is a well- 

 known book on Indian Butterflies whose author was accustomed 

 to date his parts when he wrote his manuscript. "^^ The parts 

 were issued many months later, and often the author gained a 

 year priority for his new specific names, outside the watchful 

 eyes of those whose business it is to attend to such delinquents^ 

 A more gross case was that Seoane, who endeavoured to gain 

 priority involving several years by a falsely dated pamphlet. 

 When the copies of that paper reached England the printer's 

 ink was not dry and easily smeared, but many other facts com- 

 pletely crushed this dishonesty.! 



The question What is publication ^ is difficult to get agree- 

 ment upon. A general concensus of opinion tends towards 

 public sale or public distribution. The former is more satisfac- 

 tory because in many cases public distribution is more or less 

 partial from many reasons. Every publication should bear the 

 name and address of some publisher upon it, and if possible a 

 price. The practice of some publishers of putting a date in 

 advance in order to say the book is up to date is one to be 

 strongly condemned. 



A famous case of 'publication' is that of Pallas' ' Zoologia 

 Rosso-Asiatica,' 1811. The bulk of the book was printed by 

 181 1, and some twenty copies were distributed to the chief 

 scientific men of Europe. War stopped the progress of the 

 work, the fishes were not engraved till 18 14, and the whole 

 was issued with new title-pages in 1831. In the British 

 Museum (Natural History) is a copy of the first issue with 

 original title-pages, and, with the exception of the fish, the 

 work dates from 181 1. Another interesting case is that of 

 Martyn's 'Psyche,' 1797.4: Of this work only ten copies were 



* Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (6) xi., 1893, 261, etc. 

 fAtm. Mag-. AW. Hist. (6) xiv., 1894, 154. 

 XAnn. Mag. Nat. Hist. (7) i., 1898, 106. 



Naturalist^ 



