300 
Notes and Comments. 
a certain subject nearly every page has to be turned over. 
There is, as a rule, no indication of the date of issixe, and this 
is also usually the case with the separate parts of .more 
pretentious publications, which may be called “ Journals,” 
■ • Transactions,” or ‘ ‘ Proceedings,” at least after the covers have 
been removed, copies without the covers bound in being then 
absolutely useless to a bibliographer. Sometimes the index 
appears at the beginning, when one naturally looks for it at 
the end, such index occasionally being called “ Contents.” 
An index is, of course, alphabetical, and it is advisable that 
thei'e should be only one, and not separate indexes of names, 
places and sxxbjects. Contents should comprise a list of the 
papers, etc., in the sequence in which they appear in the volume.’ 
MATTER PUBLISHED. 
‘ There is only one other point to which I desire to call 
attention, and that is the nature of the contents of the publi- 
cations of a Local Natural History Society. The papers printed 
should be almost entirely those giving the results of original 
work, and, at least in a small society, for the sake of economy, 
as little space as possible should be given up to such things as 
rules and list of members. It will usually suffice when a 
volume, as already defined, extends over several years, as is 
frequently the case with a small society, to give such things 
once only in each volume. Let me give an example of the 
wrong way, and I may absolve myself from libel if I do not 
give the name of the society which transgresses. Its last pub- 
lication is called “Annual Report and Proceedings.” It is paged 
1-48, not forming part of a volume. Except on the cover there 
is no date nor place of publication. Its chief contents are the 
Rules and Library Rules ; Additions to Museum and Library 
Financial Statement ; Hon. Secretary’s, Curator’s, and Sectional 
Secretaries’ Reports ; and Lists of Members, past Presidents, 
and Associated Societies. The only additions to our knowledge 
of the Natural History of its locality are contained in a few 
pages of the Sectional Secretaries’ Reports. The subscriptions * 
of its members exceed 200/. per annum.’ 
THANKS TO MR. HOPKIXSOX 
Most of the points raised by Mr. Hopkinson have been 
referred to from time to time in The Naturalist. The exami- 
nation of various publications necessary in connection with 
the bibliographies we have issued for many years past, has 
made us think terrible thoughts about some editors of some 
publications. How easy would our work have been were they 
all as careful and as methodical as the editor of the Hertford- 
shire Society’s publications, Air. John Hopkinson, who, by the 
way, is a Yorkshireman. 
Naturalist, 
