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Index to Cases in Equity and Bankruptcy, but the only 
modern digests of importance are: 
(1) Mews, Digest of English Case Law. Publication was 
begun in 1898. It digests cases in law and equity, 
but omits cases which its editors deem of no present 
value. The original work is in 16 volumes. An- 
nual supplements keep it up to date. 
(2) Butterworths’ Ten Year Digest (1898-1907) and 
Butterworths’ Yearly Digest from 1908 to date. 
(3) English and Empire Digest. Begun in 1919 and in 
progress of publication. In 1923 13 volumes covering 
A to County Courts had been published. It pur- 
ports to be “a complete digest of every English 
case reported from early time to the present day, 
with additional cases from the courts of Scotland, 
Ireland, the Empire of India, and the Dominions 
beyond the sea”. 
(4) Law Reports Digests, published by the incorporated 
Council of Law Reporting, digesting from 1865 to 
1912 only those cases reported in the Law Reports 
and Weekly Notes, and thereafter including other 
English cases and selected cases from Scotland and 
Ireland : 
(a) Consolidated Digest (1865-1890). 
( b ) Decennial Digest (1891-1900). 
(c) Ten Years’ Digest (1901-1910). 
(d) Ten Years’ Digest (1911-1920). 
( e ) Annual Digests with quarterly cumulative 
supplements to date. 
Generally speaking, the English digests are not as well done as the 
American in substance or in form. They do not so thoroughly analyze 
the cases digested or present so detailed a classification, nor do they 
furnish such effective mechanical aids to one attempting to make an 
exhaustive search of the decisions. 
B. Encyclopedias. 
An encyclopedia of law, or of a particular department of the law, 
is an alphabetically arranged collection of treatises, each constructed 
according to a uniform plan and each treating a single topic the 
limits of which are so prescribed that the treatises will not overlap and 
that taken together they will cover the entire field of law or of that 
particular department of law. . . . The encyclopedia is often very 
helpful in furnishing a general survey of a topic or a portion of a 
topic, but its chief function is that of the digest. It is a valuable tool 
in the search for applicable judicial precedents; but no statement in it 
should be accepted at its face value until verified by the decisions cited 
to sustain it. 
1. American Encyclopedias. 
a. American and English Encyclopedia of Law (1st ed., 1887- 
1896), published in 29 volumes and index, covering sub- 
stantive law and evidence. 
