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THE

ENGLISH

CATALOGUE

OF BOOKS

AN ALPHABETICAL LIST OF WORKS PUBLISHED IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

AND OF THE PRINCIPAL WORKS PUBLISHED IN AMERICA

WITH DATES OF PUBLICATION, INDICATION OF SIZE, PRICE
EDITION, AND PUBLISHER'S NAME

VOL. IV.

JANUARY 1881 ΤΟ DECEMBER 1889

LONDON

SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY

LIMITED

ST. DUNSTAN'S HOUSE, FETTER LANE

1891

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THE Fourth Volume of the English Catalogue, now before the reader, is, as nearly as possible, a quarter larger than its predecessor. Volume III. was estimated to contain the names of at least sixty thousand books. That number is considerably larger when successive editions are reckoned, and still further increased by the fact that a great many books are recorded a second time under Series in the Appendices. Volume IV. may thus be considered a record of the names of many more than seventy-five thousand books.

The Editor has to acknowledge the kindness with which he has been favoured with information for the Appendices, on the one hand, by Secretaries of Learned Societies for Appendix A, which gives the volumes of Transactions published during the years 1881-9; on the other, by Publishing Houses, for Appendix B, composed of their various Series.

It may be useful to add, that when publications of a Society are sold in the regular way as books, they are generally placed in Appendix B. The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, separately issued, are an instance of this.

Some time since, one of the daily papers printed an account of the processes by which a coat arrives at a finished state. If the details of clothing the body are esteemed interesting enough for a special paper ad captandum vulgus, it may be hoped that particulars of the making of an article not remotely connected with clothing the mind may have their interest. We venture, therefore, shortly, to give an idea of what has to be done before a volume of the English Catalogue can be offered to those who are interested in books.

A volume of the English Catalogue being a blending of so many years of the Annual Catalogue into one alphabet, the main thing for the operator is to see that none of the titles of the separate alphabets get astray after they are cut apart, one by one—which is found necessary in order to put the whole into proper order.

First of all, two copies of each year's Catalogue are taken. The right-hand pages of one of these are erased with blue pencil. The left-hand pages of the other are similarly erased. This gives a perfect copy of the Catalogue, by leaves instead of pages. The next process is to spread gum over the backs of the pages, after they have been trimmed down to the edge of the print with scissors. The months observable in the yearly Catalogues are removed in trimming, as years take their place in the volume of several years. When the gum is dry, each page is cut up into its component lines. These pieces of paper, extremely slender, are found quite long enough to be manageable without the margin which has been removed. The heading of each page is not thrown away, but kept in the heap of slips. The gummed slips of each page are rapidly passed through water in a shallow dish, and laid, one by one, on slips of paper cut to a particular size, and then placed between sheets of blotting paper. It is found that half a quire of blotting paper easily holds the slips of two pages of the Catalogue, ten slips going to each interval. The heading of each page is treated like a title, only it is laid down on an envelope of suitable size. When the slips of two pages have been laid between the blotting paper, they are removed from it. The hour or so which the process has taken has given most of the slips time to dry somewhat

Each page of titles is then placed in its envelope, already labelled, as we have

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