an Index should be deprived of the benefits of the Copyright Act, and
the Hon. Horace Binney, LL.D., a distinguished American lawyer, held
the same views, and would have condemned the culprit to the same
punishment. Those, however, who hold the justest theories sometimes
fail in practice; thus Lord Campbell had to acknowledge that he had
himself sinned before the year 1857; and the deficiencies of the forty
Indexes to Allibone’s Dictionary are pointed out in a paper read before
the Conference of Librarians in October, 1877.[16] These are the words
written by Lord Campbell in the preface to the first volume of his
_Lives of the Chief Justices_ (1857)--“I have only further to express
my satisfaction in thinking that a heavy weight is now to be removed
from my conscience. So essential did I consider an Index to be to
every book, that I proposed to bring a Bill into Parliament to deprive
an author who publishes a book without an Index of the privilege of
copyright; and moreover to subject him for his offence to a pecuniary
penalty. Yet from difficulties started by my printers, my own books
have hitherto been without an Index. But I am happy to announce that
a learned friend at the bar, on whose accuracy I can place entire
reliance, has kindly prepared a copious Index which will be appended to
this work, and another for the new stereotyped edition of the Lives of
the Chancellors.”
In tracing the history of Index-making we have seen that the value of
a full Index was early realized; but when authors ceased to make their
own indexes, neglect was the consequence, and during the early part
of the present century this period of neglect was probably the most
complete. Towards the formation of general Indexes little had been
done until late years, although we have seen that Baillet set himself
to such work. Of special Indexes we should naturally expect that one
to the Bible would be the first attempted, and such was the case. The
first Concordance was compiled by Hugo de St. Caro, in 1247, and five
hundred monks are said to have been employed upon it. The first English
concordance to any part of the Scriptures was of the New Testament,
and printed by Thomas Gybson in 1536. That to the entire Bible was
made by John Marbeck, and published at London by Grafton in 1550.[17]
Previously to the publication of this valuable work Marbeck was shut
up in the Marshalsea, but when Henry VIII. pardoned him he told the
Bishops that Marbeck had employed his time much better than they had
theirs. Nearly two centuries later Alexander Cruden published his great
work, which still continues to be the standard Concordance.
In 1545 an alphabetical Collection of the most elegant words and
phrases used by Boccaccio was compiled by Francis Alunno, and published
in _Le Ricchezze della Lingua volgare_. Verbal Indexes to the ancient
classics afterwards became common, and in 1662 the celebrated _Gradus
ad Parnassum_ first appeared under the title of “Epithetorum et
Synonymorum Thesaurus” (Paris). It is attributed to Chatillon, and was
reprinted by Paul Aler, a German Jesuit, as the _Gradus_.[18]
The lawyers can claim the honour of being the first class to realize
the absolute need of Indexes, and the Digests produced by them are
admirable works, but the greatest lawyers still point out how much
there is to be done. Sir Henry Thring has drawn up some masterly
instructions for an Index to the Statute Law, which is to be considered
as a step towards a code. These instructions conclude with the
following weighty words--“Let no man imagine that the construction of
an index to the Statute Law is a mere piece of mechanical drudgery,
unworthy of the energy and ability of an accomplished lawyer. Next to
codification the most difficult task that can be accomplished is to
prepare a detailed plan for a code, as distinct from the easy task of
devising a theoretical system of codification. Now the preparation of
an index, such as has been suggested in the above instructions, is the
preparation of a detailed plan for a code. Each effective title is, in
effect, a plan for the codification of the legal subject matter grouped
under that title, and the whole index, if completed, would be a summary
of a code arranged in alphabetical order.”[19]
That this question of digesting the law is to be considered as one that
should interest all classes of Englishmen, and not the lawyer only, may
be seen from an article in the _Nineteenth Century_ (September, 1877),
on the “Improvement of the Law by private enterprise,” by Sir James
Fitzjames Stephen, who has done so much towards a complete digest of
the law. He writes: “I have long believed that the law might by proper
means be relieved of this extreme obscurity and intricacy, and might
be displayed in its true light as a subject of study of the deepest
possible interest, not only to every one who takes an interest in
politics or ethics, or in the application of logic and metaphysics to
those subjects. In short, I think that nothing but the rearrangement
and condensation of the vast masses of matter contained in our law
libraries is required, in order to add to human knowledge what would
be practically a new department of the highest and most permanent
interest. Law holds in suspension both the logic and the ethics, which
are, in fact, recognized by men of business and men of the world
as the standards by which the practice of common life ought to be
regulated, and by which men ought to form their opinions in all their
most important temporal affairs. It would be a far greater service to
mankind than many people would suppose to have these standards clearly
defined and brought within the reach of every one who cared to study
them.” The following remarks will apply with equal force to a more
general and universal index than that of the law: “The preparation of
a digest either of the whole or of any branch of the law is work of a
very peculiar kind. It is one of the very few literary undertakings in
which a number of persons can really and effectively work together. Any
given subject may, it is true, be dealt with in a variety of different
ways; but when the general scheme, according to which it is to be
treated, has been determined on, when the skeleton of the book has been
drawn out, plenty of persons might be found to do the work of filling
up the details, _though that work is very far from being easy or a
matter of routine_.”
The value of analytical or index work is set in a very strong light by
an observation of Sir James Stephen, respecting the early digesters of
the law. The origin of English law is to be found in the Year Books and
other series of old Reports, which, from the language used in them, and
the black-letter printing, with its contractions, etc., are practically
inaccessible. Coke and others who reduced these books into form are,
in consequence, treated as ultimate authorities, although the almost
worshipped Coke is said by Sir James to be “one of the most confused,
pedantic and inaccurate of men.”
Parliament has long recognized the fact that the preparation of indexes
to their journals is a department of work upon which large sums of
money may be advantageously spent. In 1778 a total of £12,900 was voted
for Indexes to the Journals of the House of Commons. The items were
as follows: To Mr. Edward Moore, £6400 as a final compensation for
thirteen years’ labour; Rev. Mr. Forster, £3000 for nine years’ labour;
Rev. Dr. Roger Flaxman, £3000 for nine years’ labour; and £500 to Mr.
Cunningham.
But one of the grandest and most useful applications of index-making is
to be found in the series of Calendars of State Papers, issued under
the sanction of the Master of the Rolls, which have made available to
all a mass of historical material previously hardly appreciated by the
few.
Scientific men have found by bitter experience that, unless they
have the assistance of indexes, they must spend years in studying
the bibliography of their subject, if they would avoid doing again
what has already been done. It has so long been the popular belief
that the work of indexing may properly be deputed to the harmless
drudge, whose industry is his chief merit, that it is no ordinary
gratification to be able to point to the great physiologist Haller as
one who, knowing that genius must have its toils, and finding that no
such works had been produced, stepped aside from his grander labours
to compile bibliographies of the science his talents adorned. In the
words of Johnson, index-making has been supposed to be “a task that
requires neither the light of learning nor the activity of genius, but
may be successfully performed without any higher quality than that
of bearing burthens with dull patience, and beating the track of the
alphabet with sluggish resolution.”[20] That Albert von Haller did
not hold this disgraceful doctrine his _Bibliotheca Botanica_ (1771),
his _Bibliotheca Anatomica_ (1774-77), his _Bibliotheca Chirurgica_
(1774-75) and his _Bibliotheca Medicinæ practicæ_ (1776-78) amply prove.
We find in these bibliographies a large proportion of University
Theses and Inaugural Dissertations, a form of publication which was
in considerable favour before the more general issue of journals
and transactions of Societies. When these latter became numerous,
the need of some key to their hidden contents was greatly felt, and
a large unoccupied field for indexing was here discovered. In 1800
Reuss commenced at Göttingen the publication of his _Repertorium
Commentationum a Societatibus Literariis editarum_, which was continued
for twenty years, and completed in sixteen quarto volumes. The
contents are arranged and classified according to the chief divisions
of knowledge. The well-known publisher Engelmann, of Leipzig, is
deserving of the greatest credit for his extensive series of special
Bibliographies. That of Zoology, by Dr. Carus (1861), is one of the
most important of these publications, and to a great extent superseded
the _Bibliographia Zoologiæ_ of Agassiz, which was published by the
Ray Society (1848-54). These works helped to make apparent to all the
want which they did not completely supply. In 1857 the Royal Society
undertook the preparation of a Catalogue of Scientific Papers in
British and Foreign Journals and Transactions, from the commencement
of the present century. This was a vast work, and necessarily occupied
a considerable time in preparation. When it was thought advisable to
commence printing, the limit of date for the papers was fixed at 1863.
In 1867 the first volume was published, and each succeeding year a
double-columned quarto volume, of about 1000 pages, appeared until
1872, when the Alphabet of Authors was completed in the sixth volume.
A supplement for the years 1864-73 is in course of publication. The
value of the Catalogue is gratefully acknowledged on all hands, and
it has now become so indispensable that every consulter must marvel
how scientific men managed to get on without it. Medical men, however,
complain that medical and surgical papers have been passed over, and
Dr. J. S. Billings, Librarian of the U.S. National Medical Library,
is attempting to do for these departments what has already been done
for general science. In 1876 was printed a _Specimen Fasciculus of a
Catalogue of the National Medical Library under the direction of the
Surgeon General of the U.S. Army at Washington_, and in the May number
(1878) of the _Library Journal_ is an article by Dr. Billings on the
_National Catalogue of Medical Literature_ to contain references to
papers in all the Medical Journals. It is estimated that the Subject
Catalogue would occupy about seven volumes of one thousand pages each,
and the Authors’ Catalogue about three volumes extra. The question of
printing this great work is now before Congress, and Dr. Billings puts
the following query to be answered by Librarians and others: “What
is the value of such an index to the people of the United States as
compared with an expedition to the North Pole, five miles of subsidized
railway, one company of cavalry, or a small post office building?”
There cannot be two opinions as to the importance of such a
publication, not only to the United States but to the world. At
present the Indexes to the Catalogues of the Libraries of the College
of Surgeons and the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society serve the
purpose of a special bibliography of medical literature, but they only
refer to books and not to the contents of those books.
Every year new societies and new journals are started in various parts
of the world, so that it becomes daily more difficult for workers to
keep themselves _au courant_ with the work of others. To obviate this
difficulty the Zoologists started in 1864 an annual Record of their
science, and the Geologists followed suit in 1874. The Chemists, in
1871, adopted the still more useful plan of a monthly _résumé_ of
chemical papers, and with each number of the _Journal of the Chemical
Society_ is published a series of abstracts of papers in foreign
journals. The year’s numbers, completed with a full index, form
an annual Record. Several foreign journals are also published with
the main object of giving abstracts of books and papers published
on their respective subjects, such for instance as the various
German “Centralblatt.” A monthly part of the _Polybiblon: Revue
Bibliographique Universelle_, is specially devoted to summaries of
the contents of various French and Foreign periodicals. In America
the contents of current periodicals are recorded in “The Library
Table” and in “The American Bookseller.” A classified Index of the
Proceedings of the Learned Societies and the contents of the principal
magazines and reviews is announced as a feature of the newly-started
English Journal--“The Book-Analyst and Library Guide.” On all sides
there is evidence of the rapid growth of a taste for bibliographical
research. Scientific journals and transactions now contain papers
full of bibliographical details, which a few years ago would not
have been considered suitable for publication in immediate proximity
to original scientific papers; and this is not to be wondered at,
for the many questions of priority that constantly arise can only
be settled by the correct statement of the date of publication. The
British Association publish reports on the history of science, which
are made up of accurate lists of books and papers. The _Philosophical
Magazine_[21] contains an account of early Books on Logarithms, by
Mr. J. W. L. Glaisher, F.R.S.; the _Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical
Society_[22] has a Chronology of Star Catalogues, by Mr. E. B.
Knobel; the _Transactions of the Connecticut Academy_,[23] a list of
writings relating to the method of least squares, with historical and
critical notes by Mansfield Merriman; and the _Annals of the Lyceum
of Natural History of New York_, “Outlines of a Bibliography of the
History of Chemistry,”[24] and Index to the Literature of Manganese,
1596-1874,[25] both by H. Carrington Bolton, Ph.D.
Prof. J. Plateau, the distinguished physicist, is publishing by
sections, a “Bibliographie Analytique des principaux phénomènes
subjectifs de la Vision,” in the Memoirs of the Brussels Academy. Mr.
Edward S. Holden, of the Washington Naval Observatory, has prepared a
valuable “Index Catalogue of Books and Memoirs relating to Nebulæ and
Clusters,” which was published in 1871 by the Smithsonian Institution,
to whom we owe so much good work in this direction; and in 1878 the
same gentleman’s “Index Catalogue of Books and Memoirs on the Transits
of Mercury” was issued as No. 1 of the “Bibliographical Contributions
(Library of Harvard University),” edited by Justin Winsor. Monographs
are now seldom published without some index of the bibliography of the
subject. Dr. Copland was one of the first to make the notice of the
literature of all topics treated a special feature in his _Dictionary
of Practical Medicine_. Many scientific books on special subjects are
in fact indexes; thus Morris’s _Catalogue of British Fossils_ (2nd ed.
1854); Bigsby’s _Thesaurus Siluricus_ (1868); and the same veteran
geologist’s _Thesaurus Devonico-Carboniferus_ (1878), are tables of
fossils with references to places where descriptions will be found.
This is the index work which is acknowledged on all hands to be of the
greatest value in the saving of the student’s time.
In passing from the consideration of Indexes of science to those of
general literature, the place of honour must be given to Mr. Poole’s
_Index of Periodical Literature_. The author gave an interesting
account of the origin of his work at the Conference of Librarians held
in London (October, 1877). When Librarian at Yale College, Mr. Poole
made a list of the articles in the journals in the Library for his own
private use. The assistance he was thus able to give to readers was
highly appreciated, and he was asked to allow the list to be printed
for the benefit of others. This first edition appeared in 1848, and a
greatly enlarged edition followed in 1853. The second edition is out of
print, and a new one is in preparation, under the superintendence of
the compiler, but with the co-operation of librarians both in America
and Great Britain. Mr. Poole said that he had not seen a copy of his
first edition for twenty years until he saw it on the shelves of the
Reading Room of the British Museum. The nearest approach to a general
Index in existence is the useful Catalogue of Subjects which forms the
third and fourth volumes of Watt’s _Bibliotheca Britannica_. The Index
attached to Darling’s _Cyclopædia_ has several useful features, but
the work was never finished. One of the completest Catalogues ever
published is that of the Library of the London Institution. It is
classified and has an Index of Authors. It was not usual to attach an
Index of Subjects to a Catalogue of Authors until late years, and that
to the Athenæum Library (1852) is an early specimen. The New York State
Library Catalogue, 1856, has an Index, as have those of the Medical
and Chirurgical Library (1860) and the London Library (1865 and 1875).
That appended to the Catalogue of the Manchester Free Library (1864) is
more a short list of titles than an Index. In any notice of this kind
the valuable Indexes to the various collections of MSS. in the British
Museum must not be omitted, nor Mr. Sampson Low’s Index to the British
Catalogue of Books (1858), which was compiled by Dr. Crestadoro,
Librarian of the Manchester Free Library. Indexes to series of Journals
have naturally been frequent, but it was a novelty when the Parker
Society published a general Index to their separate publications--a
work of the greatest utility which the Camden Society propose to
emulate.
That the interest felt in Index work is pretty generally spread abroad,
may be guessed by a paragraph that went the round of the papers a
few months ago, to the effect that an Index or ‘Repertorium’ of the
contents of all the German military magazines and periodicals, which
have been published during the last sixteen years, has been lately
printed at Berlin, which it is supposed will be of great value to every
student of military art, and even to the more general reader.
The various matters treated of in the previous pages, go to prove the
existence of a revived interest in the value of Indexes, and seem
naturally to lead up to a notice of the formation of the Index Society.
The founders lay no claim to originality of conception; but they think
that the widespread feeling of the need of some such organization,
which has been frequently expressed, will insure the success of the
Society.
In 1854 an announcement was made in the “Notes and Queries”[26] of
the projected formation of a “Society for the Formation of a General
Literary Index.” In the second series (vol. i. p. 486), the late Mr.
Thomas Jones, who signed himself Bibliothecar. Chetham., commenced
a series of articles, which he continued for several years, as a
contribution to this General Index; but nothing more was heard of
the Society. Inquiries were made in various numbers of the _Notes
and Queries_ respecting its formation, but no response was made. In
1870 a contributor to the same periodical, signing himself A. H.,
proposed the formation of a staff of Index compilers. In 1874 Prof.
Stanley Jevons published his _Principles of Science_. In the chapter
on Classification, he enlarges on the value of Indexes, and adds:
“The time will perhaps come when our views upon this subject will be
extended, and either Government or some public society will undertake
the systematic cataloguing and indexing of masses of historical and
scientific information, which are now almost closed against inquiry”
(1st ed. vol. ii. p. 405; 2nd. ed. p. 718).
In the following year Mr. Edward Solly and the writer of these pages,
without having seen this passage, consulted as to the possibility of
starting an Index Society, but postponed the actual carrying out of
their scheme for a time. In July, 1875, Mr. J. Ashton Cross argued in
a pamphlet, that a Universal Index might be formed by co-operation
through a clearing-house, and would pay if published in separate
parts. In September, 1877, some letters were printed in the _Pall Mall
Gazette_ by one who signed himself ‘A Lover of Indexes,’ in which the
foundation of an Index Society was strongly urged. In October, 1877,
Mr. Cross read a paper before the Conference of Librarians, which was
a revival of the scheme previously suggested. All these movements in
different quarters proved that the train was widely spread, and only
needed the lighting spark to make itself apparent; or, to use another
metaphor, the volunteers were ready for their work, and only waited
for the bugle call, and this was given in the _Athenæum_ for October
13, 1877, in a report of the Conference of Librarians written by Mr.
Robert Harrison. There we read: “Could not a permanent Index Society be
founded with the support of voluntary contributions of money as well as
of subject matter? In this way a regular staff could be set to work,
under competent direction, and could be kept steadily at work until
its performances became so generally known and so useful as to enable
it to stand alone and be self-supporting. Many readers would readily
jot down the name of any new subject they meet with in the book before
them, and the page on which it occurs, and forward their notes to be
sorted and arranged by any Society that would undertake the work.”
The following number of the _Athenæum_ contained letters in approval
of the suggestion from Mr. G. Laurence Gomme and from Professor Justin
Winsor, of Harvard, who wrote: “We have been in America striving for
years to get some organized body to undertake this very work.” In the
number for October 27, it was announced that steps were being taken for
the formation of the Society, and the editor complained that he had
been overwhelmed with letters on the subject for which he could not
find space.