THE PROOF-ROOM LIBRARY.
How many proof-rooms are as well equipped with books of reference as
they should be? The proprietors of some large establishments have
always recognized their need and endeavored to supply it, but it is not
far from the truth to say that very few employers, if any, have done
all that would be profitable in this matter. A good selection of the
latest reference books is seldom found in a proof-room, notwithstanding
the fact that their intelligent use is one of the most important
adjuncts of good proof-reading.
Reasons could easily be found for the common lack of books other
than a general dictionary, or that and one or two special technical
glossaries; but it will be more advantageous to give reasons why
proof-readers should have and use more books than most of them do use.
Professional men have to read continually to keep up with progress in
scientific knowledge. It is absolutely necessary to their success.
Each of them, however, has a special demand for some particular branch
of knowledge. The books these men consult are written by specialists,
who choose their own subjects, and of course know the special words
that must be used. A proof-reader, on the contrary, can not choose
his subjects. He must undertake what is ready for him, whether it be
some ordinary work, using common words only, or a scientific book
filled with unfamiliar words. Authors of scientific works often make
abominable copy. They do not realize that the terminology so well known
by them is not equally well known to the workers in printing-offices,
and the most particular words are frequently written more carelessly
than the common words in their manuscript. Of course these authors read
their own proofs, and most of them think they are very careful in doing
it; but they are not trained proof-readers, and they see the words in
full rather than the individual letters, so that a wrong letter easily
evades their notice. When the trained proof-reader does not know the
particular words, and has no means at hand for their verification, the
result is bad.
A pamphlet on ichthyological terminology will afford a good
illustration. Its author wrote what was intended for “the shorter
termination _-pidæ_ is adopted rather than _-podidæ_.” This was
printed with dashes instead of the hyphens, “termination--_pidæ_
rather than--_podidæ_.” The pamphlet has _Opisthrarthri_ and
_Tenthidoidea_ instead of _Opistharthri_ and _Teuthidoidea_, and many
other typographical errors in such words. Probably the proof-readers
did their best to follow copy, and thought the author would be sure
to correct such errors as they failed to find. If in each doubtful
instance they had consulted a reasonably full list of ichthyological
names, as they should have done, most of the errors might have
been corrected. Proof-readers should certainly have some means of
handling work intelligently, and the only way this can be done is by
verification through the use of reference books.
Our general dictionaries have never attempted to give full scientific
vocabularies. In fact, the two most used--the old Webster and
Worcester--are nearly useless in this respect, giving only the few
purely scientific terms that had become familiar when they were made.
Even technological terms were not freely inserted in their making.
Later dictionaries, however, have increased their vocabularies very
largely by adding the special terms of science. The Imperial, which
is very much like a larger Webster Unabridged, contains many names of
families and genera in natural history, also many special words of
other science; Webster’s International has more of all kinds than the
Imperial; the Century Dictionary has more than the International; but
they all come far short of the full vocabulary of any science.
Forty years ago Mr. G. P. Marsh, in his “Lectures on the English
language,” quoted from a scientific journal a sentence containing
thirteen botanical words that have not even yet found their way
into the dictionaries above mentioned, one of these words being the
adjective _cissoid_, meaning “like ivy.” He also said, in the same
lecture: “Indeed, it is surprising how slowly the commonest mechanical
terms find their way into dictionaries professedly complete.”
Mechanical terms, however, as well as botanical and others, have found
their way into dictionaries since Mr. Marsh’s time freely, but by no
means exhaustively.
Chemists and medical men string together words and word-elements
almost _ad nauseam_, so that common dictionaries simply can not
attempt to record all their combinations. Unless the proof-reader
is thoroughly versed in the Greek words used by the doctors, and
in the names of elements, etc., as used by the chemists, his only
hope rests upon special medical and chemical works. As an amusing
instance of what he may have to decipher--doctors and chemists are
commonly able to write illegibly, and often do so--a few words not
in the general dictionaries may be cited. Chemists use words like
_aldehydodimethylprotocatechuic_--a combination of _aldehyde_,
_dimethyl_, and _protocatechuic_. A little thought will suffice to
perceive these elements in the ugly-looking word, and in others
like it; but that is not equally true in the case of such a term as
_androgynoarion_ or _engastrimythismus_.
Examination of any special scientific work would disclose easily the
fact that the proof-reader may be called upon at any moment to read
proofs of language he does not know, and can not verify without special
reference books. He should not be expected to do good work without such
aids.