U

NOTES AND QUERIES ON PUBLIC

LIBRARY LAW.

NDER this heading we shall continue from time to time to publish questions on the operation of the Public Libraries Acts which have been submitted to the Honorary Solicitor of the Association, together with the answers he has given.

All questions should be addressed to the Hon. Solicitor, H. W. FOVARGUE, Esq., Town Hall, Eastbourne, who will send his replies direct to correspondents, on the distinct understanding that both question and answer are to be published in The Library Association Record.

The Powers of Library Authorities to Borrow Money for the Purchase of Books.

With reference to the question and answer upon the above subject which we printed in the January number, page 41, we have received the following communications :—

The LIBRARIAN of the WIMBledon Free LIBRARY (Mr. H. W. Bull) writes: "The Local Government Board sanctioned a loan of £500 for the purchase of books for the Wimbledon Public Library, the amount borrowed to be repaid in ten years ".

The LIBRARIAN of the PUTNEY FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY (Mr. C. F. Tweney) writes: "The Local Government Board in 1888 sanctioned the borrowing of £250 for the purchase of books for this (lending) library-such sanction being, of course, subsequent to that given by the Vestry".

Expenditure of Rate raised under the Museums and

Gymnasium Act, 1891.

Question.-Do the conditions of the Museum and Gymnasium Act, 1891, admit of the purchase of books and separate maintenance of a Public Reference Library?

Answer. I am of opinion that the expenditure of any part of a rate raised under the Museum and Gymnasium Act, 1891, on a Reference Library is illegal.

THERE is no authentic notes, or which is more

HERE is perhaps no department of literature in which

apt to raise perplexing queries than that which relates to anonymous and pseudonymous works.

We appeal to readers to assist us in our endeavour to make this department of the Record really useful, by contributing notes of their successful attempts to get behind the mask of an assumed name, or to penetrate the veil of anonymity.

ANONYMS.

It may be that some of our readers are not aware that at the end of the fourth volume of Barbier's "Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes," Paris, 1879, some 300 pages are devoted to ANONYMOUS WORKS IN LATIN.

"A gunner aboard the Yankee; from the diary of Number Five of the port gun..." [anon.], is by RUSSELL DOUBLEDAY.

"Modern painting at Naples" [anon.], published in 1855 has recently

been credited to the late LORD NAPIER.

PSEUDONYMS.

Mr. RALPH THOMAS, better known perhaps as "Olphar Hamst," gives at least thirty-five varieties of the "pseudonym "in his "Handbook of Fictitious Names," and goes on to say so various are they that it is not always easy to assign a distinctive name to a "pseudonym ". "ARTHUR (T. C.)," author of "Reminiscences of an Indian police official," is the pseud. of A. T. CRAWFORD.

"DAUGHTER OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA," author of “Old gum tree lyrics," Adelaide, 1897, is the pseud. of Miss LUCRETIA STURT WHITINGTON. "GILTSPUR," author of "The Bag o' gold," is the pseud. of JOHN R. SPRATLING.

"GYP," the witty author of " Autour du Mariage," "Autour du Divorce,"

and many other volumes, who is a regular contributor to La Vie Parisienne, and who was recently condemned by the French Civil Court to pay a heavy fine for a libel contained in her book "Le journal d'un Grinchu," is the pseud. of MME. LA COMTESSE De MARTEL DE JANVILLE.

"HALIBURTON (Hugh)," author of "A history of literature," and other works, is the pseud. of J. LOGIE ROBERTSON.

"LENNOYS (Annis)," author of "In a Chinese garden," is the pseud. of Miss ANNIE CLARKE BAKER.

"MOORE (Wentworth," author of "The Individualist," now running in the Fortnightly Review, is said to be the pseud. of W. H. MALLOCK. "MORICE (Charles)," author of "Murray Murgatroyd, Journalist," is the pseud. of MORICE GERARD.

"NEWCOMEN (George)," author of "The Maze of life," has informed The Athenæum that they were mistaken in surmising he was a woman writing under a masculine disguise.

"A NOBODY," author of “Nonsense," and "Some more nonsense," is the pseud. of Gordon Browne.

"ROGERS (Halliday)," author of "Meggotsbrae," is the pseud. of a Miss REID.

"TOMPKINS," of the Daily Chronicle is BARRY PAIN.

RECTIFIED NAMES.

LE LARGE DE LIGNAC (Joseph Albert), [1710-1762]

According to

the writer of the preface to the second edition of this author's Mémoire pour servir à commencer l'histoire des araignées aquatiques," Paris, An. viii., 1799, 12mo, Le Large de Lignac's correct Christian names are Joseph Albert and not Joseph Adrien as usually given in the biographies.

OUR JUNIOR COLLEAGUES' CORNER.

(Conducted by JOHN J. OGLE.)

UESTIONS on the subjects included in the syllabus of the Library Association's examinations, and on matters affecting library work generally, are invited from assistants engaged in the larger, and librarians of the smaller libraries. All signed communications addressed to Mr. J. J. OGLE, FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY, BOOTLE, will, as far as possible, be replied to in the pages of The Library Association Record. A pen name should be given for use in the "Corner".

[Librarians will greatly oblige by bringing the "Corner" under the notice of their Junior Colleagues.]

Annotations: some examples.

On the evening of the 12th January five sets of replies to the questions in No. I had been received, and I have pleasure in proceeding to criticise the answers to the first of them. Most of the following are good examples of notes:

1. "Anglo-Saxon Superiority: to what is it due." E. Demolins. A Frenchman compares the Anglo-Saxons with his own countrymen, and says the former owe their superiority to their individualism.

teen.

Here thirty-two words of W. B. Y.'s note have been reduced to nine

2. "Influence of Sea Power upon History." Captain A. T. Mahan. The writer attaches great importance to the rise of Britain's sea power and its effect upon her colonial expansion.

A sentence which hardly adds to the information of the title-page has been omitted.

3. "Italy: 1815 to 1890." J. W. Probyn.

Traces the causes and events which led to the unification of divided Italy. A sentence has been omitted; twenty-three other words reduced to thirteen without loss of meaning.

4. "Electric Light." J. W. Urquhart.

A general view of the means employed in the production and application of electric light, including its latest applications in mining. The regulations of the L.C.C. with regard to theatre lighting are noticed.

This is a very bad note; a treatise on the subject which did not provide all that the first sentence states would deserve a note on its

deficiency. The second sentence is specific and might stand. Words like latest, recent, etc., should be discarded for phrases used expressing actual date up to which information is brought if mentioned at all.

5. "Moses and Geology." Rev. S. Kinns.

An attempt at harmonising the Mosaic record and modern science.
This is shorter than W. B. Y.'s note.

6. "Story of the British Army." Lieut.-Col. C. Cooper King.

A popular history. Contains lists of regiments with their badges, mottoes and nicknames, and of the principal campaigns since 1658.

"From the earliest times," is not necessary in a note, neither is the repetition of the term "British Army".

7. Ruskin John). "Unto this last."

First principles of political economy.

This note is borrowed from the title-page and ought to appear as part of the title.

8. Seeley (J. R.). "Ecce homo."

Survey of the life and teaching of Jesus Christ. See note to No. 7 which is true of this entry also.

9. Miller (H.) "Testimony of the rocks."

Geology and its relation to natural and revealed religion.

10. Warburton (E.). "Crescent and the Cross."

Travels in Egypt and the Holy Land.

Assuming, without reference, that the information in the notes to

9 and 10 is not on the title-pages these are good notes.

11. Carlyle (T.). "Sartor resartus."

A philosophical romance in the form of a review of an imaginary work on dress.

I have taken a slight liberty with this note.

12. Huxley (T.). "Science and Christian tradition."

An attempt to overthrow supernatural religion.

I think this is a fair statement having regard to the adjective qualifying "religion".

13. Craik (G. L.). "The pursuit of knowledge under difficulties." Biographical notices of distinguished men.

This is shorter than the note sent in by "Buchhalter" and quite as good.

14. Allen (Grant). "Falling in love, with other essays on more exact branches of science."

Essays on evolution, natural history and kindred subjects.

In a classed catalogue or under proper subject-headings this note would be unnecessary.

15. Ruskin (John).

"Aratra Pentelici."

Lectures on the elements of sculpture: defines the principles by which the study itself should be guided.

This note is useless; an extension of the title entry would have expressed all that is material in it.

16. Arnold (Matthew). "Literature and dogma: an essay towards a better apprehension of the Bible."

Written to reassure those who feel attached to Christianity but who recognise the growing discredit befalling miracles.

Except for the word "recognise," this is a good note. Its present form seems to commit the librarian to an implied opinion. Facts, not personal opinions, should be stated in notes.

17. Blatchford (Robert). "Merrie England."

A popular exposition of ideal socialism.

Quite a good example of brevity and usefulness.

18. Laing (S.). "Problems of the future and essays."

Deals with questions in physics, evolution and kindred subjects.
The note to No. 14 would also apply here.

W. L. C. should master some of the most elementary rules in making catalogue entries before attempting annotations. The form of his title or subject-entries (I am not quite sure which they are intended for) is very bad, his spelling is also bad. Let him not despair, however, but take a good course of practice on Cutter's “Rules” and try again at similar work in twelve months' time.

"Oreste," except for an adjective such as sprightly, brilliant, picturesque, graphic, has given hardly any information in his notes to six works. One ought not to write a note to every title even in an annotated list. We should always avoid the merely obvious if we would not become insufferable bores.

Books on Seismology.

Nearly all my correspondents mentioned Professor Milne's book on seismology, published last year. "Oreste" mentioned Hartwig's "Volcanoes and earthquakes," which is a book I do not know; and a work by R. Mallett, "The first principles of observational seismology, 1862," was referred to by "Inquiro".

Books on Thermo-dynamics.

Works bearing the subject-word as title were chiefly chosen to represent thermo-dynamics, but none of these was so good a book on that subject as 'Inquiro's" choice, viz., Clerk-Maxwell's "Theory of heat". The same correspondent also mentioned an early work by Sadi Carnot, "Reflections sur la puissance motrice du feu" (Paris, 1824). All the books named were good, though some of them very elementary, notably Wormell's "Thermo-dynamics". Preston's "Theory of heat" is probably the best comprehensive book fairly advanced in difficulty.

Iconographies.

It has not been sufficiently realised that there may be an iconography of any subject dealing with material things in a concrete way. In actual practice the word has been most frequently used in connection with the fine arts, but there may be an iconography of zoology where such a work as Sowerby and Lear's "Tortoises" belongs, or an iconography of botany of which Fitch's "Handbook to Bentham's Flora" is an exemplary work. The classification, therefore, is a cross one through most other subjects.

Books on Ichthyology.

Hartwig's "Denizens of the deep" if corresponding to its title is not a specific work on ichthyology, but much wider in its scope. Hutchinson's "Extinct monsters" has nothing to do with ichthyology though it describes the ichthyosaurus, which, however, was not a fish.