Page:EB1911 - Volume 29.djvu/6

 what he wants in the quickest and easiest way has been the guiding principle throughout, it is, for instance, scarcely necessary to enumerate the different holders of a title such as the earldom of Derby, when the majority of them are dealt with only in the article “.” In all such cases the one general reference to the article has been allowed to cover all the particular references to individual earls; but if important references to these individuals occur in other articles, such as the article “English History,” they will be found in the Index under the name of the earl in question.

No index can divine every difficulty in advance or forestall every objection. There are many words, more or less synonymous, which might equally well be chosen as index headings. Is “” or “” to be taken as the heading under which to group foresters’ lore? Is theology and legend about the prince of darkness to be indicated under the heading “Satan” or “Devil”? Here the work of the compilers of the Index has been to a great extent simplified by the necessity of following the article headings, which all appear in the Index, standing out boldly in capital letters. There are articles on both “Arboriculture” and “Forests and Forestry.” The index gives one reference to the first, adding a cross-reference “see also Forests and Forestry,” and under this heading groups all further information on the subject. Similarly under “Satan” we find “see Devil,” and the first reference under “Devil” is to the article so entitled.

The aim of the Index is, in fact, twofold. In the first place it seeks to distribute under a still larger number of headings the information which the editor has distributed over 40,000 headings in the book. The measure of success attained may be estimated by the fact that these headings total over 500,000, every one of which is, as it were, the skeleton of an encyclopaedic article. Even a single textual reference and a map-reference to a town not important enough to call for a separate article enable the reader to find its geographical position, its accessibility by rail, sea, river or canal, its distance from other towns, and its commercial, historical or other principal interest. In the second place the Index seeks to group round each of the 40,000 article headings all other important references to the same subject found in other parts of the book. It is important, however, to notice that in all such cases the first reference given is the reference to the article itself, and that references to the same subject from other articles will be naturally fewer in proportion to the amount of detail contained in that article. Hence the absence of any specific reference in the Index to any special event in a man's life, or to one particular aspect of a well-known theory, does not imply that the information is not in the book, but merely that it is so fully dealt with in the article itself that other references would add no substantial information.

On the other hand, in the case of very large articles such as those on Egypt, England or the United States, the Index will be found to contain further references to special sections of the article Arrangement itself. This is especially noticeable when it has been necessary to collect together of references. information germane to such sections from other articles. The best example of this principle is to be found in the history sections of the Index under the names of all the larger countries. The Index has throughout steadfastly avoided the common fault of supplying merely a long list of entries without specific description. Such entries—technically called “blind”—have been limited to four at the outside. Those which will be found standing at the head of a group of specified entries are to passages giving general information. Thus, if a commander has an article heading, the first entry directs the inquirer to that article; the second perhaps to a passage describing his importance in the history of the country to which he belonged; the third to an article on the military aspects of the war in which he fought. Specified entries thereafter will refer to particular battles described in and by themselves from the tactical standpoint. All such entries,