Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 4.djvu/360

Rh ing of all the books that required it, the Library Committee pro- ceeded to consider, first, the means of gaining greater space on the shelves, by collecting together, as far as it was practicable, books of a similar size ; and secondly, by adopting a classed arrangement, so that the places occupied by the books should correspond, as nearly as their sizes would admit, with their order in the Catalogue. The Council have the satisfaction of reporting, that this useful and labo- rious work has, by the great exertions of the Librarian during the summer recess, been effectually performed ; and they congratulate the Society on the greater advantages which they will derive from the possession of their extensive collection of books in every depart- ment of mathematical and physical science, by the increased facili- ties now afforded of finding readily any book that may be wanted.

The Council have also to announce that a Catalogue has been made of the books relating to Miscellaneous Literature in the Soci- ety's Library. Copies of this Catalogue are now ready for distri- bution to the Fellows.

The Society is probably aware that, during the preceding year, a Catalogue has been made, in conformity with the directions of the Council, by James Orchard Halliwell, Esq., F.R.S., of the Miscella- neous Manuscripts, comprising highly interesting correspondence of many learned men with the Society, from its first formation to nearly the middle of the eighteenth century.

The re-arrangement of the Library being now completed, it will probably be satisfactory to the Society to know its contents and con- dition. The Librarian has accordingly been requested to draw up

a summary, of which the following is an abstract : —

The total number of bound volumes contained in the

Library amounts to 19,045

Besides which, there are contained in it unbound Reports

of the House of Commons, in number 823

There are also 810 unbound tracts, which would form,

if bound together, a number of volumes about. . . 150

So that the total number of volumes may be estimated at 20,01 8

Of these, there are of Scientific volumes 8304.

Miscellaneous Literature .... 5049

Transactions 2076

Journals 3616

Although this is an exact enumeration of the volumes contained in the Library, it is scarcely a just appreciation of their number, from the circumstance of there being, in a multitude of instances, two or three volumes bound in one. The Librarian is not sufficiently prepared, at the present moment, to give satisfactorily the exact num- ber of these, or of the distinct works, throughout the Library and in the different classes ; for the precise numbers of volumes in these classes cannot as yet be ascertained. But that the Library is much richer than it would seem from the above enumeration, appears from the circumstance, that, in the Scientific division, 592 volumes con-