Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/13

Rh employ language which is excessively technical and difficult to understand. Finally, when the individual contributor is permitted to treat his chosen topics in his own way and without reference to what other contributors have done, there will necessarily result a lack of symmetry and proportion which will be perceptible to the most casual reader of the completed work. These facts have been so often demonstrated in the past as to have led the editors of the Brockhaus Conversations-Lexikon to reject the signed article altogether, and to substitute for the individualistic system another system under which each article, though originally written by a single specialist, is subsequently criticised by other specialists through whose hands it passes and by whom it is so modified as, in its final form, to be no longer the work of one particular individual. It represents instead the collective knowledge and the different view-points of a number of highly trained and able men, while it usually receives, as well, a finishing touch from the general editor, who bears constantly in mind the inestimable value of simplicity, proportion, and clearness. No signed article can ever have the completeness, the authority, and the practical value of an article prepared in such a way as this; and the proof of the assertion is found in the undisputed fact that the encyclopædia of Brockhaus has been universally recognized as the most minutely accurate work of reference that exists to-day. Moreover, as a practical matter, the signed article frequently involves a certain inevitable deception. As new editions of an encyclopædia appear, a multitude of changes in the text are necessarily demanded in order to add new facts and modify old theories; and these changes are often made by other hands than those of the original contributors, so that many articles to which a writer's name is signed are no longer in reality his own. Hence the Editors of the present work have, after much deliberation, dispensed entirely with the signed article. In its stead, they have arranged that every important contribution to the work, while written by a specialist of acknowledged competence, shall nevertheless pass through other hands and receive its final form upon the basis of mutual discussion, criticism, emendation, and suggestion. It is proper here to acknowledge the great value of the assistance rendered by Mr. Louis Heilprin, who has read all the proofs, and whose minute and varied knowledge and wide experience have assured a very high degree of accuracy.

In the second place, the endeavor has been made to render this Encyclopædia more comprehensive in its scope than any other. The rapid march of science during the past few years, the new inventions and discoveries that have been made, the political and social changes that have been effected, and the multitude of absolutely new interests that have arisen in almost every department of human activity, have added an immense mass of topics to the list with which former encyclopædias have had to deal. It is believed that all these topics have here received adequate and accurate attention; while a much greater completeness than is usual will be found in the treatment of nearly every department. It is desirable to call especial attention to the amount of space that has been given to the subject of Geography, both physical and political, and to the carefully selected information relating to municipal organization and the management of public utilities—information such as has never before been systematically given in any encyclopædia published in the English language. Something also should be said of the fullness and the modern character of the articles bearing upon the several departments of Biology, Botany, Education, and Psychology, the Mechanical Arts, Physics, Military and Naval Science, Sociology, and Biography. As to the last-named subject, it may be said, without fear of contradiction, that no eucyclopædic reference-book in England or America contains as titles so many names of men and women; while the information given under these titles is brought down to the very eve of the publication of this work. Another department of great interest and value is that which has to do with what may be called miscellaneous information and which covers a range of topics not heretofore included in a general encyclopædia. Under this head will be found, for instance, the titles of famous books, comprising works of fiction, the names of the important characters in imaginative literature, the explanation of political nicknames and popular allusions, and in fact all that class of subjects which has ordinarily been found only in Readers' Handbooks, and similar special compilations. It should be noted, too, that the pronunciation of all unusual, technical, or foreign words has been carefully figured in accordance with a simple phonetic system, and that their etymology has been systematically traced. This