Chapter XVIII: Part 18

All book-keeping methods rest upon the same fundamental principles, but their development in practice in different countries is to some extent influenced by the manner in which business is there conducted, and by the legislative requirements imposed by the several states. In France traders are required by the Code of Commerce to keep three books--a journal, an inventory and a letter book, somewhat elaborate provisions being made to identify these books, and to prevent substitution. The compulsory journal makes the employment of numerous books of first-entry impossible without an undesirable amount of duplication, and wherever this provision obtains the book-keeping methods are in an accordingly comparatively backward state. The inventory book comprises periodical lists of ledger balances and the balance sheet, records which are invariably kept under every adequate system, although not always in a book specially set aside for that purpose. In Germany the statutory requirements are similar to those in France, save that the journal is not compulsory; but there is an additional provision that the accounts are to be kept in _bound_ books with the pages numbered consecutively--a requirement which makes the introduction of card or loose-leaf ledgers of doubtful legality. A balance sheet must be drawn up every year; but where a stock-in-trade is from its nature or its size difficult to take, it is sufficient for an inventory to be taken every two years. In Belgium the law requires every merchant to keep a journal recording his transactions from day to day, which (with the balance book) must be initialled by a prescribed officer. All letters and telegrams received, and copies of all such sent, must be preserved for ten years. The Commercial Code of Spain requires an inventory, journal, ledger, letter book and invoice book to be kept; while that of Portugal prescribes the use of a balance book, journal, ledger and copy-letter book. The law of Holland requires business men to keep books in which are correctly recorded their commercial transactions, letters received and copies of letters sent. It also provides for the preparation of an annual balance sheet. The law of Rumania makes the employment of journal, inventory book and ledger compulsory, a small tax per page being charged on the two first named. There are no special provisions as to book-keeping contained in the Russian law, nor in the United States law, but in Russia public companies have to supply the government with copies of their annual accounts, which are published in a state newspaper, and in the United States certain classes of companies have to submit their accounts to an official audit. In general terms it may be stated that at the present time the employment of card and loose-leaf ledger systems is more general in the United States than in Great Britain.

Education.

Apart from the organizations of professional accountants, there is none of note devoted to the scientific study of book-keeping other than purely educational institutions. Among the universities those in the United States were the first to include accounting as part of their curriculum; while in Great Britain the London School of Economics (university of London), the university of Birmingham, and the Victoria University of Manchester have, so far, alone treated the subject seriously and upon adequate lines. Quite recently Japan has been making a movement in the same direction, and other countries will doubtless follow suit. In England there have for a number of years past been various bodies--such for instance as the Society of Arts, the London Chamber of Commerce and Owens College, Manchester--which hold examinations in book-keeping and grant diplomas to successful candidates, while most of the polytechnics and technical schools give instruction in book-keeping; these latter, however, for the most part regard it as a "craft" merely.

AUTHORITIES.--Those interested in the bibliography of book-keeping are
referred to the catalogue of the library of the Institute of Chartered
Accountants in England and Wales, which probably contains the most
complete collection in existence of ancient and modern works on
accounting, both British and foreign. The following short list
comprises those most likely to be found of general interest: G. van de
Linde, _Book-keeping_ (1898); L.R. Dicksee, _Book-keeping_ (5th ed.,
1906) and _Advanced Accounting_ (2nd ed., 1905); _Encyclopaedia of
Accounting_, ed. by G. Lisle (1903); _Accountants' Library_, ed. by
the editor of _The Accountant_ (1901); J.W. Heaps, _The Antiquity of
Book-keeping_ (1898); _History of Accounting and Accountants_, ed. by
R. Brown (1905). (L. R. D.)

BOOK-PLATES. The book-plate, or _ex-libris_, a printed label intended to indicate ownership in individual volumes, is nearly as old as the printed book itself. It bears very much the same relation to the hand-painted armorial or otherwise symbolical personal device found in medieval manuscripts that the printed page does to the scribe's work. The earliest known examples of book-plates are German. According to Friedrich Warnecke, of Berlin (one of the best authorities on the subject), the oldest movable _ex-libris_ are certain woodcuts representing a shield of arms supported by an angel (fig. 1), which were pasted in books presented to the Carthusian monastery of Buxheim by Brother Hildebrand Brandenburg of Biberach, about the year 1480--the date being fixed by that of the recorded gift. The woodcut, in imitation of similar devices in old MSS., is hand-painted. In France the most ancient _ex-libris_ as yet discovered is that of one Jean Bertaud de la Tour-Blanche, the date of which is 1529; and in England that of Sir Nicholas Bacon, a gift-plate for the books he presented to the university of Cambridge (fig. 2). Holland comes next with the plate of a certain Anna van der Aa, in 1597; then Italy with one attributed to the year 1622. The earliest known American example is the plain printed label of one John Williams, 1679.

A sketch of the history of the book-plate, either as a minor work of symbolical and decorative art, or as an accessory to the binding of books, must obviously begin in Germany, not only because the earliest examples known are German, but also because they are found in great numbers long before the fashion spread to other countries, and are often of the highest artistic interest. Albrecht Durer is known to have actually engraved at least six plates (some of very important size) between 1503 and 1516 (fig. 3), and to have supplied designs for many others. Several notable plates are ascribed to Lucas Cranach and to Hans Holbein, and to that bevy of so-called Little Masters, the Behams, Virgil Solis, Matthias Zundt, Jost Amman, Saldorfer, Georg Hupschmann and others. The influence of these draughtsmen over the decorative styles of Germany has been felt through subsequent centuries down to the present day, notwithstanding the invasion of successive Italian and French fashions during the 17th and 18th centuries, and the marked effort at originality of composition observable among modern designers. The heavy, over-elaborated German style never seems to have affected neighbouring countries; but since it was undoubtedly from Germany that was spread the fashion of ornamental book-plates as marks of possession, the history of German _ex-libris_ remains on that account one of high interest to all those who are curious in the matter.

It was not before the 17th century that the _movable ex-libris_ became tolerably common in France. Up to that time the more luxurious habit of stamping the cover with a personal device had been in such general favour with book-owners as to render the use of labels superfluous. From the middle of the century, however, the _ex-libris_ proper became quite naturalized; examples of that period are very numerous, and, as a rule, are very handsome. It may be here pointed out that the expression _ex-libris_, used as a substantive, which is now the recognized term for book-plate everywhere on the continent, found its origin in France. The words only occur in the personal tokens of other nationalities long after they had become a recognized inscription on French labels.

In many ways the consideration of the English book-plate, in its numerous styles, from the late Elizabethan to the late Victorian period, is peculiarly interesting. In all its varieties it reflects with great fidelity the prevailing taste in decorative art at different epochs. Of English examples, none thus far seems to have been discovered of older date than the gift-plate of Sir Nicholas Bacon; for the celebrated, gorgeous, hand-painted armorial device attached to a folio that once belonged to Henry VIII., and now reposes in the King's library, British Museum, does not come under the head of book-plate in its modern sense. The next is that of Sir Thomas Tresham, dated 1585. Until the last quarter of the 17th century the number of authentic English plates is very limited. Their composition is always remarkably simple, and displays nothing of the German elaborateness. They are as a rule very plainly armorial, and the decoration is usually limited to a symmetrical arrangement of mantling, with an occasional display of palms or wreaths. Soon after the Restoration, however, a book-plate seems to have suddenly become an established accessory to most well-ordered libraries. Book-plates of that period offer very distinctive characteristics. In the simplicity of their heraldic arrangements they recall those of the previous age; but their physiognomy is totally different. In the first place, they invariably display the tincture lines and dots, after the method originally devised in the middle of the century by Petra Sancta, the author of _Tesserae Gentilitiae_, which by this time had become adopted throughout Europe. In the second, the mantling assumes a much more elaborate appearance--one that irresistibly recalls that of the periwig of the period--surrounding the face of the shield. This style was undoubtedly imported from France, but it assumed a character of its own in England. As a matter of fact, thenceforth until the dawn of the French Revolution, English modes of decoration in book-plates, as in most other chattels, follow at some years' distance the ruling French taste. The main characteristics of the style which prevailed during the Queen Anne and early Georgian periods are:--ornamental frames suggestive of carved oak, a frequent use of fish-scales, trellis or diapered patterns, for the decoration of plain surfaces; and, in the armorial display, a marked reduction in the importance of the mantling. The introduction of the scallop-shell as an almost constant element of ornamentation gives already a foretaste of the _Rocaille-Coquille_, the so-called Chippendale fashions of the next reign. As a matter of fact, during the middle third of the century this rococo style (of which the Convers plate [fig. 4] gives a tolerably typical sample) affects the book-plate as universally as all other decorative objects. Its chief element is a fanciful arrangement of scroll and shell work with curveting acanthus-like sprays--an arrangement which in the examples of the best period is generally made asymmetrical in order to give freer scope for a variety of countercurves. Straight or concentric lines and all appearances of flat surface are studiously avoided; the helmet and its symmetrical mantling tends to disappear, and is replaced by the plain crest on a fillet. The earlier examples of this manner are tolerably ponderous and simple. Later, however, the composition becomes exceedingly light and complicated; every conceivable and often incongruous element of decoration is introduced, from cupids to dragons, from flowerets to Chinese pagodas. During the early part of George III.'s reign there is a return to greater sobriety of ornamentation, and a style more truly national, which may be called _the urn style_, makes its appearance. Book-plates of this period have invariably a physiognomy which at once recalls the decorative manner made popular by architects and designers such as Chambers, the Adams, Josiah Wedgwood, Hepplewhite and Sheraton. The shield shows a plain spade-like outline, manifestly based upon that of the pseudo-classic urn then so much to the fore. The ornamental accessories are symmetrical palms and sprays, wreaths and ribands. The architectural boss is also an important factor. In many plates, indeed, the shield of arms takes quite a subsidiary position by the side of the predominantly architectural urn. From the beginning of the 19th century, until comparatively recent days, no special style of decoration seems to have established itself. The immense majority of examples display a plain shield of arms with motto on a scroll below, and crest on a fillet above. Of late years, however, a rapid impetus appears to have been given to the designing of _ex-libris_; a new era, in fact, has begun for the book-plate, one of great interest.

The main styles of decoration (and these, other data being absent, must always in the case of old examples remain the criteria of date) have already been noticed. It is, however, necessary to point out that certain styles of composition were also prevalent at certain periods. Many of the older plates (like the majority of the most modern ones) were essentially pictorial. Of this kind the best-defined English genus may be recalled: _the library interior_--a term which explains itself--and _book-piles_, exemplified by the _ex-libris_ (fig. 6) of W. Hewer, Samuel Pepys's secretary. We have also many _portrait-plates_, of which, perhaps, the most notable are those of Samuel Pepys himself and of John Gibbs, the architect; _allegories_, such as were engraved by Hogarth, Bartolozzi, John Pine and George Vertue; _landscape-plates_, by wood engravers of the Bewick school (see Plate), &c. In most of these the armorial element plays but a secondary part.

The value attached to book-plates, otherwise than as an object of purely personal interest, is comparatively modern. The study of and the taste for collecting these private tokens of book-ownership hardly date farther back than the year 1875. The first real impetus was given by the appearance of the _Guide to the Study of Book-Plates_, by Lord de Tabley (then the Hon. Leicester Warren) in 1880. This work, highly interesting from many points of view, established what is now accepted as the general classification of styles: _early armorial_ (i.e. previous to Restoration, exemplified by the Nicholas Bacon plate); _Jacobean_, a somewhat misleading term, but distinctly understood to include the heavy decorative manner of the Restoration, Queen Anne and early Georgian days (the Lansanor plate, fig. 5, is typically Jacobean); _Chippendale_ (the style above described as _rococo_, tolerably well represented by the French plate of Convers); _wreath and ribbon_, belonging to the period described as that of the urn, &c. Since then the literature on the subject has grown considerably. Societies of collectors have been founded, first in England, then in Germany and France, and in the United States, most of them issuing a journal or archives: _The Journal of the Ex-libris Society_ (London), the _Archives de la societe francaise de collectionneurs d'ex-libris_ (Paris), both of these monthlies; the _Ex-libris Zeitschrift_ (Berlin), a quarterly.

Much has been written for and against book-plate collecting. If, on the one hand, the more enthusiastic ex-librists (for such a word has actually been coined) have made the somewhat ridiculous claim of science for "ex-librisme," the bitter animadversion, on the other, of a certain class of intolerant bibliophiles upon the vandalism of removing book-plates from old books has at times been rather extravagant. Book-plates are undoubtedly very often of high interest (and of a value often far greater than the odd volume in which they are found affixed), either as specimens of bygone decorative fashion or as personal relics of well-known personages. There can be no question, for instance, that engravings or designs by artists such as Holbein and Durer and the Little Masters of Germany, by Charles Eisen, Hubert Francois Bourguignon, _dit_ Gravelot, D.N. Chodowiecki or Simon Gribelin; by W. Marshall, W. Faithorne, David Loggan, Sir Robert Strange, Francesco Piranesi; by Hogarth, Cipriani, Bartolozzi, John Keyse Sherwin, William Henshaw, Hewitt or Bewick and his imitators; or, to come to modern times, that the occasional examples traced to the handicraft of Thomas Stothard, Thackeray, Millais, Maclise, Bell Scott, T.G. Jackson, Walter Crane, Caldecott, Stacy Marks, Edwin Abbey, Kate Greenaway, Gordon Browne, Herbert Railton, Aubrey Beardsley, Alfred Parsons, D.Y. Cameron, Paul Avril--are worth collecting.

BOOK-PLATE OF ROBERT PINKNEY. By Thoma Bewick.

BOOK-PLATE OF FREIHERR V. LIPPERHEIDE. By Karl Rickelt.

BOOK-PLATE OF CHARLES DEXTER ALLEN. By E.D. French.

BOOK-PLATE OF SIR ARTHUR VICARS. By C.W. Sherborn.]

Until the advent of the new taste the devising of book-plates was almost invariably left to the routine skill of the heraldic stationer. Of late years the composition of personal book-tokens has become recognized as a minor branch of a higher art, and there has come into fashion an entirely new class of designs which, for all their wonderful variety, bear as unmistakable a character as that of the most definite styles of bygone days. Broadly speaking, it may be said that the purely heraldic element tends to become subsidiary and the allegorical or symbolic to assert itself more strongly. Among modern English artists who have more specially paid attention to the devising of book-plates, and have produced admirable designs, may be mentioned C.W. Sherborn, G.W. Eve, Robert Anning Bell, J.D. Batten, Erat Harrison, J. Forbes Nixon, Charles Ricketts, John Vinycomb, John Leighton and Warrington Hogg. The development in various directions of process work, by facilitating and cheapening the reproduction of beautiful and elaborate designs, has no doubt helped much to popularize the book-plate--a thing which in older days was almost invariably restricted to ancestral libraries or to collections otherwise important. Thus the great majority of modern plates are reproduced by process. There are, however, a few artists left who devote to book-plates their skill with the graver. Some of the work they produce challenges comparison with the finest productions of bygone engravers. Of these the best-known are C.W. Sherborn (see Plate) and G.W. Eve in England, and in America J.W. Spenceley of Boston, Mass., K.W.F. Hopson of New Haven, Conn., and E.D. French of New York City (see Plate).

AUTHORITIES.--The curious in the matter of book-plate composition will
find it treated in the various volumes of the Ex-libris Series
(London). See also A. Poulet-Malassis, _Les Ex-libris francais_
(1875); Hon. J. Leicester Warren (Lord de Tabley), _A Guide to the
Study of Book-plates_ (1880); Sir A.W. Franks, _Notes on Book-plates_,
1574-1800 (private, 1887); Friedrich Warnecke, _Die deutschen
Bucherzeichen_ (1890); Henri Bouchot, _Les Ex-libris et les marques de
possession du livre_ (1891); Egerton Castle, _English Book-plates_
(1892); Walter Hamilton, _French Book-plates_ (1892), _Dated
Book-plates_ (1895); H.W. Fincham, _Artists and Engravers of British
and American Book-plates_ (1897); _German Book-plates_, by Count K.E.
zu Leiningen-Westerburg, translated by G.R. Denis (1901). (E. Ca.)

BOOK-SCORPION, or FALSE SCORPION, minute arachnids superficially resembling tailless scorpions and belonging to the order Pseudoscorpiones of the class Arachnida. Occurring in all temperate and tropical countries, book-scorpions live for the most part under stones, beneath the bark of trees or in vegetable detritus. A few species, however, like the common British forms _Chelifer cancroides_ and _Chiridium museorum_, frequent human dwellings and are found in books, old chests, furniture, &c; others like _Ganypus littoralis_ and allied species may be found under stones or pieces of coral between tide-marks; while others, which are for the most part blind, live permanently in dark caves. Their food consists of minute insects or mites. It is possibly for the purpose of feeding on parasitic mites that book-scorpions lodge themselves beneath the wing-cases of large tropical beetles; and the same explanation, in default of a better, may be extended to their well-known and oft-recorded habit of seizing hold of the legs of horse-flies or other two-winged insects. For safety during hibernation and moulting, book-scorpions spin a small spherical cocoon. They are oviparous; and the eggs after being laid are carried about by the mother, attached to the lower surface of her body, the young remaining with their parent until they have acquired their definite form and are able to shift for themselves. (R. I. P.)

BOOKSELLING. The trade in books is of a very ancient date. The early poets and orators recited their effusions in public to induce their hearers to possess written copies of their poems or orations. Frequently they were taken down _viva voce_, and transcripts sold to such as were wealthy enough to purchase. In the book of Jeremiah the prophet is represented as dictating to Baruch the scribe, who, when questioned, described the mode in which his book was written. These scribes were, in fact, the earliest booksellers, and supplied copies as they were demanded. Aristotle, we are told, possessed a somewhat extensive library; and Plato is recorded to have paid the large sum of one hundred minae for three small treatises of Philolaus the Pythagorean. When the Alexandrian library was founded about 300 B.C., various expedients were resorted to for the purpose of procuring books, and this appears to have stimulated the energies of the Athenian booksellers, who were termed [Greek: biblion kapaeloi]. In Rome, towards the end of the republic, it became the fashion to have a library as part of the household furniture; and the booksellers, _librarii_ (Cic. _D. Leg._ iii. 20) or _bibliopolae_ (Martial iv. 71, xiii. 3), carried on a flourishing trade. Their shops (_taberna librarii_, Cicero, _Phil._ ii. 9) were chiefly in the Argiletum, and in the Vicus Sandalarius. On the door, or on the side posts, was a list of the books on sale; and Martial (i. 118), who mentions this also, says that a copy of his First Book of Epigrams might be purchased for five denarii. In the time of Augustus the great booksellers were the Sosii. According to Justinian (ii. I. 33), a law was passed securing to the scribes the property in the materials used; and in this may, perhaps, be traced the first germ of the modern law of copyright.

The spread of Christianity naturally created a great demand for copies of the Gospels and other sacred books, and later on for missals and other devotional volumes for church and private use. Benedict Biscop, the founder of the abbey at Wearmouth in England, brought home with him from France (671) a whole cargo of books, part of which he had "bought," but from whom is not mentioned. Passing by the intermediate ages we find that previous to the Reformation, the text writers or stationers (_stacyoneres_), who sold copies of the books then in use--the ABC, the Paternoster, Creed, Ave Maria and other MS. copies of prayers, in the neighbourhood of St Paul's, London,--were, in 1403, formed into a gild. Some of these "stacyoneres" had stalls or stations built against the very walls of the cathedral itself, in the same manner as they are still to be found in some of the older continental cities. In Henry Anstey's _Munimenta Academica_, published under the direction of the master of the rolls, we catch a glimpse of the "sworn" university bookseller or stationer, John More of Oxford, who apparently first supplied pupils with their books, and then acted the part of a pawnbroker. Anstey says (p. 77), "The fact is that they (the students) mostly could not afford to buy books, and had they been able, would not have found the advantage so considerable as might be supposed, the instruction given being almost wholly oral. The chief source of supplying books was by purchase from the university sworn stationers, who had to a great extent a monopoly. Of such books there were plainly very large numbers constantly changing hands." Besides the sworn stationers there were many booksellers in Oxford who were not sworn; for one of the statutes, passed in the year 1373, expressly recites that, in consequence of their presence, "books of great value are sold and carried away from Oxford, the owners of them are cheated, and the sworn stationers are deprived of their lawful business." It was, therefore, enacted that no bookseller except two sworn stationers or their deputies, should sell any book being either his own property or that of another, exceeding half a mark in value, under a pain of imprisonment, or, if the offence was repeated, of abjuring his trade within the university.

"The trade in bookselling seems," says Hallam, "to have been established at Paris and Bologna in the 12th century; the lawyers and universities called it into life. It is very improbable that it existed in what we properly call the dark ages. Peter of Blois mentions a book which he had bought of a public dealer (_a quodam publico mangone librorum_); but we do not find many distinct accounts of them till the next age. These dealers were denominated _stationarii_, perhaps from the open stalls at which they carried on their business, though _statio_ is a general word for a shop in low Latin. They appear, by the old statutes of the university of Paris, and by those of Bologna, to have sold books upon commission, and are sometimes, though not uniformly, distinguished from the _librarii_, a word which, having originally been confined to the copyists of books, was afterwards applied to those who traded in them. They sold parchment and other materials of writing, which have retained the name of stationery, and they naturally exercised the kindred occupations of binding and decorating. They probably employed transcribers; we find at least that there was a profession of copyists in the universities and in large cities."

The modern system of bookselling dates from soon after the introduction of printing. The earliest printers were also editors and booksellers; but being unable to sell every copy of the works they printed, they had agents at most of the seats of learning. Antony Koburger, who introduced the art of printing into Nuremberg in 1470, although a printer, was more of a bookseller; for, besides his own sixteen shops, we are informed by his biographers that he had agents for the sale of his books in every city of Christendom. Wynkyn de Worde, who succeeded to Caxton's press in Westminster, had a shop in Fleet Street.

The religious dissensions of the continent, and the Reformation in England under Henry VIII. and Edward VI., created a great demand for books; but in England neither Tudor nor Stuart could tolerate a free press, and various efforts were made to curb it. The first patent for the office of king's printer was granted to Thomas Berthelet by Henry VIII. in 1529, but only such books as were first licensed were to be printed. At that time even the purchase or possession of an unlicensed book was a punishable offence. In 1556 the Company of Stationers was incorporated, and very extensive powers were granted in order that obnoxious books might be repressed. In the following reigns the Star Chamber exercised a pretty effectual censorship; but, in spite of all precaution, such was the demand for books of a polemical nature, that many were printed abroad and surreptitiously introduced into England. Queen Elizabeth interfered but little with books except when they emanated from Roman Catholics, or touched upon her royal prerogatives; and towards the end of her reign, and during that of her pedantic successor, James, bookselling flourished. Archbishop Laud, who was no friend to booksellers, introduced many arbitrary restrictions; but they were all, or nearly all, removed during the time of the Commonwealth. So much had bookselling increased during the Protectorate that, in 1658, was published _A Catalogue of the most Vendible Books in England, digested under the heads of Divinity, History, Physic, &c., with School Books, Hebrew, Greek and Latin, and an Introduction, for the use of Schools_, by W. London. A bad time immediately followed. The Restoration also restored the office of Licenser of the Press, which continued till 1694.

In the first English Copyright Act (1709), which specially relates to booksellers, it is enacted that, if any person shall think the published price of a book unreasonably high, he may thereupon make complaint to the archbishop of Canterbury, and to certain other persons named, who shall thereupon examine into his complaint, and if well founded reduce the price; and any bookseller charging more than the price so fixed shall be fined L5 for every copy sold. Apparently this enactment remained a dead letter.

For later times it is necessary to make a gradual distinction between _booksellers_, whose trade consists in selling books, either by retail or wholesale, and _publishers_, whose business involves the production of the books from the author's manuscripts, and who are the intermediaries between author and bookseller, just as the booksellers (in the restricted sense) are intermediaries between the author and publisher and the public. The article on PUBLISHING (q.v.) deals more particularly with this second class, who, though originally booksellers, gradually took a higher rank in the book-trade, and whose influence upon the history of literature has often been very great. The convenience of this distinction is not impaired by the fact either that a publisher is also a wholesale bookseller, or that a still more recent development in publishing (as in the instance of the direct sale in 1902, by the London _Times_, of the supplementary volumes to the 9th edition of the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, which were also "published" by _The Times_) started a reaction to some extent in the way of amalgamating the two functions. The scheme of _The Times_ Book Club (started in 1905) was, again, a combination of a subscription library with the business of bookselling (see NEWSPAPERS); and it brought the organization of a newspaper, with all its means of achieving publicity, into the work of pushing the sale of books, in a way which practically introduced a new factor into the bookselling business.

During the 19th century it remains the fact that the distinction between publisher and bookseller--literary promoter and shopkeeper--became fundamental. The booksellers, as such, were engaged either in wholesale bookselling, or in the retail, the old or second-hand, and the periodical trades.

Coming between the publisher and the retail bookseller is the
important distributing agency of the _wholesale bookseller_. It is to
him that the retailer looks for his miscellaneous supplies, as it is
simply impossible for him to stock one-half of the books published. In
Paternoster Row, London, which has for over a hundred years been the
centre of this industry, may be seen the collectors from the shops of
the retail booksellers, busily engaged in obtaining the books ordered
by the book-buying public. It is also through these agencies that the
country bookseller obtains his miscellaneous supplies. At the leading
house in this department of bookselling almost any book can be found,
or information obtained concerning it. At one of these establishments
over 1,000,000 books are constantly kept in stock. It is here that the
publisher calls first on showing or "subscribing" a new book, a
critical process, for by the number thus subscribed the fate of a book
is sometimes determined.

What may be termed the third partner in publishing and its
ramification is the _retail bookseller_; and to protect his interests
there was established in 1890 a London booksellers' society, which had
for its object the restriction of discounts to 25%, and also to
arrange prices generally and control all details connected with the
trade. The society a few years afterwards widened its field of
operations so as to include the whole of the United Kingdom, and its
designation then became "The Associated Booksellers of Great Britain
and Ireland."

The trade in old or (as they are sometimes called) second-hand books
is in a sense, no doubt, a higher class of business, requiring a
knowledge of bibliography, while the transactions are with individual
books rather than with numbers of copies. Occasionally dealers in this
class of books replenish their stocks by purchasing remainders of
books, which, having ceased from one cause or another to sell with the
publisher, they offer to the public as bargains. The periodical trade
grew up during the 19th century, and was in its infancy when the
_Penny Magazine_, _Chambers's Journal_, and similar publications first
appeared. The growth of this important part of the business was
greatly promoted by the abolition of the newspaper stamp and of the
duty upon paper, the introduction of attractive illustrations, and the
facilities offered for purchasing books by instalments.

The history of bookselling in America has a special interest. The Spanish settlements drew away from the old country much of its enterprise and best talent, and the presses of Mexico and other cities teemed with publications mostly of a religious character, but many others, especially linguistic and historical, were also published. Bookselling in the United States was of a somewhat later growth, although printing was introduced into Boston as early as 1676, Philadelphia in 1685, and New York in 1693. Franklin had served to make the trade illustrious, yet few persons were engaged in it at the commencement of the 19th century. Books chiefly for scholars and libraries were imported from Europe; but after the second war printing-presses multiplied rapidly, and with the spread of newspapers and education there also arose a demand for books, and publishers set to work to secure the advantages offered by the wide field of English literature, the whole of which they had the liberty of reaping free of all cost beyond that of production. The works of Scott, Byron, Moore, Southey, Wordsworth, and indeed of every author of note, were reprinted without the smallest payment to author or proprietor. Half the names of the authors in the so-called "American" catalogue of books printed between 1820 and 1852 are British. By this means the works of the best authors were brought to the doors of all classes in the cheapest variety of forms. In consequence of the Civil War, the high price of labour, and the restrictive duties laid on in order to protect native industry, coupled with the frequent intercourse with England, a great change took place, and American publishers and booksellers, while there was still no international copyright, made liberal offers for early sheets of new publications. Boston, New York and Philadelphia still retained their old supremacy as bookselling centres. Meanwhile, the distinct publishing business also grew, till gradually the conditions of business became assimilated to those of Europe.

In the course of the 16th and 17th centuries the Low Countries for a time became the chief centre of the bookselling world, and many of the finest folios and quartos in our libraries bear the names of Jansen, Blauw or Plantin, with the imprint of Amsterdam, Utrecht, Leiden or Antwerp, while the Elzevirs besides other works produced their charming little pocket classics. The southern towns of Douai and St Omer at the same time furnished polemical works in English.

Under PUBLISHING are noticed various further developments of this
subject. Much interesting information on the history of the book trade
will be found in Charles Knight's _Biography of William Caxton_, and
in the same author's _Shadows of the Old Booksellers_ (1865). See also
Henry Curwen, _History of Booksellers_ (1873); and Heinrich Lempertz,
_Bilder-Hefte zur Geschichte des Bucherhandels_ (Cologne, 1854).

BOOLE, GEORGE (1815-1864), English logician and mathematician, was born in Lincoln on the 2nd of November 1815. His father was a tradesman of limited means, but of studious character and active mind. Being especially interested in mathematical science, the father gave his son his first lessons; but the extraordinary mathematical powers of George Boole did not manifest themselves in early life. At first his favourite subject was classics. Not until the age of seventeen did he attack the higher mathematics, and his progress was much retarded by the want of efficient help. When about sixteen years of age he became assistant-master in a private school at Doncaster, and he maintained himself to the end of his life in one grade or other of the scholastic profession. Few distinguished men, indeed, have had a less eventful life. Almost the only changes which can be called events are his successful establishment of a school at Lincoln, its removal to Waddington, his appointment in 1849 as professor of mathematics in the Queen's College at Cork, and his marriage in 1855 to Miss Mary Everest, who, as Mrs Boole, afterwards wrote several useful educational works on her husband's principles.

To the public Boole was known only as the author of numerous abstruse papers on mathematical topics, and of three or four distinct publications which have become standard works. His earliest published paper was one upon the "Theory of Analytical Transformations," printed in the _Cambridge Mathematical Journal_ for 1839, and it led to a friendship between Boole and D.F. Gregory, the editor of the journal, which lasted until the premature death of the latter in 1844. A long list of Boole's memoirs and detached papers, both on logical and mathematical topics, will be found in the _Catalogue of Scientific Memoirs_ published by the Royal Society, and in the supplementary volume on _Differential Equations_, edited by Isaac Todhunter. To the _Cambridge Mathematical Journal_ and its successor, the _Cambridge and Dublin Mathematical Journal_, Boole contributed in all twenty-two articles. In the third and fourth series of the _Philosophical Magazine_ will be found sixteen papers. The Royal Society printed six important memoirs in the _Philosophical Transactions_, and a few other memoirs are to be found in the _Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh_ and of the _Royal Irish Academy_, in the _Bulletin de l'Academie de St-Petersbourg_ for 1862 (under the name G. Boldt, vol. iv. pp. 198-215), and in _Crelle's Journal_. To these lists should be added a paper on the mathematical basis of logic, published in the _Mechanic's Magazine_ for 1848. The works of Boole are thus contained in about fifty scattered articles and a few separate publications.

Only two systematic treatises on mathematical subjects were completed by Boole during his lifetime. The well-known _Treatise on Differential Equations_ appeared in 1859, and was followed, the next year, by a _Treatise on the Calculus of Finite Differences_, designed to serve as a sequel to the former work. These treatises are valuable contributions to the important branches of mathematics in question, and Boole, in composing them, seems to have combined elementary exposition with the profound investigation of the philosophy of the subject in a manner hardly admitting of improvement. To a certain extent these works embody the more important discoveries of their author. In the 16th and 17th chapters of the _Differential Equations_ we find, for instance, a lucid account of the general symbolic method, the bold and skilful employment of which led to Boole's chief discoveries, and of a general method in analysis, originally described in his famous memoir printed in the _Philosophical Transactions_ for 1844. Boole was one of the most eminent of those who perceived that the symbols of operation could be separated from those of quantity and treated as distinct objects of calculation. His principal characteristic was perfect confidence in any result obtained by the treatment of symbols in accordance with their primary laws and conditions, and an almost unrivalled skill and power in tracing out these results.

During the last few years of his life Boole was constantly engaged in extending his researches with the object of producing a second edition of his _Differential Equations_ much more complete than the first edition; and part of his last vacation was spent in the libraries of the Royal Society and the British Museum. But this new edition was never completed. Even the manuscripts left at his death were so incomplete that Todhunter, into whose hands they were put, found it impossible to use them in the publication of a second edition of the original treatise, and wisely printed them, in 1865, in a supplementary volume.

With the exception of Augustus de Morgan, Boole was probably the first English mathematician since the time of John Wallis who had also written upon logic. His novel views of logical method were due to the same profound confidence in symbolic reasoning to which he had successfully trusted in mathematical investigation. Speculations concerning a calculus of reasoning had at different times occupied Boole's thoughts, but it was not till the spring of 1847 that he put his ideas into the pamphlet called _Mathematical Analysis of Logic_. Boole afterwards regarded this as a hasty and imperfect exposition of his logical system, and he desired that his much larger work, _An Investigation of the Laws of Thought, on which are founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities_ (1854), should alone be considered as containing a mature statement of his views. Nevertheless, there is a charm of originality about his earlier logical work which no competent reader can fail to appreciate. He did not regard logic as a branch of mathematics, as the title of his earlier pamphlet might be taken to imply, but he pointed out such a deep analogy between the symbols of algebra and those which can be made, in his opinion, to represent logical forms and syllogisms, that we can hardly help saying that logic is mathematics restricted to the two quantities, 0 and 1. By unity Boole denoted the universe of thinkable objects; literal symbols, such as x, y, z, v, u, &c., were used with the elective meaning attaching to common adjectives and substantives. Thus, if x=horned and y=sheep, then the successive acts of election represented by x and y, if performed on unity, give the whole of the class _horned sheep_. Boole showed that elective symbols of this kind obey the same primary laws of combination as algebraical symbols, whence it followed that they could be added, subtracted, multiplied and even divided, almost exactly in the same manner as numbers. Thus, 1 - x would represent the operation of selecting all things in the world except _horned things_, that is, _all not horned things_, and (1 - x)(1 - y) would give us _all things neither horned nor sheep_. By the use of such symbols propositions could be reduced to the form of equations, and the syllogistic conclusion from two premises was obtained by eliminating the middle term according to ordinary algebraic rules.

Still more original and remarkable, however, was that part of his system, fully stated in his _Laws of Thought_, which formed a general symbolic method of logical inference. Given any propositions involving any number of terms, Boole showed how, by the purely symbolic treatment of the premises, to draw any conclusion logically contained in those premises. The second part of the _Laws of Thought_ contained a corresponding attempt to discover a general method in probabilities, which should enable us from the given probabilities of any system of events to determine the consequent probability of any other event logically connected with the given events.

Though Boole published little except his mathematical and logical works, his acquaintance with general literature was wide and deep. Dante was his favourite poet, and he preferred the _Paradiso_ to the _Inferno_. The metaphysics of Aristotle, the ethics of Spinoza, the philosophical works of Cicero, and many kindred works, were also frequent subjects of study. His reflections upon scientific, philosophical and religious questions are contained in four addresses upon _The Genius of Sir Isaac Newton_, _The Right Use of Leisure_, _The Claims of Science_ and _The Social Aspect of Intellectual Culture_, which he delivered and printed at different times.

The personal character of Boole inspired all his friends with the deepest esteem. He was marked by the modesty of true genius, and his life was given to the single-minded pursuit of truth. Though he received a medal from the Royal Society for his memoir of 1844, and the honorary degree of LL.D. from the university of Dublin, he neither sought nor received the ordinary rewards to which his discoveries would entitle him. On the 8th of December 1864, in the full vigour of his intellectual powers, he died of an attack of fever, ending in suffusion on the lungs.

An excellent sketch of his life and works, by the Rev. R. Harley,
F.R.S., is to be found in the _British Quarterly Review_ for July
1866, No. 87. (W. S. J.)

BOOM, a word of Teutonic origin (cf. the Ger. _Baum_, tree, and the Eng. _beam_) for a pole, bar or barrier, used especially as a nautical term, for a long spar, used to extend a sail at the foot (main-boom, jib-boom, &c.). The "boom" of a cannon (note of a bell, cry of the bittern) is distinct from this, being onomatopoeic. In the sense of a barrier, a boom is generally formed of timber lashed together, or of chains, built across the mouth of a river or harbour as a means of defence. Possibly from the metaphor of a breaking boom, and the accompanying rush and roar, or from the rush of rising waters (mingled with the onomatopoeic use), "boom" began in America to be used of a sudden "spurt" or access of industrial activity, as in the phrase "a boom in cotton." Hence the verb "to boom," meaning to advertise or push into public favour.

BOOMERANG, a missile weapon of the Australian aborigines and other peoples. The word is taken from the native name used by a single tribe in New South Wales, and was mentioned in 1827 by Captain King as "the Port Jackson term" (_Nav. Surv. Coasts Austral._ i. 355) It has been erroneously connected with the _womera_ or spear-thrower, and equally erroneously regarded as onomatopoeic--for it does not "boom" but whistles in the air. Two main types may be distinguished: (a) the return boomerang; (b) the non-return or war boomerang. Both types are found in most parts of Australia; the return form was, according to General Pitt-Rivers, used in ancient Egypt; and a weapon which has a close resemblance to the boomerang survives to the present day in North-East Africa, whence it has spread in allied forms made of metal (throwing knives). Among the Dravidians of South India is found a boomerang-shaped instrument which can be made to return. It is, however, still uncertain whether the so-called boomerangs of Egypt and India have any real resemblance to the Australian return boomerang. The Hopis (Moquis) of Arizona use a non-return form. The general form of both weapons is the same. They are sickle-shaped, and made of wood (in India of ivory or steel), so modelled that the thickness is about 1/6th of the breadth, which again is 1/12th of the length, the last varying from 6 in. to 3 or 4 ft. The return boomerang, which may have two straight arms at an angle of from 70 deg. to 120 deg., but in Australia is always curved at an angle of 90 deg. or more, is usually 2 to 3 ft. in length and weighs some 8 oz.; the arms have a skew, being twisted 2 deg. or 3 deg. from the plane running through the centre of the weapon, so that B and D (fig. 1) are above it, A and E below it; the ends AB and DE are also to some extent raised above the plane of the weapon at C; the cross section is asymmetrical, the upper side in the figure being convex, the lower flat or nearly so; this must be thrown with the right hand. The non-return boomerang has a skew in the opposite direction but is otherwise similar.

The peculiarity of the boomerang's flight depends mainly on its skew. The return boomerang is held vertically, the concave side forward, and thrown in a plane parallel to the surface of the ground, as much rotation as possible being imparted to it. It travels straight for 30 yds. or more, with nearly vertical rotation; then it inclines to the left, lying over on the flat side and rising in the air; after describing a circle of 50 or more yards in diameter it returns to the thrower. Some observers state that it returns after striking the object; it is certainly possible to strike the ground without affecting the return. Throws of 100 yds. or more, before the leftward curve begins, can be accomplished by Australian natives, the weapon rising as much as 150 ft. in the air and circling five times before returning. The non-return type may also be made to return in a nearly straight line by throwing it at an angle of 45 deg., but normally it is thrown like the return type, and will then travel an immense distance. No accurate measurements of Australian throws are available, but an English throw of 180 yds. has been recorded, compared with the same thrower's 70 yds. with the cricket ball.

The war boomerang in an expert's hand is a deadly weapon, and the lighter hunting boomerang is also effective. The return boomerang is chiefly used as a plaything or for killing birds, and is often as dangerous to the thrower as to the object at which it is aimed.

See Pitt-Rivers (Lane Fox) in _Anthropological and Archaeological
Fragments_, "Primitive Warfare"; also in _Journ. Royal United Service
Inst._ xii. No. 51; _British Ass. Report_ (1872); _Catalogue of
Bethnal Green Collection_, p. 28; Buchner in _Globus_, lxxxviii. 39,
63; G.T. Walker in _Phil. Trans._ cxc. 23; _Wide World Mag._ ii. 626;
_Nature_, xiv. 248, lxiv. 338; Brough Smyth, _Aborigines of Victoria_,
i. 310-329; Roth, _Ethnological Studies_. (N. W. T.)

BOONE, DANIEL (1734-1820), American pioneer and backwoodsman, of English descent, was born near the present city of Reading, Pennsylvania, on the 2nd of November (N.S.) 1734. About 1751 his father, Squire Boone, with his family settled in the Yadkin Valley in what is now Davie county, North Carolina, then on the frontier. Daniel worked on his father's farm, and spent much of his time hunting and trapping. In 1755 he served as a wagoner and blacksmith in Braddock's disastrous expedition against the Indians. In 1765 he visited Florida, and in 1767 he first visited the Kentucky region. With several companions, including John Finley, who had been there as early as 1752, he spent two years, 1769-1771, roaming about what is now Kentucky, meeting with numberless adventures, coming in conflict with roving bands of Indians, and collecting bear, beaver and deer skins. He served in Lord Dunmore's War (1774), and in 1775 led to Kentucky the party of settlers who founded Boonesborough, long an important settlement. On the 7th of February 1778 he, and the party he led, were captured by a band of Shawnees. He was adopted into the Shawnee tribe, was taken to Detroit, and on the return from that place escaped, reaching Boonesborough, after a perilous journey of 160 m., within four days, in time to give warning of a formidable attack by his captors. In repelling this attack, which lasted from the 8th to the 17th of September, he bore a conspicuous part. He also took part in the sanguinary "Battle of Blue Licks" in 1782. For a time he represented the settlers in the Virginia legislature (Kentucky then being a part of Virginia), and he also served as deputy surveyor, sheriff and county lieutenant of Fayette county, one of the three counties into which Kentucky was then divided. Having lost all his land through his carelessness in regard to titles, he removed in 1788 to Point Pleasant, Virginia (now W. Va.), whence about 1799 he removed to a place in what is now Missouri, about 45 m. west of St Louis, in territory then owned by Spain. He received a grant of 1000 arpents (about 845 acres) of land, and was appointed syndic of the district. After the United States gained possession of "Louisiana" in 1803, Boone's title was found to be defective, and he was again dispossessed. He died on the 22nd of September 1820, and in 1845 his remains were removed to Frankfort, Kentucky, where a monument has been erected to his memory. Boone was a typical American pioneer and backwoodsman, a great hunter and trapper, highly skilled in all the arts of woodcraft, familiar with the Indians and their methods of warfare, a famous Indian fighter, restless, resourceful and fearless. His services, however, have been greatly over-estimated, and he was not, as is popularly believed, either the first to explore or the first to settle the Kentucky region.

The best biography is that by Reuben G. Thwaites, _Daniel Boone_ (New
York, 1902).

BOONE, a city and the county-seat of Boone county, Iowa, U.S.A., a short distance from the Des Moines river and near the centre of the state. Pop. (1890) 6520; (1900) 8880; (1905, state census) 9500 (1334 foreign-born); (1910) 10,347. It is served by the Chicago & North-Western (which has construction and repair shops here), the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul railways, and by the Fort Dodge, Des Moines & Southern (inter-urban) railway, which connects with Des Moines, Ames, &c. Boone is an important coal centre; bricks and tiles are manufactured from the clay obtained near by; there is a packing plant for the manufacture of beef and pork products; and from the rich farming section by which the city is surrounded come large quantities of grain, some of which is milled here, and live-stock. Boone was laid out in 1865, was incorporated as a town in 1866, and was chartered as a city in 1868.