Books of Reference in the Reading - Room of the British Museum.
(Printed by Order of the Trustees.)—As this is a third edition, it is scarcely needful to do more than draw the attention of students to the fact that this useful work has been republished in a revised form. The old preface, written in 1859 by Mr. J. Winter Jones, has been reprinted, with an addition carrying on the history of the Reading-Room down to the present time. The improvements have been great. The time during which it is available to readers has been increased since 1870 from 292 days of an average length of 8 hours, to 303 of an average of 10 hours 40 minutes,— that is, by more than a third. Much of this increase is due to the use of the electric light, which has not only lengthened the working day, but has successfully combated the London fog. The number of readers has increased from 356 to 620 daily, a number which cannot find accommodation, though partial relief has been afforded by the opening of the Newspaper Room. Last year nearly three-quarters of a million books were asked for, as against not quite three hundred thousand in 1873, while about half-a-million more have been kept from day to day. As for the improvements in the Reference Library itself, a collection quite unparalleled, we believe, in European libraries, we must refer our readers to this volume.—With this may be mentioned another volume printed by order of the Trustees of the Museum, Catalogue of Hindustani Printed Books in the Library, by J. F. Blumhardt (Long- mans). It contains purely Hindustani works, translations of such into European languages, and polyglot works in which Hindustani literary matter occurs.
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