CATALOGUE OF THE RADFORD LIBRARY, ST. MARY'S HOSPITAL, MANCHESTER. BY CHARLES J. CULLINGWORTH, SURGEON TO THE HOSPITAL, AND HONORARY LIBRARIAN TO THE MANCHESTER: PRINTED BY WILLIAM ALCOCK, NEW MARKET CHAMBERS. 259. K. Mauchteter PREFACE. In the year 1853 St. Mary's hospital, Manchester, was enriched by the gift of a very valuable library and museum. They were named respectively the "Radford library" and the "Radford museum" so that the name of the munificent donor might be permanently associated with his gift. Both had been formed by Dr. Radford himself, and the many important additions since made to the library have all been presented by him. I have Dr. Radford's permission to state that he has also placed an endowment fund of £1,000 in the hands of trustees, and that the interest on this sum, which will become available at his death, will be devoted exclusively to the maintenance and extension of the library. No alphabetical catalogue of the library has hitherto existed, the only guide to its contents having been a classified list, in manuscript, in which the titles of the books were entered, very briefly, under separate headings, in the order in which they were received. Now the value of a library is largely, if not entirely, dependent upon the existence of a complete alphabetical catalogue. When therefore the Radford library committee, knowing that I had served, as it were, an apprenticeship to such work, under the guidance of my friend Mr. Thomas Windsor, in the library of the Manchester medical society,-asked me to prepare a catalogue for them, I willingly undertook the task. The work of preparation was commenced in the summer of 1876, and occupied all the hours I could possibly devote to it, for a period of six months. I have copied the name of every book and pamphlet directly from the title page, subsequently arranging the names in alphabetical order; such appeared to me the only way of ensuring accuracy. As this process involved the removal of all the books from the shelves, I took the opportunity of entirely re-arranging the library, partly with a view to simplify the arrangement and partly to economise space. The library contains about 3,400 volumes, many of them consisting of a number of pamphlets or essays bound together. It is devoted chiefly, though not entirely, to obstetrics, and the diseases of women and children, and is particularly rich in obstetrical essays. It has been made a special feature of the catalogue that all the books and pamphlets containing fewer than 100 pages have a distinguishing mark (+) prefixed. I have now only to add a few words as to the general mode of arrangement here adopted: 1. Books are arranged alphabetically under the name of the author; where there are two or more authors they will be found under the name which occurs first in the title page, cross references being made under each of the others. 2. In the case of authors whose names are preceded by Le, La, L', D', Du, Des, Von, Van, &c., as separate prefixes, their works are entered under the surname, the prefix being enclosed in brackets with the initials. German names containing the modified vowels ä, ö, ü, are arranged as though written in full, ae, oe, ue, thus Müller is entered Mueller. 3. Compound surnames are entered under the latter part of the name, except where the parts of the name are united by hyphens. 4. Anonymous works are entered under the first noun in the title, whether it be the most important word or not, so as to ensure uniformity. 5. Reports and catalogues are entered under these headings, with cross-references under the reporter's or compiler's name. 6. Collections of reports, treatises, theses, &c., are entered under the first noun in the title, and not under the name of the editor or editors, except as cross-references. 7. The books are arranged in the library according to size, the capital letter in the column preceding that which contains the progressive number of the book indicating both the size of the book and its appropriate shelf. Books lettered E measure upwards of 17in. in length. It will be seen that the letters nearly correspond with the sizes of which they are the initial letters. Thus E represents Elephant-folio size. |