Chisholm Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica: a Dictionary of arts, sciences, literature and general information. Volume 10

Eleventh edition. — In 29 volumes. — Cambridge, England: University Press, 1910. — 988 p.The present publication of the new Encyclopedia Britannica by the University of Cambridge is a natural step in the evolution of the university as an educational institution and a home of research. The medieval University of Cambridge began its educational labours as an institution intended almost exclusively for the instruction of the clergy, to whose needs its system of studies was necessarily in a large measure accommodated. The Revival of Learning, the Renaissance and the Reformation widened its sphere of intellectual work and its interests, as well as its actual curriculum. The 19th century saw the complete abolition of the various tests which formerly shut the gates of the English universities against a large part of the people. The early establishment in Cambridge of special colleges for women was also a sign of expanding activities. About the same time the University Extension movement, first advocated at Cambridge in 1871 on the ground that the ancient universities were not mere clusters of private establishments but national institutions, led to a wider conception of the possibilities of utilizing the intellectual resources of the universities for the general diffusion of knowledge and culture; and the system of Local Examinations brought the university into close contact with secondary education throughout the country. But the public to which the University of Cambridge thus appealed, though wider than that of the college lecture-rooms, was still necessarily limited. Practically it is only through the medium of the University Press that Cambridge can enter into and maintain direct relations with the whole of the English-speaking world. The present time seems appropriate for an effort towards thus signally extending the intellectual and educational influence of the university.
To this end, the University of Cambridge has undertaken the publication of the Encyclopedia Britannica, and now issues the Eleventh Edition of that work. These twenty-eight volumes and index aim at achieving the high ambition of bringing all extant knowledge within the reach of every class of readers. While the work, in its present form, is to some extent based on thepreceding edition, the whole field has been re-surveyed with the guidance of the most eminent specialists. The editors early decided that the new edition should be planned and written as a whole, and refused to content themselves with the old-fashioned plan of regarding each volume as a separate unit, to be compiled and published by itself. They were thus able to arrange their material so as to give an organic unity to the whole work and to place all the various subjects under their natural headings, in the form which experience has shown to be the most convenient for a work of universal reference. An important consequence of this method of editing is that the twenty-eight volumes are now ready for publication at the same time, and that the complete work can be offered to the public in its entirety. Although the work has been reduced to the smallest compass consistent with lucidity—bibliographies of all subjects which call for assistance of this nature being provided in aid of more detailed study—the aim throughout has been to maintain the highest standard of scholarly authority, and to provide a thorough elucidation of important scientific problems for which the modern inquirer has no adequate text-books. This Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica is now, therefore, offered to the public by the University of Cambridge in the hope and belief that it will be found to be a trustworthy guide to sound learning, and an instrument of culture of world-wide influence.