The subject of Dentistry (Vol. 8, p. 50) is covered by the highest American authority, Dr. Edward C. Kirk, of the University of Pennsylvania, and a full account of the anatomy of the teeth will be found under Teeth (Vol. 26, p. 499), by Dr. F. G. Parsons. It is, however, in connection with bacteriology, chemistry, metallurgy, mechanics and other subjects with which the dentist is concerned, rather than in connection with the technics of his profession, that he will desire to make use of the Britannica.

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF ARTICLES IN THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA OF SPECIAL INTEREST AND IMPORTANCE TO MEMBERS OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSION

CHAPTER XXVI
FOR LAWYERS

In the days when Marshall and Story, on the bench of the Supreme Court at Washington, were listening to Webster’s thunder; when Chancellor Kent was scrutinizing precedents in New York, and Rufus Choate quoting Justinian at Salem, success at the bar depended upon elaborate rhetoric and a close study of the Reports. To-day, sound advice is in greater demand than brilliant oratory, and questions of fact are, as a rule, more important and more perplexing than questions of law.

The Britannica is the one great Digest of Facts. Its articles cover all scientific, industrial, commercial and financial subjects. Fifteen hundred of the world’s foremost specialists, chosen from twenty different countries, deal not only with all knowledge, but with the practical application of knowledge in the laboratory, the machine shop, in the mine, on the ship’s deck and in the ship’s engine-room, in the railroad office and on the railroad line. Bankers and engineers, builders and contractors, physicians and surgeons and manufacturers of every kind describe the work which they have themselves successfully done. They explain to the lawyer the details of his client’s own business, which the client is almost always incapable of explaining. They enable the lawyer to test his client’s knowledge and his client’s good faith. They show the lawyer what he has to hope or to dread from expert evidence.

The Volumes as Used by Lawyers

In a mining town in Alaska, where the workmen were mostly Servians, a lawyer recently had an unusual case. The Servians had a church, which in the absence of the Servian priest, was in the charge of a father or “papa” of the Russian orthodox church, and he tried to exclude from their church the entire congregation because they disobeyed him. The lawyer brought into court the Encyclopaedia Britannica to prove the independence of the Servian Church from the authority of the Russian Church. The Britannica was recognized as an authority by the court, and the Servian congregation won its suit for the use of its church building.

A Buffalo lawyer in a recent letter to the publishers of the Britannica told of his being retained in a case involving the qualities of materials used in the construction of automatic car couplers. He read many technical works to get information on this subject, but “the article that to me was most instructive was that on Iron and Steel in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.” He adds, “In my opinion the work is invaluable to any person who desires the means of handy reference to, and accurate information on, any topic.” Similar testimony from lawyers all over the world to the usefulness of the Britannica could be adduced in great volume.

A brief reference to the different parts of this Guide will show in a general way the contents and value of the Britannica in the many fields in which an attorney may need, in connection with the preparation of a case, immediate and authoritative information on subjects not purely legal.