Browsing the Index

Many users of the SciPer Index will wish to consult the indexing as if they were browsing the periodicals themselves. To this end, the main browse page gives access to the indexing for each periodical, together with brief introductions. The indexing for each periodical is divided into volumes, within which the individual weekly, monthly, or quarterly issues can readily be expanded or collapsed. Where applicable, the original sections and subsections of the issues are retained, and a coloured background indicates whether an article appears within such a section or subsection. Printer-friendly versions of the index entries can be obtained using the printer icon at the top right-hand side.

All the people, publications, unidentified pseudonyms, and institutions, societies, etc. that appear in the index have unique entries in the associated registers. Since many users will wish to consult only those articles related to particular people, publications, or institutions, we have made the alphabetically arranged registers available for browsing. The information provided in the registers is limited to that necessary for purposes of identification. For people, full names, vital dates, and a biographical source are provided. For books and pamphlets, full bibliographical details are provided, with authors' names linked to the register of people. Periodicals, institutions, and pseudonyms are simply listed alphabetically. The small search icon after each entry in these browsable registers provides access to hitlists containing all the relevant references in the index. The hitlists record the basic bibliographical information of relevant articles, and provide a link to the full article entries.
 

Explanation of Individual Index Entries

Title. Titles are transcribed as they appear in the original publication, except that principal words are capitalized and punctuation is normalized. If an article has no drop title (i.e. at the head of the article), but has a running head (i.e. at the top of each page), the latter is silently adopted as the proper title. In cases where an article has no title, a suitable title is inferred, and included in square brackets.

Serial Parts. If an article forms part of a serial, its position in the series is indicated (e.g. [3/16]). If any other parts of the serial have been indexed, the several parts are linked together via hyperlinks.

Author. If an article is signed, the original signature is transcribed in the index entry, although with punctuation normalized.

If the article is signed with an author's real name in some form, the signature is hyperlinked to a full identification of the author, including vital dates and a reference to a biographical source, which appears in a pop-up box. The pop-up box also allows users to navigate to the relevant point in the people register, where the small search icon will give access to other hits in the index mentioning that person.

Articles signed with a pseudonym (including initials) record the pseudonymous signature followed by 'pseud.' The authors of these articles are identified wherever possible, and the regularized form of the author's name is included in square brackets after the pseudonym, hyperlinked to a pop-up box containing a full identification. Where relevant, a small writing hand symbol is hyperlinked to a pop-up box containing the source of the attribution of authorship.

If an article is pseudonymous, and the author remains unidentified, the pseudonym is entered into the pseudonym register. The hyperlink brings up a pop-up box, which allows users to navigate to the relevant point in the pseudonym register, where the small search icon will give access to other hits in the index citing that pseudonym.

The authors of unsigned articles are identified wherever possible, and the name is enclosed in square brackets and hyperlinked to the full identification, with a reference to the source of attribution where relevant. Unsigned articles of which the author is unknown are marked 'Anon'.

Genre. The genre of the article is identified using one or more of the following classifiers:
 
N.B. Primarily textual articles which contain relevant illustrations are not given the genre classifier 'Illustration'; instead, the illustrations are listed under 'Relevant Illustrations' (below). Only articles which are primarily illustrations, or contain a clearly separate element that is an illustration, are given this genre classifier.

When the genre of an article is a composite, the relevant classifiers are listed in the order of dominance (e.g. 'Essay, Serial').
If an article consists of separately authored elements representing more than one genre, these are listed in order of appearance, separated by forward slashes (e.g. 'Introduction / Letter').

If an article by a single author consists of several separate elements representing more than one genre, these are listed in order of appearance, separated by semicolons (e.g. 'Introduction; Diary').

If an article consists of several separate elements representing more than one genre, but the article as a whole also possesses an overriding generic character, then the overriding genre is given first, followed, after a dash, by the more specific identifiers (e.g. 'Regular Feature—News-Digest; Obituary', 'Regular Feature—Literary Gossip, Spoof / Epigram, Satirical').

Publications Reviewed, Extracted, etc. The index provides distinctive information about articles in which publications are explicitly reviewed, extracted (i.e. a portion is reprinted), abstracted (i.e. a précis is given), or noticed (i.e. it is mentioned in a literary listing, possibly with a very brief description). Entries explicitly distinguish between 'Publications Reviewed', 'Publications Extracted', 'Publications Abstracted', and 'Publications Noticed'.

N.B. Wherever possible, publications being reviewed, extracted, etc., have been identified and entered in the publications register. However, where such an identification could not be made with confidence, the index provides the name of the author, and in some cases the name of the periodical containing an unidentified article being mentioned.

Relevant Illustrations. When an article contains illustrations that are considered relevant to science, technology, or medicine, the number and type of these illustrations are identified. The types of illustrations are: woodcuts (wdct.), intaglio engravings and etchings (eng.), lithographs (lith.), photographs (photo.), maps, graphs, and tables.

N.B. Illustrations considered irrelevant to science, technology, or medicine are ignored.

Illustrators. The names of the illustrators are recorded in the same manner as for authors (above).

Subject. The subject of an article is identified using one or more of the classifiers listed below. For ease of reference, the classifiers have been separated into scientific topics (i.e. subjects which were the object of scientific study in the nineteenth century) and historical themes (i.e. terms commonly employed by students of nineteenth-century science). However, the distinction is somewhat artificial, and users should consult both lists. Moreover, in the index entries no distinction is made between these two groups of classifiers.


Scientific Topics

 


Historical Themes

 

In the index entries the classifiers are listed in the order in which the subjects arise within the article, so far as is possible. For a single index entry, as many classifiers have been used as was considered necessary to reflect the subjects covered in the article. However, the subjects of slight passing references have been omitted, especially when cognate subjects have already been listed. More specific classifiers have routinely been preferred to more general ones (e.g. 'Physics', 'Biology'); the latter only being used when the more general subject area has been discussed, or where it is impossible to be more specific. In other words, terms have been used on the principle of subsidiarity.

For clarity, when an article is internally differentiated into more than one discrete part, the subject classifiers for each part are separated using bars, to avoid confusion (e.g. 'Geology, Instruments | Technology | Sex').

People, Publications, and Institutions Mentioned. For the sake of clarity, references to significant names (personal and institutional) and bibliographical references are sometimes recorded separately. Names and bibliographical references are included only if they are considered to be of particular interest to the community of historians for whom the index is designed, or to have been mentioned in a manner which was evidently significant within the original periodical article itself—either being discussed or referred to at some length or being discussed or referred to in a manner which is important to the development of the argument, narrative, or theme of the article.

Names (personal or institutional) and bibliographical references are only entered at this point if they are identifiable with a very high degree of probability. In cases where non-explicit references have not been confidently identified, conjectures concerning their identity are restricted to the description field.

References to people are hyperlinked to pop-up boxes giving a full identifications; references to books and pamphlets are hyperlinked to full bibliographical details; references to periodicals and institutions are hyperlinked to the names given in regularized forms.

Descriptions. Some articles contain no descriptions, while others contain lengthy descriptions. The object of the description is to convey a general sense of the material of scientific relevance in the article, together with details of any particular points likely to be of particular interest. Quotations, given in quotation marks with page references, are included when appropriate. When descriptions contain references to people, publications, or institutions, they are hyperlinked to fuller details in pop-up boxes (unless already identified in the index entry).

Reprints. If the periodical article was subsequently reprinted during the author's lifetime, the bibliographical details of the reprint edition is usually recorded at the end of the index entry.

Cross-references. Relevant cross-references are made to both primary and secondary sources which either explicitly mention the article or discuss its central themes. Such cross-references include links to other articles described in the SciPer Index; references of this type are also sometimes made in the text of the description.

Subarticles. In some cases, an article is divided into several smaller elements; these are recorded in the index entries as subarticles. They each have a separate title, either transcribed or inferred, and they are also given a sequence number to aid the user in locating the material in the original article. Subarticles also have subject classifiers assigned, and may include details of people, publications, and institutions mentioned, and a description.