e same book being described by different
catalogues as 12mo. 8vo, crown 8vo. &c., according to fancy; while the
same cataloguer who describes a volume as octavo to-day, is very likely
to call it a duodecimo to-morrow. Library catalogues are full of these
heterogeneous descriptions, and the size-notation is the _bete noir_ of
the veteran bibliographer, and the despair of the infant librarian. Yet
it is probable that the question has excited a discussion out of all
proportion to its importance. Of what consequence is the size of a book
to any one, except to the searcher who has to find it on the shelves?
While the matter has been much exaggerated, some concert or uniformity in
describing the sizes of books is highly desirable.

A Committee of the American Library Association agreed to a
size-notation, figured below, adopting the metric system as the standard,
to which we add the approximate equivalents in inches.

_Centimetres_
_Size_ _outside_
_Sizes._ _abbreviations._ _height._ _Inches._

Folio, F deg.. F 40 16
Quarto, 4 deg.. Q 30 12
Octavo, 8 deg.. O 25 10
Duodecimo, 12 deg.. D 20 8
Sixteen mo., 16 deg.. S 17.5 7
Twenty-four mo., 24 deg.. T 15 6
Thirty-two mo., 32 deg.. Tt 12.3 5
Forty-eight mo., 48 deg.. Fe 10 4

It will be understood that the figure against each size indicated
represents the maximum measure: _e. g._ a volume is octavo when above 20
and below 25 centimetres (8 to 10 inches high).

As this question of sizes concerns publishers and booksellers, as well as
librarians, and the metric system, though established in continental
Europe, is in little use in the United States and England, it remains
doubtful if any general adherence to this system of notation can be
reached--or, indeed, to any other. The Publishers' Weekly (N. Y.) the
organ of the book trade, has adopted it for the titles of new books
actually in hand, but follows the publishers' descriptions of sizes as to
others. Librarian J. Winter Jones, of the British Museum, recommended
classing all books above twelve inches in height as foli