Take the following interesting particulars, which appear somewhat out of harmony with our unsatisfactory means of distribution, but when we compare these figures with those of other countries, they seem insignificant: In the year 1913, 9,541, and in 1914, 8,863 new books were published in England. In 1913, 10,607, and in 1914, 10,175 new books were published in America. In the year 1912, 34,801 new books were published in Germany, and in 1913 no fewer than 35,078 were issued from their various presses. Nearly four times as many books were thus yearly produced in Germany as in England--but it must be admitted that many of these are of a local or ephemeral character--and over three times as many as in America. A comparison between the number of authors and their proportion to the population is no less surprising. In 1910, there were 9,000 writers of books in America; there were 8,000 in Great Britain; while in Germany there are over 31,000 of such _littérateurs_. Of course, the war has greatly changed these figures. It is computed that the total number of printed books in the world is no less than 11,638,810, and that about 8,714,000 of these have been published subsequently to the year 1800. From 1500 to 1535 the number of books produced annually averaged only 1,250. It was not until 1700 that the annual average passed 10,000, and it was not until 1887 that it reached 100,000. From 1900 to 1908, however, the world's annual output averaged 174,375. Some interesting statistics relating to the production of printed books are given in the "Bulletin de l'Institut International de Bibliographie." The complaint of over-production is almost as old as the art of printing itself, for, according to Charles Knight's "The Old Printer," it is stated that some Roman printers of the Latin Classics in 1471 petitioned the Pope to interfere on their behalf. In their petitions they stated that "they were the first who introduced this Art, with vast labour and cost, into His Holiness's territory, and encouraged by our example, other printers have done the same. If you peruse the Catalogue of the books printed by us, you will admire how and where we could produce a sufficient quantity of paper or even rags for such a number of volumes. The total of these books amount to 12,475, a prodigious heap, and intolerable by reason of those unsold. We are unable to bear the expense of housekeeping for want of buyers, of which there cannot be a more flagrant proof than that our house is full of quire books, but void of every necessary of life."