new Google Books glitch

[Garson O'Toole]

It looks like the search index for "Herman Melville 1851-1891" is
corrupted. The bad matches occur for the term "phosphorus" and not
"phosphorous" I think. It is possible to find "phosphoric" in the
volume (if this theme interests you).

Herman Melville: 1851-1891 - Page 376
Hershel Parker - 2005 - 1056 pages - Preview
He might have filled "night after night with that fertile theme, the
whaling voyage," but he contented himself with a personal anecdote
(however doctored) about "the peculiar phosphoric aspect of the water
sometimes.

http://books.google.com/books?id=5bI50n5WImkC&q=phosphoric#v=snippet&

The incorrect matches are probably being generated by the search index
for the following work. The book below contains the phrase "iron
employed in the acid process must" which is listed in the output for
the incorrect matches.

Principles of metallurgy - Page 182
Arthur Horseman Hiorns - 1901 - 388 pages - Free Google eBook - Read
... Mn0 2-65 Lime, Ca0 -95 Sulphur, S, -68 99-99 The following
analyses by Snelus give the composition of the gases given off during
the blow : The iron employed in the acid process must be practically
free from phosphorus and sulphur, ...

Garson

On Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 6:50 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      new Google Books glitch
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I was searching in the text of Hershel Parker's _Herman Melville 1851-1891_
> for the word "phosphorous."
>
> No less than 29 results appeared - quite a few - but they were clearly from
> a different book.  I tried several times with the same result. Other
> searches of the book were unexceptional.
>
> JL
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org