Correction of "Physicist" in OED

[Fred Shapiro]

On Thu, 9 Aug 2007, Stephen Goranson wrote:

> Henrietta Temple: A Love Story By Benjamin Disraëli (Paris: Baudry's European
> Library, 1837) p. 39.
>
> "...yet Dr. Garnet, a chemist and physicist of some note in his day, who
> travelled in the Highlands in 1798, repeats and adopts Pennant's statement of
> the volcanic origin of the hill...."

As I thought, this is some random error on the part of Google Books.  The 
citation actually appears to be from the Transactions of the Glasgow 
Archaeological Society, post-1868.  Google Books often seems to 
erroneously link a title with content from some other book.  The user of 
Google Books, like the user of Newspaperarchive, has to be more than just 
a searcher, he or she needs to bring a sense of what is plausible and what 
is not plausible to the search.  Most results I get on Google Books I 
reject without a moment's thought because I know it isn't plausible as an 
antedating.

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE BOOK OF QUOTATIONS
   Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press
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