George Gabriel Stokes to Faraday   8 April 1856

Pembroke College Cambridge | April 8th 1856

My dear Sir,

I quite forgot in writing to you to mention¹ one point which struck me, which is the running heads. I think that in a work like the Philosophical Transactions, consisting of various memoirs, there is an inconvenience in a variety of heads to the same paper. For suppose that one paper, say yours², had a variety of heads, and suppose some one was looking for a paper not yours, of which it might be he did not know the exact title. If each paper had the same running head throughout, when he came to a new heading, and having read it found it was not what he wanted, in turning rapidly over the pages his eye would tell instantaneously so long as he was turning over the leaves of the same paper; but when he came to a fresh heading he would have to pause. Your paper is divided into sections in such a manner that any part wanted can readily be found, so that a variation in the running heads is not required. For the reasons I have mentioned I should prefer the same heading throughout, but I don’t much care. The volumes of the Phil. Trans. in my room do not happen to have your researches in them, so I don’t know what your previous practice has been, & it is too late now to refer to the library. Unless in your previous papers you have been in the habit of varying the running heads I should prefer a constant heading. If you have hitherto used a uniform heading for the same paper, and do not care about breaking through your old practice, perhaps you would be good enough to write to Messrs Taylor giving the heading you would wish to have; but if you have been in the habit of varying the headings it had best be let stand³.

I am dear Sir | Yours very truly | G.G. Stokes.

Profr. Faraday