sometimes grouped cases referring to sales of real property and cases referring to sales of personal property.
An equally serious fault is the fault of having titles in indexes which mean so much that they mean nothing. Take for instance the title "Equity." Under this head may be grouped a collection of matters so extensive, that to index ordinary matters relating to the jurisdiction and practice of Courts of Chancery under the title "Equity," is not to index them at all. Most of the matters which are grouped under "Equity," by poor indexers, could be much better grouped under the particular heads of Equity Jurisdiction to which they refer,—as for instance, "Rescission," "Cancellation," "Receivers," "Mistake," "Fraud," and the like. Except where modern statutes have created an innovation upon the ancient rule, every conveyance of real property is by an instrument under seal, called a deed; and we accordingly find in some indexes, in addition to the title "Conveyances," the title "Deeds;" and the same matters are indifferently put, in one volume under one of these titles, and in the next volume under the other title. While this is so, many deeds relate to other subjects than conveyances of land, and the use of the word "deed," as a title in an index, accordingly results in mixing up incongruous matters in the same title.
The same may be said of the title "Contracts." In many indexes there is a great jumble of matters thrown under this title simply because the maker of the index is too indolent or too unskilful to analyze these matters and put them under the proper titles to which they refer. One half or two thirds of all the case-law could be grouped under "Contracts," but such a grouping would not be indexing. The whole subject of "Conveyancing" is a branch of the law of Contracts. "Mortgages" is a branch of Conveyancing; "Deeds of Trust," another branch. The whole subject of "Insurance" is simply a department of the law of "Contracts," which subject may be divided into "Life Insurance," "Fire Insurance," "Marine Insurance," and the more modern insurance against storms, lightning, etc. Then from "Life Insurance" may be exscinded a mass of decisions relating to that species of Life Insurance which is conducted by "Mutual Benefit Societies."
These observations might be very much extended, and they point to the conclusion that we need a more scientific system of legal classification, which must be made as the preliminary to a better system of legal indexing. But, with the existing systems of classification, most of our indexes may be improved, if the indexer will keep in view one or two simple considerations, 1. Every subject should be indexed under the title representing the smallest subdivision in legal classification to which the mind will naturally recur to find it. In carrying out this principle it should be remembered that an index is not an analysis. The true office of an index is to distribute. It is very seldom necessary in an index to a volume of law reports, to have several sub-titles under a single title, such, for instance, as "Evidence." In a work on Evidence the contrary is true; the writer will treat of a number of distinct topics,—such as, "Judicial Notice," the "Burden of Proof," the "Examination of Witnesses," the "Authentication of Written Instruments," the "Statute of Frauds," and the like; but in an index each of these subjects should stand in alphabetical order under its own proper sub-title. 2. The maker of an index should rigidly adhere to the rule of grouping the same matters under the same titles, and should avoid the abominable practice of splitting up entries referring to a particular subject and putting some of them under one title and some of them under another title which means the same thing.
