data on stars, noting that Flamsteed had refused to assist him, but he vaunted his coverage of astronomy, especially his full coverage of Newton's theories of the moon and of comets. In botany he claimed to have given "a pretty exact botanick lexicon, which was what we really wanted before," using Dr John Ray's method. To describe the parts of a ship accurately, he supposedly "often" went on board himself. In law, he wrote, he abridged from the best writers and had the result "carefully examined and corrected by a Gentleman of known Ability in that Profession." The specified aims of the book did not prevent Harris from including some highly opinionated asides, for example this definition conveying the poor view he took of lawyers: "Sollicitor, is a Man imploy'd to take care of, and follow Suits depending in Courts of Law, or Equity, formerly allowed only to Nobility, whose Menial Servants they were; but now too frequently used by others, to the damage of the People, and the increase of Champerty and Maintenance". Harris wrote that he had wished to supply an index for each art and science as well as more plates on anatomy and ships, but the underwriters could not afford it, "the Book having swelled so very much beyond the Expectation." A review of this work, extending to the unusual length of four pages, appeared in the Philosophical Transactions for 1704. The Lexicon Technicum was long very popular, enduring through at least 1744 as the main rival of Ephraim Chambers's Cyclopaedia. The final publication of the two volumes of the Lexicum Technicum was in 1736. An anonymous one-volume supplement did appear in 1744, with 996 pages and 6 plates, but this work was allegedly "not well received," being perceived by contemporaries as a mere "booksellers speculation." In any case, no new editions of the Lexicon Technicum were published thereafter. Publication History Unlike most multi-volume works, the several editions of volumes 1 and 2 were not synchronized until 1736. The first volume appeared in five editions, while the second volume appeared only in three editions. The first edition of volume 1 appeared in 1704; the second edition in 1708, the third edition in 1716, and the fourth edition in 1725. In contrast, the first edition of volume 2 appeared in 1710, and the second edition did not appear until 1723. The two volumes were not published together