Originally published during the early part of the twentieth century, the Cambridge Manuals of Science and Literature were designed to provide concise introductions to a broad range of topics. They were written by experts for the general reader and combined a comprehensive approach to knowledge with an emphasis on accessibility. Earthworms and their Allies, written in 1912 by Frank E. Beddard, offers both an introduction to the principal facts about earthworms and an analysis of their distribution across the world.