A Schoolboy with a fascination for Poland and wildlife has uncovered several significant errors in the latest - the fifteenth - edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Lucian George, 12, a pupil at Highgate Junior School in North London, was delving into the volumes on Poland and wildlife in Central Europe when he noted the mistakes.

The first was the assertion by the internationally acclaimed reference book that the small town of Chochim, in which two battles were fought between the Poles and the Ottoman Empire, now lies in Moldova.

"Wrong," said Lucian, "Chochim is in Ukraine."

Carefully noting the page and column of each error, the boy continued his investigations of the 32-volume tome like a diligent sub-editor.

In volume 25, page 934, column 2, the encyclopaedia states that the European bison, or wisent, may be found only in the Bialowieza Forest in Poland, which is also incorrect.

"The European bison also inhabit the southern mountains of Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, eastern Slovakia and the Romanian Carpathians," Lucian said.

Far from being the school swot, Lucian, who spends his evenings watching The Simpsons and chatting on the internet, made the discoveries thanks to his interest in his Polish roots. His mother, Elizabeth, is Polish and every year he spends a month on a farm in Yamy, southwest Poland.

"He has always been fascinated by Polish history. On the farm he has long chats with his 90-year-old great-grandmother about how she survived the pogroms of the Nazis."

Ten days ago, the Encyclopaedia Britannica, which was first issued by the Society of Gentlemen in Scotland between 1768 and 1777 in Edinburgh, wrote to Lucian.

Anita Wolff, the senior editor, thanked him for "pointing out several errors and misleading statements" and promised that a geography editor was working on a "major revision of our Poland coverage" and would make the changes as requested.

In spite of the mistakes, Lucian said he still considered the encyclopaedia to be the single best source of information.

The errors, too, while serious, were arguably less egregious than one in the first volume, which declared California to be an island.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica was founded in 1768 in Edinburgh by Colin Macfarquhar, a printer, and Andrew Bell, an engraver, with the first edition published one section at a time over a three-year period.

(BBC)