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, who attends the former hall of learning of Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary. “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.

But the errors do not stop there. In volume 2, the encyclopaedia, which sells for almost £1,000, wrongly locates the Polish Belovehskaya Forest and elsewhere states that Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, the former Communist Party leader, was Russian, when he was in fact from Ukraine.

Gabriel George, Lucian’s father, said yesterday that he was surprised by the errors but had encouraged Lucian to bring them to the attention of the publishers.

“I do know that volumes of this size can only be updated in parts, so certain articles can be around ten years old, but some errors, like Chochim’s location, is like saying that Brighton is in France,” he 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.

In 1999, the company released the Britannica.com Web site, allowing subscribers to access information online.

THE FACT IS, YOU'RE WRONG

BELOVEHSKAYA FOREST
vol 2, p 83, col 3
Encyclopaedia Britannica states that it lies in the Bialystok, Suwalki and Lomza provinces of Poland. Since 1998 Suwalki and Lomza provinces do not exist, but when they did the forest was only part of Bialystok

EUROPEAN BISON
vol 25, p 934, col 2
Encyclopaedia Britannica states that it may only be found in the Bialowieza Forest in Poland. In fact herds also inhabit the southern mountains of Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, eastern Slovakia and the Romanian Carpathians

CHOCHIM
vol 25, p 944, col 1
A town on the Dniester. Encyclopaedia Britannica states that it is in Moldova. It is in Ukraine

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