Numerous scraps of paper were inserted between pages of Hume's Treatise on Human Nature, Vol. 1 (Russell's library, no. 1134, 1890; inscribed B. Russell | Trin. Coll. | Dec. 1892). The year of the notes would not be earlier than BR's possession of the copy (which was rebound since he made his marginalia, which were seriously mutilated in trimming the fore-edge). Each note is identified with the page number to which it refers by the note's author (except for one which was added by K. Blackwell).

Blackwell compared the handwritten notes on small bits of paper loosely inserted on pages of the Treatise of Human Nature with the marginalia known to be Russell’s on the same sequence of pages. The inserted notes are written strictly vertically and don’t involve abbreviations. BR’s marginalia aren’t strictly vertical and involve frequent abbreviations. (For a incomplete list of same, see muse.jhu.edu/article/879917/summary) More telling is the comparison of individual words found in both sets of notes. Words that end in “ts” are written distinctively differently. For BR, “ts” is written without the pencil leaving the page. For the unknown author of the note scraps, the “t” is a vertical stroke followed by a separate horizontal “cross” with the “s” written separately beneath the cross. BR could, of course, have written on scraps of paper, but the practice hasn't been seen for his notes on books. It is done for his notes identifying a correspondent, which notes are placed with the correspondence.