PREFACE. 



THE present is the Twenty-fifth Annual Volume of our Magazine. 

 There is no other magazine of popular science which equals 

 the record. A quarter of a century is a long period in the history 

 of magazine literature. It beholds the rise and fall and keen com- 

 petition of many rivals. The law of the " Survival of the Fittest " is 

 as true among literary and scientific competitors as in the world of 

 living things. 



What an enormous advance Science has made within the period 

 comprehended by the lifetime of SCIENCE-GOSSIP ! There is, perhaps, 

 no previous quarter of a century equal to it in the whole history of 

 scientific research. Our past volumes record this progress — all the 

 more faithfully because it was recorded almost unconscious of the 

 fact that an act of evolution was going on. 



Perhaps one of the most striking features in the scientific 

 history of the last twenty-five years is its increased democratic 

 character. It belongs to the people, without any reference to rank, 

 wealth, or influence. For years, in our columns, peers and peasants 

 have discussed natural history subjects on common and equal ground. 

 Science has sprung from the people, and belongs to the people. 

 Apart from its increasing national economic importance, it is one of 

 their chief intellectual delights. For one person who cared enough 

 about the multitudinous objects of nature to enquire into them a 

 quarter of a century ago, there are at least ten now. 



It has always been our aim to meet this growing and spreading 

 love of Science among those who follow it for the love of it. On 



