NOTES BY THE EDITOR 



N T H E 



PROGRESS OF SCIENCE IN 1852. 



IN reviewing the progress of Science during the past year, 1852, it is 

 especially to be remarked, that the annual record of discoveries in all the 

 branches of science and the useful arts, is more characterized by its utility 

 than by its brilliancy. The following remarks, appositely observed of the 

 transactions of the British Association for 1842, apply equally well to the 

 general scientific progress of the year 1852 : " We have this year no great 

 scientific novelty, theory, or discovery, brought upon the tapis, and claim- 

 ing the attention of philosophers. There is no voyage to the South Pole 

 to be promoted, there is no hypothesis of glaciers to astonish the world, 

 there are no observations of the nature of storms to throw a light on those 

 terrible visitations, there is no doctrine and measurement of waves, or on 

 the form of vessels, there is no new feature in the grand research into the 

 mysteries of magnetism, in short, except the idea of following up the 

 investigation of meteorological phenomena by means of balloons, we have 

 heard of nothing very particular. Let it, however, be understood, that in 

 all branches of science, steady progress has been made and recorded. Data 

 of high consequence are collected, both to check future mistakes, and 

 advance future information. Induction, the true basis of all truth, will 

 flourish upon these ; and therefore, though there is nothing extraordinary 

 in this stage of the onward journey, the distances and milestones are fairly 

 marked so far, and the prospects in the distance are rendered much more 

 clear and distinct. The way to the field is beaten, and its ample survey 

 defined. There is nothing needed but to march on, take time, and labor to 

 a useful end." 



Europe, as if her energies were overtasked by the demands of the Great 

 Exhibition year of 1851, has given us in 1852 nothing particularly new, 



