NOTES BY THE EDITOR, 



ON THE 



PROGRESS OF SCIENCE FOR THE YEAR 1867. 



THE great event of the year 1867, as far as the application of 

 science to the useful arts is concerned, has been the opening and 

 successful issue of the great Exposition of the world's industrial 

 products at Paris. It was, indeed, a most wonderful exhibition, 

 bewildering the student by its vastness, and overwhelming even 

 the casual observer by its complexity ; yet, apart from and above 

 the inevitable petty jealousies of rival producers, a grand and 

 triumphant display of the power of civilization, and of the ability 

 of human intellect to control natural forces for its benefit. It 

 proved, on a scale of magnitude before unattempted and proba- 

 bly never again to be equalled, the true nobility and dignity of 

 human labor, in every part of its vast space rich in the evidence 

 of the magnificent results of the united works of the active brain 

 and the skilful hand of man. The exhibition of the instrumen- 

 talities which philanthropy uses for the protection and relief of suf- 

 fering humanity, and for the kind treatment of the domestic ani- 

 mals, taught the simple but grand lesson that the great industrial 

 population is not only the head and the hand, but also the heart 

 of the world, giving impulse to the irresistible current and forces 

 of advancing civilization. 



America, though laboring under the great disadvantage of 

 separation by the ocean from the field of exhibition, and therefore 

 unable to enter the lists on an equality with other competitors, by 

 her small though well selected contributions did honor to herself. 

 The first impression, on viewing the products of American indus- 

 try at the Exposition, was one of disappointment; but a more 

 extended examination led the careful observer to the conviction 

 that, though more might have been exhibited, the variety in the 



in 



