NOTES BY THE EDITOR 



ON THE 



PROGRESS OF SCIENCE IN 1851 



THE progress of science during the year just elapsed will, we think, upon 

 examination, be found to have been no less brilliant in its results, and no 

 less rapid in its advances, than in any single year which has preceded it. 

 One fact mxist be apparent to all, and that is, that the number of persons 

 now engaged in contributing to the advance of every department of natural 

 and physical science is greater than at any former period. The evidence 

 of this is to be found in the greatly increased number of patents yearly 

 granted, in this and other countries, for new and useful inventions ; in the 

 publication and circulation of scientific books and journals ; in the forma- 

 tion of new societies for the discussion and publication of particular scientific 

 subjects ; and in the extension and endowment of educational systems and 

 institutions, in which instruction in practical science is a principal object. 

 In Mechanics and Physics the difficulty seems now to be, not so much to 

 invent and improve, as to find out what new inventions are wanting, 

 and what old ones admit of improvement. Let but the want be known, 

 and the attempt will soon be made to supply it. That class of men, whose 

 minds are fitted for the very highest walks of science, and for the under- 

 taking of problems and questions apparently irresolvable and unanswer- 

 able, is greatly on the increase. The researches and discoveries undertaken 

 and carried out within a recent period, by Arago, Fizeau and Foucault, in 

 relation to light ; of Faraday, in relation to magnetism ; of Pierce, Mitchel 

 and Bond, in astronomy ; and of Hofmann, in organic chemistry, are among 

 the most brilliant, and, at the same time, most difficult of scientific achieve- 

 ments upon record. Many, in other branches of science, during the past 

 year, have contributed much to the progress of general improvement ; and, 

 if their labors have been less fruitful in important discoveries, they embrace 

 much that is useful. With these allusions to the general course of events, 

 we proceed to notice the various topics of interest more particularly, 



A* 



