

0f Scientific 



FOK 1865. 

 PUBLISHED BY GOULD AND LINCOLN, BOSTON. 



In issuing the ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY FOR 1865, the publishers 

 would take occasion to direct special attention to the character and object of thi3 

 long-established and popular work. 



The Annual is published near the commencement of every year, presenting 

 a compact, carefully arranged, and easily accessible summary of all the important 

 new facts and theories in every department of science and the industrial arts, which 

 have been announced to the world during the preceding twelve months, the 

 statements being made in as popular language as the subjects will admit. The 

 boundaries of every department of science are now enlarging so rapidly, that the 

 publication of a yearly resume of progress has long been felt by students and 

 specialists to be an indispensable necessity, no other so ready and convenient 

 method of "posting up" being available. 



But there are in addition a very large number of intelligent persons in this 

 country who, without the time or opportunity to devote themselves to any special 

 study or reading, nevertheless desire to become acquainted with the truths of 

 science, and with what is going on in the scientific. world. To these the Annual 

 of Scientific Discovery especially addresses itself; and although its circulation has 

 been large, we feel assured that the character and object of the work needs only 

 to be made more fully known to insure for it even a much wider circulation. 



Appreciated, however, as the Annual has been in previous years by large num- 

 bers not only of the intelligent American people, but also the English, its publica- 

 tion at the present time seems more needful and opportune than ever before. The 

 high prices which have prevailed for the last two years, and the preoccupation of 

 the attention of the people with the incidents of a great war, have terminated the 



existence of some American journals, accustomed to report the details of scientific 

 * 

 progress, and have diminished the circulation or fullness of many others. The 



high rates of foreign exchange have also caused the discontinuance of subscrip- 



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