PREFACE. 



Our desire is for the Journal to be more efiectively entertaining and 

 instructive. Any hints, therefore, which our kind readers may com- 

 municate to us to further this end will always be gratefully accepted. 



We have to return our thanks for many "words of cheer" received 

 during the past twelve months. To an Editor, anxiously striving 

 to do his best and to raise the character of his magazine, such friendly 

 greetings are like gleams of sunshine ! 



Our correspondence increases in bulk almost monthly, so that 

 it is impossible we can always reply to queries. But even those 

 who do not receive direct replies will generally find their queries 

 answered in some shape in one or other of the columns of SciENCE- 

 Gossir. If they are not always replied to directly, the fault is 

 not our own. 



Lastly, our thanks are due to those of our " Friends in Council " 

 who assist us in naming specimens for querists. Some of the first 

 names in modern science help us in this without fee or reward, 

 although their time must be laboriously taxed. In the name of 

 our readers, as well as for ourselves, we take this opportunity of 

 gratefully acknowledging their kindness. 



That Science-Gossip for 1878 will be fully equal to its prede- 

 cessors, we have every reason to believe, from the generalised 

 " Bill of Fare " which has already been prepared. Perhaps no better 

 proof of the success of our endeavours to make this magazine a 

 popular and yet scientifically accurate one could be adduced than 

 that of its increased circulation during the past year. This is 

 partly due, we are convinced, to the kindness of friends, who seem 

 particularly pleased to introduce their acquaintances to us as sub- 

 scribers. Of this we have received varied proof of late, and it is 

 a kind of proof dear to the heart of Editor and Publisher alike. 



