522 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



Journal, stated that " the work has not even yet reimbursed its expenses (we 

 speak not of editorial or business compensation) ; we intend that it has not paid 

 for the paper, printing, and engraving." The deficit, however, had ceased to 

 increase, and the fifth volume closed with the assurance that the Journal would 

 live. Indeed, its prosperity so increased that in 1829 it was found possible to 

 pay for original contributions, a privilege which the editor to-day finds far beyond 

 his means. As the years passed by Silliman received more and more help from 

 his son, and in 1838 added his name as co-editor on the title-page. A little later, 

 in 1846, James D wight Dana, his son-in-law and father of the present editor, 

 joined the editorial staff, ultimately to continue as editor until 1890. 



The preface to the volume beginning in 1847 is so characteristic of the elder 

 Silliman's style and outlook on life that quotation here may perhaps be permitted : 



" In tracing back the associations of many gone-by years, a host of thoughts 

 rush in, and pensive remembrance of the dead who have laboured with us casts 

 deep shadows into the vista with which we view the past. Anticipation of the 

 hour of discharge, when our summons shall arrive, gives sobriety to thought and 

 checks the confidence which health and continued power to act might naturally 

 inspire, were we not reproved, almost every day, by the death of some coeval, 

 co-worker, companion, friend, or patron. This very hour is saddened by such an 

 event, but we will continue to labour on, and strive to be found at our post of 

 duty, until there is nothing more for us to do ; trusting our hopes for a future life 

 in the hands of Him Who placed us in the midst of the splendid garniture of this 

 lower world, and Who has made not less ample provision for another and a 

 better." 



The reverent sincerity of this passage seems to have been characteristic of all 

 his wr-tings and work. 



Perhaps the most remarkable feature in the history of the Journal has been 

 its independence of outside subsidies ; it has always been self-supporting, the 

 financial responsibility resting with the editor-in-chief. Nevertheless, the monetary 

 difficulties during the present war are said to have been greater than ever before, 

 and a plea is made for the establishment of a fund wherewith to carry on when 

 the present editor and his family have to relinquish their responsibility for the 

 maintenance of the work. 



The contents of the book itself may most briefly be indicated by a quotation 

 from the prefatory note. The several lectures which make up the whole " are 

 devoted to the principal branches of science which have been prominent in the 

 pages of the Journal. They have been written with a view to showing in each 

 case the position of science in 1818 and the general progress made during the 

 century ; special prominence is given to American science, and particularly to the 

 contributions to it to be found in the Journal." 



Rather more than half the book is concerned with the growth of Geology in 

 its several aspects, successive chapters being written by Charles Schuchert, 

 Hebert E. Gregory, Joseph Barrell, George Otis Smith, Richard S. Lull, Louis V. 

 Pirsson, and William E. Ford. Dr. Sosman contributes a short article on the 

 work of the Geophysical Institute at Washington ; Messrs. Horace L. Wells 

 and Harry W. Foote write on Chemistry ; Leigh Page on Physics ; while Wesley 

 R. Coe and George L. Goodale deal respectively with Zoology and Botany. It 

 remains to add that the collection of lectures forms a most valuable account of 

 the enormous advance that has taken place in our scientific knowledge during 

 the last hundred years — a growth unparalleled in the past, and unlikely, even in 

 the most optimistic view, to be approached in the future. 



D. O. W. 



