A SHORT HISTORICAL SURVEY 



OF 



THE ANNALS AND MAGAZINE OF 

 NATURAL HISTORY 



From 1828 to 1932 



In May 1828 appeared the first number of a new scientific periodi- 

 cal, The Magazine of Natural History and Journal of Zoology ^ Botany, 

 Mineralogy, Geology, and Meteorology, conducted by J. C. Loudon, 

 and published by Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green. 

 The contents consisted of (1) Original Communications — not 

 by any means all containing new scientific observations {i. e., what 

 we should call original research), but many of them general articles, 

 interesting and stimulating to amateur naturaUsts, and com- 

 prehensible by ordinarily well-read people : e. g., " Some Remarks 

 on Natural History as a Means of Education ", " The principal Forest 

 Trees of Europe, considered as Elements of Landscape", "Some 

 Remarks on the Habits of a Kingfisher " ; (2) Reviews ; (3) Col- 

 lectanea — nature notes, or short research notes culled from other 

 sources ; (4) Miscellaneous InteUigence — ^personaHa, reports of the 

 Meetings of Scientific Societies (Linnean, Geological, Zoological), 

 queries and answers, etc. The journal seems to have been most 

 admirably adapted to rouse an interest in natural history in both 

 young and old. Successive numbers were pubhshed at intervals 

 of two months, and the first two volumes consisted of five numbers 

 each ; pubHcation of vol. ii. thus began in March 1829, and of vol. iii. 

 in January 1830 ; henceforward there were six numbers to a volume. 

 In succeeding years the interest was well maintained ; the 

 intelligent lajmaan as weU as the trained naturahst (by no means 

 so distinct from each other then as now) must have found much 

 to give them instruction and pleasure in such articles as " Contribu- 

 tions towards the Natural History of the Dodo (Didus ineptus Lin.), 

 a Bird which appears to have become extinct towards the End of the 

 Seventeenth or Beginning of the Eighteenth Century " ; a note on the 



