IV 



PREFACE. 



vantage to those who subscribe during the course of the following 

 year, and will not be at all injurious to our original supporters. 



The Magazine of Natural History, for the greater part of the 

 last five years, has been almost entirely edited by Mr. John Den- 

 son, A.L.S. ; but it will, in future, be conducted by Mr. Edward 

 Charlesworth, F.G.S., who proposes to figure and describe some 

 of the new and choice fossils contained in his extensive collection. 

 With a view of enabling us to give a larger number of engravings 

 than has yet been done, the Magazine will be reduced from three 

 sheets and a half to three sheets. 



An improved method has been adopted for referring to the 

 articles contained in the present Volume. Hitherto this has been 

 done by a Table of Contents at the beginning of the Volume, and 

 an Alphabetical Index at the end of it. The Table of Contents 

 was so far deficient, that it did not indicate the subjects included 

 under the general title of Miscellaneous Intelligence, consisting of 

 a great variety of matter ; and, in bulk, filling at least one third 

 of the entire Volume. The Index, though it has been made as 

 comprehensive and complete as any index could be in so limited 

 a space, yet, like all alphabetical indexes that are miscellaneous 

 as to their subjects, has been felt to be an indefinite, and often 

 uncertain, mode of acquiring a knowledge of the contents of a 

 book ; and more especially to the scientific enquirer. We have 

 been aware of this for some years in the case of the Gardeners 

 Magazine ; and we have succeeded, we think, in completely 

 remedying the evil, by combining the Table of Contents with 

 certain alphabetical lists, and placing the whole at the beginning 

 of the Volume, as exemplified in the Volume of the Gardener's 

 Magazine for 1835. 



In enumerating the Contents, we have not only given, as usual, 

 the titles of all the Original Communications ; but, under Miscel- 

 laneous Intelligence, we have added the sub-titles, or side-head- 

 ings, as they are technically called, of all the separate articles. 

 This, we conceive, will give as complete an idea of the Contents 

 of the Magazine as can be obtained without perusing it ; since the 

 side-heading always states the subject of the paragraph, whether 

 it is a fact to be recorded, a proposition to be proved, a criticism 

 to be made, or a question to be asked. 



J. C. L. 



Bayswater, Nov. 16. 1836. 



