THE 



LONDON AND EDINBURGH 

 PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



♦ 



[THIRD SERIES.] 



FEBRUARY 1837. 



( 



XVIII. Notice relative to the Publication of the Scientific 

 Memoirs. By Richard Taylor. 



I AVAIL myself of the opportunity which the Philosophical 

 Magazine affords me, to announce the publication of the 

 Third Part of the subsidiary work in which I have lately en- 

 gaged, the Scientific Memoirs, and to appeal for support 

 and assistance to all those who may be satisfied of the utility 

 and necessity of such an instrument for furthering the pro- 

 gress of scientific pursuits in this country, by giving readier 

 access to the labours of foreign philosophers. 



The views with which the work was undertaken were thus 

 stated in the Advertisement prefixed to the First Part : 



" In order to bespeak the favour of the public to this new undertaking, 

 I shall merely state that the want of such a work has been suggested to 

 me, during a long connexion with journals of science, by my experience of 

 the difficulty of giving to the English reader, within the necessary limits 

 of those works, a sufficient view of the state and progress of the sciences 

 in other countries. Short abstracts are given, and now and then entire 

 translations of important memoirs; but original communications, and the 

 scientific proceedings of our own country, now occupy so great a space in 

 our journals as to make it impossible to do justice to the researches of 

 foreigners. Many, indeed, are the valuable memoirs in which these are 

 recorded, which have furnished subjects for investigation and discussion 

 among the most distinguished of our countrymen, but which in their en- 

 tire form have never appeared in English, and can be referred to only in 

 a small number of public libraries. 



*' Projects for supplying this deficiency have been entertained at various 

 times both by societies and individuals : the scientific journals, also, which 

 have successively existed have been looked to with this view. But experi- 

 ence seems to have proved that a regular and full supply of such matter 

 is not consistent with their plan or limits ; and a considerable increase 

 of their bulk and cost might reduce the number of purchasers, and 

 l^hird Series. Vol. 10.- No. 59. Feb.lS^I, M 



