RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 



IXTRODUCTIOX. 



While it has boeu a ])i"()iniiient object of the Board of Rodents of the 

 Smithaoniau Institution from a very early date in its history to enrich 

 tlie annual report riMjuired of them with seientiti(; memoirs iUustratin.i^ 

 the more remarkable and important devehipments in i)hysieal and bio- 

 logical discovery as well as the general character of the operations of 

 tlie Institution, this purpose has not hitherto l)een carried out on any 

 very systematic plan. Believing, hoAvever, that an annual report or 

 summary of the recent advances made in the leading dei^artments of 

 scientific inquiry would supply a w\ant very generally felt, and wouhl 

 be favorably received by all those interested in the diffusion of knowl- 

 edge, the Secretary has had prepared by competent collaborators a 

 series of abstracts showing concisely the prominent features of recent 

 scientific progress in astronomy, geology, physics, chemistry', miner- 

 alogy, botany, zoology, and anthropology. Other subjects which might 

 ])roi)erly have been included, such as those of terrestrial physics and 

 meteorology, geography and hydrography, microscopy, &c., as well as 

 the more practical toi)ics of agricultural and horticultural economy, engi- 

 neering, technology, and industrial statistics have, for the i)resent, been 

 omitted, both for want of time in which to have them ])roi)erly digested 

 and for want of space to allow them any sufficient presentation. With 

 every effort to secure ]>rompt attention to all the more inqxjrtant details 

 of such a work, various unexpected delays frequently render it impnic- 

 ticable to obtain all the desired reports in each department within the 

 time prescribed. In such cases it is designed, if possible, to bring up 

 such deficiencies and supply them in subsequent repoits. 



A similar digest, having the title of "Annual Record of Science and 

 Industry," prepared under the general editorship of the present Secre- 

 tary of the Institution, was commenced in 1871, and ])ublished in a duo- 

 decimo torui by the Messrs. Harper, of ]S^ew York.* This work was con- 



*The "Annuiil Record of Science and Industry" was itself a successor to a similar 

 year- book entitled "The Annual of Scientilic Discovery" coniinenced in the year l-.'>0 

 under the editorshi)> of Mr. David A. Wells, and published by Messrs. Gould and Lin- 

 coln, of Boston. The last-mentioned work was satisfactorily continued for sixteen 

 years, from 18.')0 to 1865, inclusive, when it was suspended by the appointment of its edi- 

 tor, Mr. Wells, to the conimissionership of internal re venue under the United States Treas- 

 ury Department. The V crk wab, however, resumed in 1867, under the editorship of 



181 



