RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 



Il^TEODUCTIOK 



While it has beeu a proiuiueut object of the Board of Regents of the 

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

 the annual report required of them with scientific memoirs illustrating 

 the more remarkable and important developments in physical and bio- 

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

 the Institution, this purpose has not hitherto been carried out on any 

 ^•ery systematic plan. Believing, however, that an annual report or 

 summary of the recent advances made in the leading departments of 

 scientific inquiry would supi)ly a want ver3' generally felt, and would 

 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, chemistrj^, miner- 

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

 l)roperly have been included, such as those of terrestrial physics and 

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

 tlie more practical topics of agricultural and horticultural economy, engi- 

 neering, technology, and industrial statistics have, for the present, been 

 omitted, both for want of time in which to have them properly digested 

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

 every effort to secure prompt attention to all the more important details 

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

 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 reports. 



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 published in a duo- 

 decimo form by the Messrs. Harper, of New York.* This work was con- 



'The "Animal Record of Scieuco ami Indiistry" Tvas itself a successor to a similar 

 year-book entitled "The Annual of Scientilic IMscovery ". commenced in the year 1850 

 under the editorslii)) of Mr. David A. Wells, and ])ublished by Messrs. Gould and Lin- 

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

 years, from 1850 to 1865, inclusive, when it was suspended by the appointment of its edi- 

 tor. Mr. Wells, to the commissionership of internal revenue under the United States Treas- 

 ury Department. The work was, however, resumed in 18G7, under the editorship of 



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