RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 



INTRODUCTIOK 



While it lias been a promiueut object of the Board of Regents of tbe 

 Smitbsouian Institution, from a very early date in its history, to enrich 

 the annual report required of them by law, with scientific memoirs illus- 

 trating the more remarkable and important develoi)ments in physical 

 and biological discover}-, as well as showing the general character of 

 the operations of the Institution, this purpose had not been carried out 

 on any very systematic plan. Believing however that an annual report 

 or summary of the recent advances made in the leading departments 

 of scientific inquiry would supply a want very generally felt, and would 

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

 edge, the Secretary had prepared for the report of 1880, by competent 

 collaborators, a series of abstracts showing concisely the prominent 

 features of recent scientific progress in astronomy, geology, physics, 

 chemistry, mineralogy, botony, zoology, and anthropology. 



The same general programme has been followed in the subsequent 

 reports, until the last, that for 1886, when the incompleteness of the 

 record obtained, the discouragement from the increasing delay encoun- 

 tered in the printing of the annual summaries, and other considera- 

 tions, induced the temporary suspension of the project. The postponed 

 contributions are h'erewith presented, with the regret that the expected 

 articles on meteorology and on botany are unavoidably omitted by 

 reason of the pressing occupations of Professors Abbe and Farlow, 

 their accustomed expositors, having prevented the undertaking. 



With every effort to secure prompt attention to the more important 

 details of a general survey of the annual progress of scientific discov- 

 ery, experience has shown that various unexpected delays render it 

 impracticable to obtain all the desired reports in each department within 

 the time prescribed ; and the plan attempted of bringing up the defi- 

 ciencies in subsequent reports has not proved entirely satisfactory. 



An appropriate introduction to the annual record is found in Professor 

 Huxley's excellent sketch of the Advance of Science in the Last Half 

 Century, which is herewith reprinted by permission of the publisher 

 and of the author. This paper iJ?; one of a series setting forth the legis- 

 lative, political, and civil condition of England during the reign of Queen 

 Victoria, the progress of the nation in industrial arts, education, sci- 



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