TABLES OF CONSTANTS OF NATURE AND ART. 293 



production of a body of men of science, and I would appeal to the 

 great academies of Europe whether they would not, by combining in 

 one volume so vast a collection of facts, confer an imjiortant advantage 

 upon science and upon all who are occupied with its pursuits. I 

 would suggest that three of the academies of Europe, perhaps the 

 Koyal Society, the Institute of France, and the Academy of Berlin, 

 should each publish at intervals of six years their own table of the 

 CONSTANTS OF NATURE AND ART. Thus thcse publications might succeed 

 each other at intervals of two years, and the man of science would 

 always be able to refer to the most recent determinations of the con- 

 stants he employs. 



In order to execute the work, sub-committees of one or two persons 

 must be appointed to each department, who should be directed in the 

 first instance to prepare the outline of the constants they propose to 

 insert. These views should then be considered and classed by a small 

 committee, consisting of persons of general views and various knowl- 

 edge. The sub-committee should then collect and reduce to certain 

 standards the constants committed to them, and the whole should be 

 printed under the general superintendence of the committee, but each 

 part should be specially revised by its own sub-committee. 



A preface should be prepared, stating as briefly as possible the 

 reasons for preferring or rejecting particular experiments or observa- 

 tions and also, generally, the degree of accuracy the several subjects 

 admit of. A good and concise system of reference should be made to 

 all the authorities for the numbers given. Whoever should undertake 

 the first work of this kind would necessarily produce it imperfect, 

 partly from omission, and partly from the many facts connected with 

 natural history, which, although measured by number, have not yet 

 been counted. 



But this very deficiency furnishes an important argument in favor 

 of the attempt. It would be desirable to insert the heads of many 

 columns, although not a single number could be placed within them, 

 for they would thus point out many an unreaped field within our 

 reach which requires but the arm of the laborer to gather its produce 

 into the granary of science. 



It is, however, to be hoped that no fear of the imperfection of a first 

 attempt will deter either any individual or any body of men from an 

 immediate endeavor to produce a work fraught with so many advan- 

 tages to knowledge. The task of revising it at each period of six years 

 will be comparatively easy, and the discussions of new observations or 

 additional experiments made during those intervals will have an 

 admirable eifect in exciting the ambition of the inquirers to bestow 

 such care as shall claim for their results a place in the volume, in 

 which the academy shall record the condensed expression of the knowl- 

 edge of their age and nation. 



If I should be successful in inducing any scientific institution to enter 

 in the task, I am confident that many a weary hour, now wasted in 

 the search for existing knowledge, will be devoted to the creation of 

 .new, and that it will thus call into action a permanent cause of ad- 

 vancement towards truth, continually leading to the more accurate 



