3 Introductory Remarks. 
of Philosophy, and by the Journal of Science and the Arts, both 
published in London. 
In France, the Annales de Chimie et de Physique, the Jour- 
nal des Mines, the Journal de Physique, &c. have long enjoyed 
a high and deserved reputation. Indeed, there are few coun- 
tries in Europe which do not produce some similar publica- 
tion ; not to mention the transactions of learned societies and 
numerous medical journals. 
From these sources our country reaps, and will long con- 
tinue to reap, an abundant harvest of information: and if the 
light of science, as well as of day, spring from the east, we 
will welcome the rays of both ; nor should national pride induce 
us to reject so rich an offering. 
But can we do nothing in return? In a general diffusion of 
useful information through the various classes of society, in 
activity of intellect, and fertility of resource and invention, 
producing a highly intelligent population, we have no reason 
to shrink from a comparison with any country. But the de- 
voted cultivators of science, in the United States, are compar- 
atively few; they are, however, rapidly increasing in number. 
Among them are persons distinguished for their capacity and 
attainments, and, notwithstanding the local feelings nourished 
by our state sovereignties, and the rival claims of several of 
our larger cities, there is evidently a predisposition towards a — 
concentration of effort, from which we may hope for the hap- 
piest results, with regard to the advancement of both the sci- 
ence and reputation of our country. 
Is it not, therefore, desirable to furnish some rallying point, — 
some object sufficiently interesting to be nurtured by common — 
efforts, and thus to become the basis of an enduring, common — 
interest? To produce these efforts, and to excite this interest, 
nothing, perhaps, bids fairer, than a Screnriric JourNAL+ 
Hitherto nearly all our exertions of this kind, have been made — 
by medical gentlemen, and directed primarily to medical ob- 
jects. We are neither ignorant nor forgetful of the merits of | 
our various Mrepicar Journats, nor of the zeal with which, a3 
far as consistent with their main object, they have fostered the — 
physical sciences. We are aware, also, that Journals have 
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