Pe ee er 
PREFACE. 
‘Two years and a half haye elapsed, since the publication 
of the first volume of this Journal, and one year and ten 
months since the Editor assumed the pecuniary responsibil- 
ity. Within this latter period, three volumes have been 
published, giving an average of a yolume once in about sey- 
en months, and of a number, once in half that time, It is in- 
tended, as far as practicable, to publish this Journal in quar- 
terly number s, but on account principally of the great geo- 
erapnieal at from which the communications come, and o 
large number of engravings, undeyiating exactness on 
it Oint, is not always attaina 
I'he work has not, even yet, ceusbiatied its expenses, (we 
speak not of editorial or o business s compensation,) we in- 
tend, that it has not paid for the paper, printing and engrav- 
ing ; the proprietors.of the first yolume being in csuihel 
on those accounts, and the Editor on the same score, with 
respect to the aggregate expence of the three last volumes. 
This deficit is however no longer increasing, as the receipts, at 
we just about cover the expense of the physical materials, 
of the manual labour. Areiterated disclosure of this kind 
is not grateful, and would scarcely be manly, were it not 
that the public, who alone have the power to remove the 
difficulty, have a rightto a frank exposition of the state of 
the case. As the patronage is, however, growing gradu 
more extensive, it is believed that the work will be eventu- 
ally sustained, although it may be long before it will com- 
mand any thing but gratuitous intellectual labour. 
It is Fihaely transmitted to Sicily, Italy, Switzerland, 
Germany, France, Sweden, Ireland, Scotland, and ngland, 
and occasionally to other foreign countries. In London, in 
consequence of an application to the Editor from that city, - 
a regular arrangement has been made for circulating the 
Journal in Great Britain. Many of the periodical scientific 
works of Europe, and most of those of London and Paris 
are forwarded in exchange 
Its domestic circulation is not local ; it is transmitted to 
all the at important parts of the United States. 
ost extensive patronage is derived — the city of 
Philadelphia, which takes more copies than any other com- 
munity ; the cities of New-York and Boston afford it about 
