SS ee ee Se ee 
PREFACE. 
—— 
Tue conclusion of a new volume of a work, involving so 
much care, labour and responsibility, as are necessarily at- 
tached, at the present day, to a Journal of Science and the 
° a naturally produces in the mind, astate of not ungrate- 
almness, and a disposition, partaking of social feeling, 
to say something to those who honour such a production, by 
iving to it a small share of their money, and of their bons 
he Editor’s first impression was, that the sixth volum 
should be sent into the world without an introductory site: 
but he yields to the impulse already expressed, and to the 
ousted usages ot ppapectiol sae to the public, 
_— Pe 
which 
vered eT five years, in an undertaking, reparded by ma- 
ny of the friends whom he originally consulted, as hazard- 
ous,and to which not a few of them prophetically alloted on- 
ly an ephemeral existence. It has been his fortune to pros- 
ecute this work, without, (till a very recent period,) re- 
turns, adequate to its indispensable responsibilities;—under a 
heavy pressure of professional and private duty; with try- 
ing fluctuations of health, and amidst severe and ciaceas 
domestic afflictions. The world are usually indulgent to al- 
lusions of this nature, when they have any relation to the 
discharge of public duty ; and in this view, it is with satis- 
faction. that the Editor adds, that he has now to look on for- 
midable difficulties, only in retrospect, and with something 
of the feeling of him, who sees a powerful and vanquished 
foe, slowly retiring, and leaving a field no longer contested. 
This Journal which, from the first, was fully supplied with 
original communications, is now sustained by actual payment, 
to such an extent, that it may fairly be considered as an es- 
tablished work ; its patronage is regularly increasing, and we 
trust it will no longer justify such remarks as some of the 
following, from the pen of one of the most eminent scientific 
men in Europe.* ‘‘ Nothing surprises me more, than the 
* Who, however, had seen only the four first volumes. 
