tained whether I may calculate upon adequate support. This, 

 however, I cannot yet think it improbable that I shall obtain, 

 when the plan and contents of the present volume shall have 

 become better known ; and \nth this view, I shall gladly receive 

 the names of those who may be disposed to uphold the work by 

 pm'chasing what has been published, and foraiing the hst of my 

 future subscribers. 



I should hardly have been disposed to persevere further, had 

 it not been for repeated expressions of strong interest in the 

 success of the work, which have reached me from persons of the 

 highest scientific eminence ; among whom I may perhaps 

 without impropriety mention the names of Ivory, of Babbage, 

 Powell, Forbes, Lloyd, Challis, Owen, Wheatstone, Phillips, 

 Talbot, Hamilton, Faraday, and others in this country, and 

 of Hare, Henry, and Bache in the United States. To several 

 of them I have been indebted for very important suggestions ; 

 and to Professor Wheatstone especially, for his valuable con- 

 tributions. 



From the kind assistance of men of science, and from an 

 increased acquaintance with the sources whence the best mate- 

 rials are to be derived*, I think I may fairly hold out to the 

 public the prospect of some considerable improvements in the 

 Avork : and I shall be thankful for any suggestion for this 

 purpose. I may perhaps give the titles or early notices of such 

 foreign scientific papers as shall not be adopted for immediate 

 translation : and as oiu- first volume may be said to have cleared 

 off some arrears, we may now come nearer to the present time, 

 and endeavour to supply what is of the latest date and of in- 

 trinsic value. 



However, this, as I have already stated, must depend upon 

 my prospect of future support, and the success of the present 

 volume: — and, glad to have finished my humble but laborious 

 task in completing it, I shall be able at my leisure to decide as 

 to the future. 



RICHARD TAYLOR. 



Red Lion Coiul, 

 June 29, 1S37. 



* .Urangeraents liave been made fof obtaining such as may appear in the Sweiliih, 

 Dntch, and Italian lan!;«ai;es. 



