This Day was pullhhedy 

 By Wm. Blackwood, John Anderson and Co. Oliphant, Wangh, and Innes, 

 D. Brown, and S. Doig, Edinburgh : John Murray, Robert Baldwin, and 

 James M. Richaidson, London ; 

 Handsomely printed in Quarto, and illustrated by 14 beautiful Plates from 

 oricrjnal Drawings, engraved by the first Artists in London and Edinburgh, 

 Price One Guinea, boards. 



Volume VL Part L of 



THE EDINBURGH ENCYCLOPAEDIA; or, Dictionary of Arts, 

 Sciences, and Miscellaneous Litemturc. Conducted by DAVID 

 BREWSTER, LL.D. F.R.S. and F.A.S. Edin. 



With the assistance of Gentlerren eminent in Science and Literature. 



In announcing the first part of the sixth volume of the Edinbuh&h 

 Encvclop;edia, the Proprietors cannot omit the opportunity thus affbided 

 them, of acknowledging the liberal and unexampled patronage which their 

 work has experienced. 



The principle of selection whi^h was adopted, for the first time, in the 

 Edinbuugh ENCYCLOr-EDiA, enabled the Editor to treat the leading 

 branches of fcience at a much greater length th:in in works of a larger size, 

 and to make room for many new articles of useful information, \^hich had 

 hitherto been completely overlooked. In this respect the plan of tlie Edin- 

 puHCH Encyclopaedia has been entirely d'ffereiit from that of all otheis 

 of a similar defcriptioii in this country. Tliesc works have not only been 

 in a great measure mere c mpilations, but have been so liastily and injudi- 

 ciously compiled, that the extracts from dift'tient books, unacknowledged, 

 and almost always unconnected and contradictory, relate only to one part of 

 the subject which the article professes fully to discuss ; — whole articles and 

 plates are given twice tinder different heads ; — towns are described as flou- 

 rifhing and populous, which for half a centuiy have been in ruins ; — and 

 while the moil tomp orary and uninteresting subjects have been treated at 

 tl\e greatest length, many important branches of Science and the Arts, and 

 simost all the inventions and discoveries in Ph) sic which distinguished the 

 end of the cightrenth century, have been wholly overlooked. 



The extensive sale of the Eimnburoh Encvclop.t.dia is the best proof 

 of the excellence of the plan, and the manner in which it has been executed. 

 The ProprietorS'refev, with coiitidence, to the volumes al;eady published, as 

 a fiiir specimen of the woric: and those who huve nei her leisure nor oppor- 

 tun'ty to make such an txaminaiion, may be en.tbled to form their opinion 

 from an Analysis of these vulunies, which may be had of the principal - 

 Booksellers of the United Kingdom. 



The irregularity which la-. oc^;3sion:illy attended the pyMIcatlon, has been 

 asubjcct of regici to the Froprielors j but it is evident that this irregularity, 

 by which they themselves have I ten the greatest sufferers, cnuld only bc 

 produced by causes over which they had no conirol. Irdced, it has been al-» 

 most wholly owing to the -cry cireumtances which coi.stiiuie the peculiar 

 excellence of the w.irk, its i-.NxiRii ok k^'Kality, a; d the' caie bestowed 

 even uprn its minutest jiriiclts. H:d it Ix-en a wen: rvprmi, like tl.c new 

 edition of an Old Encyclypadia, whiih has ju.'.t b.en announced (and of 

 which five vi)lume.s were acuialiy printed bel^ore the projierty v\;is bought by 

 ihepresent publishers), the volumes nii,i,ht have .'.ppcarcd taylertl an the Si.b» 

 scribers would have reeeivv'd them, and the paiod yf pubhcaion might have 

 been ddl.tred to with undeviating regul- riiy ; but in a work Irke the Edjn- 

 EL'nGH ENCYCLOi'.rniA, c(>r.ipv)j-ed whuliy of original articles, such me- 

 chanical punctuality was q site inipi7.ciicable. '1 he Proprietors, however, 

 have now reason to expect that they will bc able to publish foui half vohmjes 

 in the year, an exertion which these only can appreciate who know the dif- 

 ficulty of brin^jing togtther thejabours of a great number of authors, many 

 of whom reside in the most remote parts of England, Scotland^ and Ireland. 



rr^- A few Copies arc priiitcd on the lincbt Royal I'aper, with Proof hnpressions of I 

 the Platet, I'rice '.'1. I:?s. (id. e:ic!) Part. I 



Printed for \Vni. Bi.icUwoot', Olipliant, Vaugh, and Inne ■ F.dinburj^h ; John Murray ,j 

 Robert BalUwin, Jiiti, ^I, HifharUson, London} uud the otlier Proprtetere,. 



