iV ^ PREFACE, 



the Annals of Philosophy, and 12 are translations of 

 foreign papers which the Editor considered as the most 

 deserving of notice in the journals which he has had 

 an opportunity of perusing. 



This is doubtless a very small proportion of foreign 

 papers : yet the Editor has been at considerable pains 

 to procure foreign journals, and has omitted no paper 

 which appeared to him of sufficient value to occupy a 

 place in the Annals of Philosophy. Two causes will 

 sufficiently explain the smallness of this number : — 

 1. Our intercourse with other European nations has 

 for a long time been such that it was impossible to 

 obtain any Italian journals ; and the French and most 

 of the German journals, hitherto received in this 

 country, are almost a year behind-hand. 2. The state 

 of the Continent has been such during the last two 

 years that much attention to science could not be 

 expected either in Germany, France, or Italy. Hence 

 the foreign journals are at present unusually meagre: 

 for example, the last two volumes of the Memoirs of 

 the French Institute contain only seven papers, among 

 which there is not one that could with propriety have 

 been inserted in the Annals of Philosophy ; and for 

 some months past no numbers of the Annales de 

 Chimie have been published. In the termination of 

 the war, and the restoration of the ancient family to 

 the throne of France, the Editor anticipates a new and 

 a happy era for the progress of science, and the 

 general diffiision of knowledge. Within a few months 

 he expects to receive foreign journals regularly, and to 

 find tliem filled with much more valuable materials than 

 could be expected during a period of general confusion 

 and calamity. 



May 27, 1814. 



