CHAPMAN <& HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 23 



THE LIBRARY 



CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE. 



Some degree of truth has been admitted in the charge not unfrequently 

 brought against the English, that they are assiduous rather than solid readers. 

 They give themselves too much to the lighter forms of literature. Technical 

 Science is almost exclusively restricted to its professed votaries, and, but for 

 some of the Quarterlies and Monthlies, very little solid matter would come 

 within the reach of the general public. 



But the circulation enjoyed by many of these very periodicals, and the 

 increase of the scientific journals, may be taken for sufficient proof that a taste 

 for more serious subjects of study is now growing. Indeed there is good reason 

 to believe that if strictly scientific subjects are not more universally cultivated, 

 it is mainly because they are not rendered more accessible to the people. Such 

 themes are treated either too elaborately, or in too forbidding a style, or else 

 brought out in too costly a form to be easily available to all classes. 



With the view of remedying this manifold and increasing inconvenience, 

 we are glad to be able to take advantage of a comprehensive project recently 

 set on foot in France, emphatically the land of Popular Science. The well- 

 known publishers MM. Reinwald and Co., have made satisfactory arrange- 

 ments with some of the leading savants of that country to supply an exhaustive 

 series of works on each and all of the sciences of the day, treated in a style at 

 once lucid, popular, and strictly methodic. 



The names of MM. P. Broca, Secretary of the Societe d'Anthropologie ; 

 Ch. Martins, Montpellier University ; C. Vogt, University of Geneva ; G. de 

 Mortillet, Museum of Saint Germain; A. Guillemin, author of "Ciel"and 

 "Phenomenes de la Physique;" A. Hovelacque, editor of the "Revue de 

 Linguistique ; " Dr. Dally, Dr. Letourneau, and many others, whose co- 

 operation has already been secured, are a guarantee that their respective 

 subjects will receive thorough treatment, and will in all cases be written up to 

 the very latest discoveries, and kept in every respect fully abreast of the times. 

 We have, on our part, been fortunate in making such further arrangements 

 with some of the best writers and recognised authorities here, as will enable us 

 to present the series in a thoroughly English dress to the reading public of this 

 country. In so doing we feel convinced that we are taking the best means of 

 supplying a want that has long been deeply felt. 



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