IV ADVERTISEMENT. 



greater than at a period when the influence of science upon the productive powers of industry was compara- 

 tivt-ly small. It is impossible to give an adequate idea of the character of this, the most important of th>- 

 DirwHMW of " The English Cyclojxnlia," to show the vast amount of new matter that has been required to 

 bring up its information to the present day, to point out how this mass of detail has been supplied, 

 without requesting a perusal of the analysis contained in the following enumeration of its Contributors and 

 of some of its more important Articles, especially of those which are either wholly new or have been subjected 

 to the most elaborate revision. Not an article, not a page, not a line, has been reprinted without revision. 

 Whether correction, or not, has been required, the labour of the reviser has been compensated. A Cyclo- 

 picdia may make high pretensions, and yet use its old stereotype plates with a few alterations and new 

 articles. That is not the course which has been pursued with " The English Cyclopaedia." To judge of the 

 extent of the division of labour required to produce the " Cyclopaedia of Arts and Sciences " alone, it will be 

 seen that it includes sixty Contributors in the original " Penny Cyclopaedia," and that thirty-six new Con- 

 tributors and Revisers have assisted in the production of the present Eight Volumes. 



To the numerous body of new Contributors to " The English Cyclopaedia ; " to some, whose labours 

 in " The Penny Cyclopsedia " constituted an important portion of its merit, and whose continued aid 1ms 

 given a new value to the present work ; to all who have enabled the Conductor to bring his duties to an 

 honourable close, he has to return his grateful thanks. He has especially to thank his fellow-labourers 

 during many years, Mr. A. Ramsay and Mr. J. Thornc, for the active and intelligent share they have 

 taken in the management of the work, by which the regularity of publication, and the correctness of the text, 

 have been mainly secured. 



Ait-just 2llh, 1861. 



