PREFACE. 



THE notable occurrences of the year are recorded in brief in the articles 

 "Events of 1885 " and " Disasters of 1885," where the eye can run rapidly over 

 the list. The body of the work gives extended accounts of the most important 

 of these, together with a great deal of information that belongs to any proper 

 history of the year's progress, but could not be mentioned in such a table. 



Three of the most eminent citizens of the United States passed away in 1885, 

 and we present extended sketches of their careers, with portraits engraved espe- 

 cially for this work. Ex-President Grant, the chief hero of the great civil war ; 

 General McClellan, the organizer of the Army of the Potomac, and its com- 

 mander in its first two campaigns; the Most Eminent John McCloskey, the 

 first American Cardinal the lives of these three men involve a very large part 

 of our recent history, military, civil, and ecclesiastical. In the article on Gen- 

 eral Grant, the military career is written by General Horace Porter, one of 

 Grant's staff-officers during the war and his private secretary after he became 

 President ; the civil career by Hon. George S. Boutwell, who was a member 

 of his Cabinet. The steel portrait, which forms the frontispiece of the volume, 

 is from the photograph preferred by the General himself. The articles on Gen- 

 eral McClellan and Cardinal McCloskey are by Mr. Joseph O'Connor, one of our 

 ablest journalists and most careful students of American history. 



General John Newton's description of his work in removing the obstructions 

 at Hell-Gate, with its illustrations, will give the reader a good idea of one of 

 the most interesting works of the kind ever undertaken ; while other feats of 

 engineering skill are recorded under the title Engineering, notably the Arlberg 

 Tunnel and the Blaauw-Krantz Bridge. 



In the department of medicine, the events of the year were the treatment 

 of the cholera epidemic in Europe and the new theory of hydrophobia. The 

 article on Cholera is by Dr. M. S. French, of Philadelphia ; and the article on 

 Hydrophobia by Dr. F. S. Billings, of New York, in whose charge the children 

 bitten in Newark were sent to Paris to be treated by Pasteur. 



In the article on the United States we present a good portrait of each mem- 

 ber of President Cleveland's Cabinet. The President's portrait was given in last 

 year's ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA. Several States took a special census in 1885, and 

 the principal figures are given in the articles on those States. The Canadian 



