IXTRODUCTION. 



43 



sciences, in which all scientific researches are without 

 regard to nationahty reviewed, classified, and arranged in 

 the most complete manner, according to the place which 

 they occupy in the general development. Invaluable ser- 

 vice has also been done in England by special Reports or 

 Addresses, prepared by men of the greatest eminence fre- 

 quently at the request of the British Association in which 

 the position of special branches of science is explained, the 

 work of the past summed up, the leading principles clearly 

 brought out, and the unsolved problems placed promi- 

 nently before the minds of young and aspiring workers. 



In Germany during the first half of the century a 20. 

 reaction set in against the metaphysical treatment of in Germany 



o r J against me- 



scientific subjects, which had been exaggerated in the ^^ataienf 

 schools of Schelling and Hegel. Experimental research, sui^'e'cts.' '^ 

 following mainly the great French and English models, 

 was next favoured, and through the establishment of 

 laboratories and observatories, through voyages of dis- 

 covery and the application of science to the industries, 

 an enormous amount of detailed and minute knowledge 

 was accumulated.^ Eor a time even within the limits 



continued to issue regularly since 

 1845 annual Reports under the title 

 ' Fortschritte der Physik.' But it 

 was only in 1868 that a similar 

 annual was started in Berlin having 

 reference to matliematics, under 

 the title 'Fortschritte der Mathe- 

 matik.' A ' Jahresbericht ' on 

 Zoology has ajjpeared ever since 

 1879, and one on Botany since 1873. 

 ^ It was the age which conipiled 

 the great repositories of chemical 

 knowledge. Such were Gmelin's 

 ' Handbuch der C hemic ' (1st ed., 

 1817. Translated into English by 



the Cavendish Society, 1848), and 

 the ' Handworterbuch der reinen 

 und angewandten Chemie ' (edited 

 by Liebig jointly with Poggendorf 

 and Wohler, 1837). The same age 

 also set gomg and filled the volumes 

 of Liebig's ' Annalen ' (started by 

 Hiinle in 1823 under the title 

 ' Magaziu der Pharmacie,' it finally 

 assumed the title of ' Annalen der 

 Chemie und Pharmacie ' under Lie- 

 big's editorship), of Poggeudorf's 

 ' Annalen der Physik und Chemie ' 

 (1824), and the ' Annales de Chimie 

 et de Physique.' 



