AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 37 



forty-nine volumes preceding. In the preface (dated 

 April 19, 1847) the elder Silliman, now the senior editor, 

 reviews the work that had been accomplished with a 

 frank expression of his feeling of satisfaction in the vic- 

 tory won against great obstacles ; with this every reader 

 must sympathize. He quotes here at length (but in 

 slightly altered form) the matter from the first volume 

 (1818), which has been already reproduced almost 

 entire, and then goes on as follows (pp. xi et seq.) : 



Such was the pledge which, on entering upon our editorial 

 labors in 1818, we gave to the public, and such were the views 

 which we then entertained, regarding science and the arts as 

 connected with the interests and honor of our country and of 

 mankind. In the retrospect, we realize a sober but grateful 

 feeling of satisfaction, in having, to the extent of our power, 

 discharged these self-imposed obligations; this feeling is chas- 

 tened also by a deep sense of gratitude, first to God for life and 

 power continued for so high a purpose ; and next, to our noble 

 band of contributors, whose labors are recorded in half a century 

 of volumes, and in more than a quarter of a century of years. 

 We need not conceal our conviction, that the views expressed 

 in these "Introductory Remarks," have been fully sustained 

 by our fellow laborers. 



Should we appear to take higher ground than becomes us, 

 we find our vindication in the fact, that we have heralded 

 chiefly the doings and the fame of others. The work has indeed 

 borne throughout "the impress" of editorial unity of design, 

 and much that has flowed from one pen, and not a little from 

 the pens of others, has been without a name. The materials 

 for the pile, have however been selected and brought in, chiefly 

 by other hands, and if the monument which has been reared 

 should prove to be " acre perennius," the honor is not the sole 

 property of the architect; those who have quarried, hewn and 

 polished the granite and the marble, are fully entitled to the 

 enduring record of their names already deeply cut into the 

 massy blocks, which themselves have furnished. 



If a retrospective survey of the labors of thirty years on this 

 occasion has rekindled a degree of enthusiasm, it is a natural 

 result of an examination of all our volumes from the contents 

 of which we have endeavored to make out a summary both of 

 the laborers and their works. . . . 



The series of volumes must ever form a work of permanent 

 interest on account of its exhibiting the progress of American 

 science during the long period which it covers. Comparing 



