BRIDGEWATER TREATISES. 

 NOW COMPLETE. 



This series of Treatises is published under the following- circumstances: 



The Right Honourable and Rev. Francis Henrv, Earl of Bridgewater, 

 died in the month nf February, 1829; and by his last will and testament, 

 bearing- date the 25th of February, 1825 ; he directed certain trustees therein 

 named, to invest in the public funds, the sum of eight thousand pounds 

 sterling; this sum, with the accruing dividends thereon, to be held at the 

 disposal of the President, for the time being, of the Royal Society of Lon- 

 don, to be paid to the person or persons nominated by him. The Testator 

 farther directed, that the person or persons selected by the said President, 

 should be appointed to write, print and publish one thousand copies of a 

 work, on the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God, as manifested in the 

 Creation ; illustrating such work, by all reasonable arguments, as for in- 

 stance, the variety and formation of God's creatures in the Animal, Vege- 

 table, and Mineral Kingdoms ; the effect of digestion, and, thereby, of con- 

 version ; the construction of the hand of man, and an infinite variety of 

 other arguments; as also by discoveries, ancient and modern, in arts, 

 sciences, and the whole extent of literature. 



He desired, moreover, that the profits arising from the sale of the work* 

 so published, should be paid to the authors of the works. 



The late President of the Royal Society, Davies Gilbert, Esq. requested 

 the assistance of his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, and of the 

 Bishop of London, in determining upon the best mode of carrying into 

 effect the intentions of the Testator. Acting with their advice, and with 

 the concurrence of a nobleman immediately connected with the deceased, 

 Mr. Davies Gilbert appointed the following eight gentlemen to write sepa- 

 rate Treatises in the different branches of the subject here stated: — 



I. The Adaptation of External Nature to the Moral and Intellectual 

 Constitution of Man, by the Rev. Thomas Chalmers, D. D. Professor of 

 Divinity in the University of Edinburgh. 



II. The Adaptation of External Nature to the Physical Condition of 

 Man, by John Kidd, M. D., F. R. 5., Regius Professor of Medicine in the 

 University of Oxford. 



HI. Astronomy and General Physics, considered with reference to Na- 

 tural Theology, by the Rev. William Whewell, M. A., F. R. S., Fellow of 

 Trinity College, Cambridge. 



IV. The Hand; its mechanism and vital endowments as evincing design, 

 by Sir Charles Bell, K. H., F. R. S. 



V. Animal and Vegetable Physiology, by Peter Mark Roget, M. D., Fel- 

 low of and Secretary to the Royal Society. 



VI. Geology and Mineralogy, by the Rev. Wm. Buckland, D. D., F.R. S., 

 Canon of Christ Church, and Professor of Geology in the University of 

 Oxford. 



VII. The History, Habits, and Instincts of Animals, by the Rev. William 

 Kirby, M. A., F. R. S. 



VIII. Chemistry, Meteorology, and the Function of Digestion, by Wm. 

 Prout, M. D., F. R. S. 



