ah 
A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 
“© 7 the solid ground 
Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye.” —WV ORDSWORTIT 
THURSDAY, MAY 5, 1870 
TO OUR READERS 
HE opportunity afforded by the commencement 
of a new volume is one we cannot allow to pass 
by without a few remarks on the work on which we are 
engaged, although it may be that such a course is not 
strictly in accordance with precedent, but our excuse 
lies in this—our journal is not according to precedent. 
For, in fact, six months ago a scientific journal, in 
which the leaders of scientific thought, in this and 
other lands, gave week by week an account of their 
own and others’ labours to their fellows and the 
general public, was a thing of the future, and, in 
the general opinion, to attempt to start such a 
journal was almost to end in- signal 
failure. “Science is so small, her victories are so 
few,” said some, “that a weekly account of them 
certain 
_is altogether beside the question—the well would 
run dry.” Others said: ‘‘Science is large, it is 
true, but her followers are not numerous. You may 
perhaps number your readers by hundreds, if you take 
care to appeal to scientific men only ; but as for the 
outside world, they care nothing for science.” On the 
other hand it was held that a popular scientific weekly 
journal would, be a certain success under certain con- 
ditions—some such as these: in the first place, the 
articles were to be light as air; each fact was to be 
clothed in a delicate atmosphere of adjective and 
imagery; next, each page was to be studded with 
beautiful pictures, correctness both in text and illustra- 
tion giving way to a certain more or less subdued 
sensationalism ; and lastly, and above all, every care 
was to be taken to spare the reader the least trouble 
in the matter of thinking. 
We confess that we should have shrunk from our 
vor. IT 
| 
task in the face of such advice as this, had there not 
been certain Signs of the Times which did not seem 
difficult to read, and which were more in harmony with 
the encouragements we received to undertake it , and 
now that the first volume has been completed, we have 
the satisfaction of knowing that none of these gloomy 
forebodings have been realised. 
A consideration of the facts brings us at once to our 
first duty, which is to tender to the scientific men, 
both at home and abroad, who have assisted us, our 
best thanks for all their help in the work we have | 
undertaken. We willingly acknowledge the small part 
we have borne in what has been done. Thanks are 
| due, not only for criticism and the contributions 
which have already appeared, but for many others 
which—Nature is so large, and our journal is so small 
—we have not as yet been able to place before our 
readers. It has been our endeavour to carry out our 
programme by making the journal useful to workers in 
science ; worthy therefore of their perusal, and there- 
fore, again, worthy of their contributions : and by thus 
extending our appeal beyond the limits of the scientific 
world on the one hand, and endeavouring to keep 
up the dignity of science herself on the other, we 
have already met with an encouraging response. 
Our subscribers now number nearly five thousand ; 
that is, we have, on a moderate estimate, fifteen thou- 
sand readers. Though we think this an emphatic 
success, we shall not be satisfied if the increasing 
interest in Science, and an increased knowledge of the 
periodical, do not in a short time double our present 
circulation, and we trust not only that each worker will 
urge his neighbours to send us facts, but that each of 
our present readers will form a nucleus of new ones. 
We state this, not only because the statement is 
almost due to our contributors as a justification of 
our demands upon their time, but because it indicates 
B 
