PROSPECTUS 
OF A 
GENERAL INDEX VOLUME 
OF THE 
FIRST SERIES 
OF THE 
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND ARTS. 
‘The Present Serres will be closed with the Firtieru 
Votume, which will consist of a Generat Inpex to the previous 
volumes. This Index Volume will be published as soon as it 
can be prepared ; we trust near the close of 1845 or early in 1846; 
and it may be forwarded to distant subscribers, either entire or in 
two parts, as may be most convenient. As it is not intended to 
interrupt the regular issue of scientific and practical communica- 
tions, the Index will form an extra volume, concluding indeed the 
series of fifty volumes, but not occupying the time of any other 
volume. It will be directed to subscribers with one of the regu- 
lar Numbers of the New Series. 
The preparation of a General Index has been often urged upon 
us by our scientific friends, as it is quite essential to the full use 
of the entire series of volumes, (replete as they are with original 
American productions.) It will contain full references to all the 
49 preceding volumes. Every subject and every author will be 
rnentioned, and such general principles of good arrangement 
adopted, as will make it easy to find the word and topic 
sought. As this Index Volume will refer to many of the records 
of science and the arts during nearly twenty eight years of a very 
active period of investigation, it will possess, to a degree, a gene- 
