PREFACE. v 
series with a fiftieth volume, which should contain an ample 
and well digested Inpex of the whole. This great labor, vastly 
more arduous and protracted than had been anticipated, is at last 
accomplished. he strict verification of every reference in this 
Index, by actual comparison of the proof with the volume and 
page, has been a labor surpassed only by the toil of constructing 
the Index itself. The printing was commenced in October, 1846, 
and so toilsome and time-consuming has been the correction of 
the proofs, that although the work has gone steadily forward, 
without interruption, it is only at this late day completed. We 
may confidently believe that the volume will prove useful, not 
only to those who may possess the whole series, but to all who 
are connected in any way with the arts or sciences; for, what- 
ever the department, the reader is directed by it to the various 
memoirs that have been published in the Journal on the subject 
that interests him, whether relating to the progress of science, to 
details of facts in the different departments of knowledge, or to 
the various resources of this and other countries: with such a 
guide, the entire copies of the work in public libraries or in those 
of individuals, become available. 
As this volume may be consulted by many who have never 
seen the plan and prospectus of the Journal with which the 
first volume began, we republish, on this occasion, both the 
“Plan of the Work,” and also those parts of the ‘“ Introductory 
Remarks” in which our early views were explained. Our readers 
will thus be able to judge how far we have fulfilled our engage- 
ments, and also how far our prospective views have been realized 
in the course of our now long experience. ‘They will have 
moreover before them in this Prospectus of 1817, the principles 
that are still to guide us in our continued editorial labors. 
‘SpLAN OF THE WORK.* 
“This Journal is intended to embrace the circle of the Puys- 
1caL Sciences, with their applications to the Arts, and to every 
useful purpose. 
* Taken from Vol.i, Am. Jour. Sci. and Arts, pp. v, vi; also pp. 1 to 8, July, 
1818. 
