PREFACE TO THE SECOND SERIES. 



On commencing a New Series of 'The Annals and Magazine of 

 Natural History/ the Editors trust that they may refer, with some 

 degree of confidence, to the contents of the Twenty Volumes 

 which have been published under their superintendence, as the 

 result of their endeavours to succeed in estabHshing a compre- 

 hensive and permanent Journal of the departments of knowledge 

 to which the work is devoted. 



Viewing Natural History, so far as the study of Organized 

 Beings is concerned, as a science each branch of which is essen- 

 tially connected with the others by principles and phsenomena 

 common to all, it has been the object of the Editors to include 

 whatever tended to the advancement of the study both of the 

 Animal and Vegetable Kingdom. 



The important duty of making known in this country the 

 labours and discoveries of Foreign Naturalists, the Editors trust 

 has hitherto been to a considerable extent fulfilled, in the great 

 number of Translations and Abstracts from the principal Journals 

 and Memoirs of other countries, and in Notices of Foreign Works 

 in all branches of Natural History, which have been given with 

 a view to enable the lovers of the science to keep pace with its 

 progress in every stage of advancement. In this, as well as in 

 all the other departments of the Journal, the Editors continue 

 to avail themselves of the aid of Dr. William Francis, whose 

 services they take this opportunity of acknowledging, as from the 

 commencement of the Work they have had the advantage of his 

 constant and valuable assistance in its regular superintendence. 



