Iv PREFACE. 
tained whether I may calculate upon adequate support. This, 
however, I cannot yet think it improbable that I shall obtain, 
when the plan and contents of the present volume shall have 
become better known ; and with this view, I shall gladly receive 
the names of those who may be disposed to uphold the work by 
purchasing what has been published, and forming the list of my 
future subscribers. 
I should hardly have been disposed to persevere further, had 
it not been for repeated expressions of strong interest in the 
success of the work, which have reached me from persons of the 
highest scientific eminence; among whom I may perhaps 
without impropriety mention the names of Ivory, of Babbage, 
Powell, Forbes, Lloyd, Challis, Owen, Wheatstone, Phillips, 
Talbot, Hamilton, Faraday, and others in this country, and 
of Hare, Henry, and Bache in the United States. To several 
of them I have been indebted for very important suggestions ; 
and to Professor Wheatstone especially, for his valuable con- 
tributions. 
From the kind assistance of men of science, and from an 
increased acquaintance with the sources whence the best mate- 
rials are to be derived*, I think I may fairly hold out to the 
public the prospect of some considerable improvements in the 
work: and I shall be thankful for any suggestion for this 
purpose. I may perhaps give the titles or early notices of such 
foreign scientific papers as shall not be adopted for immediate 
translation: and as our first volume may be said to have cleared 
off some arrears, we may now come nearer to the present time, 
and endeavour to supply what is of the latest date and of in- 
trinsic value. 
However, this, as I have already stated, must depend upon 
my prospect of future support, and the success of the present 
volume ;—and, glad to have finished my humble but laborious 
task in completing it, I shall be able at my leisure to decide as 
to the future. 
RICHARD TAYLOR. 
Red Lion Cowrt, 
June 29, 1837. 
* Arrangements have been made for obtaining such as may appear in the Swedish, 
Dutch, and Italian languages. 
