yi PREFACE. 



Mr. Donovan, for the General Systematic Arrangement of the Plates of 

 Natural History. 



The "eneral plan upon which this work has been conducted, and which 

 was stated in the Advertisement that announced the publication of it, 

 seemed to the Editor, after some experience in this department of literary 

 labour, and after consulting several competent judges, the most suitable to 

 the nature and design of a Scientific Dictionary. Whatever may be the 

 advantafTC resulting from separate dictionaries appropriate to each particular 

 science, which is the plan of the French Encyclopedie, or from distinct 

 treatises introduced in a dictionary of one alphabet, according to some 

 modern compilations of this kind, the inconvenience and perplexity that 

 attend the multiplication of alphabets, whether they occur in different 

 serieses of volumes, or in the form of an index at the close of each treatise, will 

 furnish an objection against this mode of arrangement, which it will not be 

 easy to obviate. In a work of such magnitude as the French Dictionary, con- 

 sisting already of between 100 and 200 volumes, and of undetermined extent, 

 the best treatises that have been written, or that may be written, on each 

 subject, may be introduced, and the work itself may be a complete library, 

 and siipersede the necessity of recurring to any other. But in a publication 

 of limited compass, such as booksellers may undertake, and the general 

 class of readers purchase, it is hardly possible to combine separate articles, 

 sufficiently instructive, with treatises equally comprehensive and complete. 

 To those who usually consult dictionaries for information, this plan, we are 

 persuaded, is by no means the most eligible. If they wish to extend their 

 knowledge beyond the limits to which a dictionary must necessarily restrict 

 it, they will recur to appropriate treatises for the purpose ; and the dic- 

 tionary should furnish them with the necessary references. A dictionary 

 is intended for communicating knowledge in an easy and expeditious 

 manner ; and it is desirable that the several articles should be so full and 

 comprehensive, as to afford sufficient instruction on the subjects to which 

 they relate, without the necessity of recurring to another dictionary, or to 

 an index, for further information. It may be said, indeed, that the sciences 

 are thus mutilated and mangled ; and that it is impossible to preserve their 

 unity without discussing each in a separate treatise. We readily allow, 

 that this is an inconvenience, inseparable from the form of a dictionary ; 

 but at the same time we think that this may be remedied in a considerable 

 degree by that kind of ramification of the principal subject, which, with 

 suitable references, will lead the reader to subordinate articles, that form, 

 by their mutual connection and dependence, an aggregate or whole, super- 

 seding in all commoncases the necessity of a distinct treatise. These 



