THE 



AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 



[FOURTH SERIES.] 



Aet. I. — The American Journal of Science from 1818 

 to 1918; by Edwaed S. Dana. 



Introduction. 



In July, 1818, one hundred years ago, the first number 

 of the American Journal of Science and Arts was given 

 to the public. This is the only scientific periodical in this 

 country to maintain an uninterrupted existence since that 

 early date, and this honor is shared with hardly more 

 than half a dozen other independent scientific periodicals 

 in the world at large. Similar publications of learned 

 societies for the same period are also very few in number. 



It is interesting, on the occasion of this centenary, to 

 glance back at the position of science and scientific liter- 

 ature in the world's intellectual life in the early part of 

 the nineteenth century, and to consider briefly the mar- 

 velous record of combined scientific and industrial prog- 

 ress of the hundred years following — subjects to be 

 handled in detail in the succeeding chapters. It is fitting 

 also that we should recall the man who founded this 

 Journal, the conditions under which he worked, and the 

 difficulties he encountered. Finally, we must review, but 

 more briefly, the subsequent history of what has so often 

 been called after its founder, "Silliman's Journal." 



The nineteenth century, and particularly the hundred 

 years in which we are now interested, must always stand 

 out in the history of the world as the period which has 

 combined the greatest development in all departments of 

 science with the most extraordinary industrial progress. 

 It was not until this century that scientific investigation 



Am. Jour. Sci.— Fourth Series, Vol. XLVI, No. 271.— July, 1918. 

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