28 Dana — American Journal of Science, 1818-1918. 



This Journal first appeared in July, 1818, and in June, 1819, 

 the first volume of four numbers and 448 pages was completed. 

 This scale of publication, originally deemed sufficient, was found 

 inadequate to receive all the communications, and as the receipts 

 proved insufficient to sustain the expenses, the work, having but 

 three hundred and fifty subscribers, was, at the end of the year, 

 abandoned by the publishers. 



An unprofitable enterprise not being attractive to the trade, 

 ten months elapsed before another arrangement could be carried 

 into effect, and, therefore, No. 1 of vol. 2 was not published until 

 April, 1820. The new arrangement was one of mutual responsi- 

 bility for the expenses, but the Editor was constrained neverthe- 

 less to pledge his own personal credit to obtain from a bank the 

 funds necessary to begin again, and from this responsibility he 

 was, for a series of years, seldom released. The single volume 

 per annum being found insufficient for the communications, 

 two volumes a year were afterward published, commencing with 

 the second volume. 



The publishers whose names appear on the title page 

 of the four numbers of the first volume are ' ■ J. Eastburn 

 & Co., Literary Rooms, Broadway, New York" and Howe 

 & Spalding, New Haven." For the second volume and 

 those immediately following the corresponding state- 

 ment "printed and published by S. Converse [New 

 Haven] for the Editor." 



Silliman adds (p. iv) : 



At the conclusion of vol. 10, in February, 1826, the work was 

 again left upon the hands of its Editor ; all its receipts had been 

 absorbed by the expenses, and it became necessary now to pay 

 a heavy sum to the retiring publisher, as an equivalent for his 

 copies of previous volumes, as it was deemed necessary either 

 to control the work entirely or to abandon it. The Editor was 

 not willing to think of the latter, especially as he was encouraged 

 by public approbation, and was cheered onward in his labors by 

 eminent men both at home and abroad, and he saw distinctly 

 that the Journal was rendering service not only to science and 

 the arts, but to the reputation of his country. He reflected, 

 moreover, 'that in almost every valuable enterprise perseverance 

 in effort is necessary to success. He being now sole proprietor, 

 a new arrangement was made for a single year, the publishers 

 being at liberty, at the end of that time, to retire, and the Editor 

 to resume the Journal should he prefer that course. 



The latter alternative he adopted, taking upon himself the 

 entire concern, including both the business and the editorial 

 duties, and of course, all the correspondence and accounts. 

 From that time the work has proceeded without interruption, 

 two volumes per annum having been published for the last 



