11 
PREFACE. 
I desire to claim no especial merit for the work I have done or 
attempted, but will rest content to leave that to be appraised by 
those who have benefited by it. Still, I should not be willing to 
make my bow and retire without an expression of thanks to all 
those who have assisted me, without fee or reward, in filling up 
these pages from year to year. It would be invidious to name 
some and exclude others, so that I will simply refer to the names 
of such writers as appear in each annual index as indication of 
the persons to whom my thanks are tendered. 
I have been assured that it is not intended to make any material 
alteration in this Journal, either in form or contents, and the 
sequence will remain unbroken. For my successor I have only to 
solicit the same forbearance as I have received, and an increased, 
and ever increasing, measure of generous support, with which I 
take my leave. 
M. C. Cooke. 
