5(5 5 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND SERIES. 
On commencing a New Series of ^The xinnals and Magazine of 
Natural History/ the Editors trust that they may refer, with some 
degree of confidence, to the contents of the Twenty Volumes 
which have been published under their superintendence, as the 
result of their endeavours to succeed in establishing a compre- 
hensive and permanent J ournal of the departments of knowledge 
to which the work is devoted. 
Viewing Natural History, so far as the study of Organized 
Beings is concerned, as a science each branch of which is essen- 
tially connected with the others by principles and phsenomena 
common to all, it has been the object of the Editors to include 
whatever tended to the advancement of the study both of the 
Animal and Vegetable Kingdom. 
The important duty of making known in this country the 
labours and discoveries of Foreign Naturalists, the Editors trust 
has hitherto been to a considerable extent fulfilled, in the great 
number of Translations and Abstracts from the principal Journals 
and Memoirs of other countries, and in Notices of Foreign Works 
in all branches of Natural History, which have been given with 
a view to enable the lovers of the science to keep pace with its 
progress in every stage of advancement. In this, as well as in 
all the other departments of the Journal, the Editors continue 
to avail themselves of the aid of Hr. William Francis, whose 
services they take this opportunity of acknowledging, as from the 
commencement of the Work they have had the advantage of his 
constant and valuable assistance in its regular superintendence. 
