PREFACE. 
The present volume was intended to have been dismissed with less 
ceremony than the two preceding, had not circumstances required 
it to be the last. This being the case, the Editor cannot allow himself 
to part from his Subscribers and Contributors, without expressing to 
them the grateful sense he entertains of their unvarying support. To 
the kind assistance afforded by the latter, he is sensible the work owes 
whatever merit it may be found to possess; while to the former it owes 
its very existence, since it is by them that the expence of publication has 
been defrayed. Feeling, therefore, as he does how much the success of 
his experiment is attributable to the kind feelings of these his supporters, 
it is with unfeigned regret he finds himself (being no longer able to carry 
on his duties as Editor) compelled to announce that the present or third 
volume is to be the last of the Gleanings in Science. 
But though the Gleanings will expire, and the present Editor’s duties 
will cease with the present volume, each will have a successor far more 
worthy of public support. The gentleman, who kindly undertook the 
completion of the present volume, has announced his intention, assisted 
by his brother secretary, to commence with the present year the publica- 
tion of a periodical work to be entitled Tiie Journal of the Asiatic 
Society. This work, it is hoped, may receive support from the sub- 
scribers to the Gleanings, as the terms and period of publication w ill be 
the same with those of that work ; but it will have several advantages 
besides that of the superior Editorial ability which the conductors of 
it aie know n to possess. It is intended, for instance, to include in it such 
papers from the archives of the Society as, though sufficiently interesting, 
are not yet quite suited to the character of their quarto volume of 
Tiansactions. It is not meant, that the selection of these papers should 
be confined to any particular subject ; literary and antiquarian papers 
being considered equally eligible with those purely scientific. This 
couise alone will afford great interest and variety to the proposed work, 
and when to this advantage is added a larger type and wider limits, a. 
woik is announced, which it is not doubted, will throw its predecessor 
deep into the shade, and will make good its title to increased public 
support. 
