THE 
EMPORIUM 
OF 
ARTS AND SCIENCES. 
Vol. i.] May, 1812 . [No. 1. 
The following communication to Mr. Nicholson is so 
well adapted to the present work, that it may serve 
the purpose of a more diffuse and laboured Intro- 
duction. Editor. 
No. 1. 
On the utility of Scientific Periodical Publications— In 
a Letter to Mr. Nicholson * 
DEAR SIR, 
The advantages derived from scientific periodic publi- 
cations, are an acquisition which former philosophers 
were not possessed of ; and it was not until the last cen- 
tury they were first instituted. The rapid progress of sci- 
ence and information since that period, would be a suffi- 
cient argument in favour of their decided utility, without 
any reference to systematic treatises published, of un- 
doubted merit, and sanctioned by universal approbation. 
To the active and ingenious mind in early life this 
mode of information is invaluable. Besides furnishing 
new ideas to the young student, they point out the pre- 
* Philosophical Journal, voL 13. p. 72. 
Von. i. a 
