THE
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND ARTS.
CONDUCTED BY
PROFESSOR SILLIMAN
AND
BENJAMIN SILLIMAN, Jr.
VOLUME L.
GENERAL INDEX TO FORTY-NINE VOLUMES.
NEW HAVEN:
PRINTED FOR THE EDITORS BY B. L. HAMLEN,
Printer to Yale College.
PREFACE.
The project of the American Journal of Science and Arts wasfirst suggested by Col. Gibbs, in November, 1817, during an accidentalinterview on board the steamboat Fulton in Long IslandSound.1 The American Mineralogical Journal, by the late Dr.Archibald Bruce, (our earliest purely scientific journal,) which hadbeen begun a few years before, was most favorably received bothat home and abroad, but it never passed beyond one volume of 270pages; and as the declining health of Dr. Bruce rendered the prospectof its continuance hopeless, it was thought that we oughtnot to lose the advantage already gained, and that a high demandof duty required that some man devoted to science, should undertaketo sustain its interests and those of the connected arts, inour rising country. Although a different selection of an editorwould have been much preferred, and many reasons, public andpersonal, concurred to produce diffidence of success, the argumentsof Col. Gibbs, whose views on subjects of science wereentitled to the most respectful consideration, and had justly greatweight, being pressed with zeal and ability, induced a reluctantassent; and accordingly, after due consultation with manycompetent judges, the proposals were issued early in 1818, embracingthe whole range of physical science and its applications.The Editor in entering on the duty, regarded it as anaffair for life, and the thirty years of experience which he hasnow had, have proved that his views of the exigencies of theservice were not erroneous.
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 foundinadequate to receive all the communications, and as the receiptsproved insufficient to sustain the expenses, the work, having but[Pg iv]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 carriedinto effect, and therefore No. 1 of Vol. ii was not published untilApril, 1820. The new arrangement was one of mutual responsibilityfor the expenses, but the Editor was constrained neverthelessto pledge his own personal credit to obtain from a bankthe funds necessary to begin again, and from this responsibilityhe was, for a series of years, seldom released. The single volumeper annum being found insufficient for the communications, twovolumes a year were afterwards published, commencing with thesecond volume.
At the conclusion of Vol. x, in February, 1826, the work wasagain left upon the hands of its Editor; all its receipts had beenabsorbed by the expenses, and it became necessary now to pay aheavy sum to t