Encyclopaedia Britannica [1, 8 ed.]

Table of contents :
Cover
Title
Preface
Dissertation First: Progress of Metaphysical and Ethical Philosophy
Dissertation Second: Progress of Ethical Philosophy
Dissertation Third: Rise, Progress and Corruptions of Christianity
Dissertation Fourth: Progress of Mathematical and Physical Science Since the Revival of Letters in Europe
Dissertation Fifth: Progress of Mathematical and Physical Science during the 18th Century
Dissertation Sixth: Progress of Mathematical and Physical Science, Principally form 1775 to 1850

Citation preview

ENCYCLOPAEDIA

EIGHTH

BPITANNICA.

EDITION.

THE

ENCYCLOPAEDIA

BRITANNICA

DICTIONARY

OP

ARTS

SCIENCES

AND GENERAL LITERATURE.

EIGHTH

EDITION.

WITH EXTENSIVE IMPROVEMENTS AND ADDITIONS ; AND NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS.

VOLUME I.

ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK, EDINBURGH. MDCCCLX, \The Proprietors of this Work give notice that they reserve the right of Translating it.]

NEILL AND CO., PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.

PREFACE.

It is now ninety years since the first appearance of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

During that period it has exhibited great and various changes.

Con-

sisting at first of three quarto volumes of moderate size, it now appears in twenty-one; each in quantity of matter equalling more than two of the original edition.

Its internal changes have been still more remarkable.

As it

advanced, the whole circle of human knowledge came to be included within its ample limits.

Showing, in its earlier stages, little literary skill above the

level of respectable abridgment or compilation, it now includes treatises which may justly vie with the most finished productions of the age.

The work-

manship, at first, of a few among the least distinguished literary denizens of its native city, its list of contributors now embraces a large portion of that learned host by whom the sovereignty of literature is upheld.

Thus, from

being viewed as only a convenient digest of information, suited chiefly to the wants of the unlearned, it must now be considered as a large and well furnished repository of every variety of useful knowledge.

The Encyclopedia

Britannica has

always

difiered

arrangement and object, from most works of the same class.

materially, in its It may therefore

not be improper briefly to notice the rise and progress of this description of publications, and the principal improvements that were made on this work, before we give any account of the plan and progress of the Eighth edition, or of its superior claims to the patronage of the public. a

PREFACE.

VI

This class of publications belongs entirely to the modern world; for though the Ancients had the term, they had no compilations resembling those to which the Moderns have applied it.

The Natural History of Pliny has some-

times been styled an Encyclopedia; and he has himself said that it embraces all that the Greeks designated by the term.

But this can only have refer-

ence to the compass and variety of its matter, not to arrangement or method; in which it has nothing in common with those collective digests which appeared in modern Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. If there were any anterior compilations of a similar nature, we need not look for them among the remains of Grecian or Roman literature, but among those of the learned Arabians of the middle ages.

One such work,

at least, exists in the collection of Arabic manuscripts preserved in the library of the Escurial.

It is described in Casiri’s account of them, as a

work, “ Ubi scientiarum, artiumque liberalium, synopsis occurrit, una cum accurata et perspicua earum notitia, definitione, divisione, methodo;and is said to have been compiled by Alfarabius, the great ornament of the School of Bagdad in the tenth century, who gave it the title of Encyclopaedia.

The most noted and valuable of the early Encyclopaedias was that of John Henry Alstedius, a Professor of Philosophy and Divinity at Weissembourg in Transylvania, and who is said to have been the author of about sixty other works, though he died at the age of fifty, in 1638.t

His Encyclo-

paedia, by which alone his name is remembered, appeared in 1630, in two folio volumes.

A smaller and less comprehensive work of the same kind, which he

published ten years before, served as the groundwork of this more extensive undertaking; in which he professedly aimed at the formation of a complete Encyclopedia.^

It consists of thirty-fiye books, of which the first four con-

* Casiri, Biblioth. Arabico.—Hispana Escurial, i. p. 189. f Niceron, Mcmoires des Hommes illustres, t. xli. p. 300. | The idea then entertained of the nature of such a work will be seen from his definition :—“ Encyclopsedia est systema omnium systematum, quibus res, homine dignse, methodo certa explicantur.*’ Alsted. Encyclop. t. i. p. 49.

vn

PREFACE.

tain an explanation of the nature of the various subjects discussed in the rest. Then follow successively, six on Philology; ten on Speculative, and four on Practical Philosophy; three on Theology, Jurisprudence, and Medicine; three on the Mechanical Arts; and five on History, Chronology, and Miscellaneous topics.

This work was held in high estimation till the close of the century

in which it appeared.

Leibnitz mentions it, in the early part of the next, in

respectful terms; expressing, at the same time, an earnest wish that some of the learned would either join in remodelling and improving it, or in composing an entirely new work of the same kind.*

The observations of this

great philosopher show that he had reflected much on the objects of such an undertaking, and that he considered an Encyclopedia as a species of publication calculated to be eminently useful.

After what has

been said, it is scarcely necessary to observe, that,

though the term Encyclopedia be now familiarized to us as an appellative for alphabetical digests of general knowledge, the first works so designated were not constructed with any reference to the alphabet.

It was long be-

fore the idea occurred that the lexicographic plan might be used as the basis of an universal repertory of human learning;

and still longer, before

the alphabet was employed to introduce general treatises similar to those of the early Encyclopaedias.

Nearly a century elapsed from the publication of

the popular work of Alstedius, before any considerable attempt was made to present the world with an encyclopedical dictionary; and for a long period thereafter, no dictionary of that description—none, in fact, till the appearance of the Encyclopedia Britannica—was enriched with complete or systematic views of the Sciences.

Dictionaries limited to the explanation of technical terms, and particular sciences, had been long common throughout Europe; but the first professed attempt to bring the whole body of science and art into the lexicographic form, was made in the Lexicon Technicum of Dr Harris.

* Leibnitii Opera, t. v. p. 405.

It was completed and

PREFACE.

Vlll

published at London in the year 1710;* and is generally viewed as the first great step in the advance to the more modern Encyclopaedia.

But,

though professing to be universal, it was in fact limited almost entirely to mathematical and physical science; with respect to which, however, it has been generally allowed to have come fully up to the acquisitions of its day.

The Cyclopaedia of Ephraim Chambers, published in 1728, presents the next marked advance in the composition of encyclopedical dictionaries; and may, indeed, be considered as constituting an ana in the history of their formation.

Till its appearance there had been no attempt to explain the sciences

in the order of the alphabet, and at the same time to conjoin their component parts dissevered by that mode of arrangement.

“No one,” says this author,

“ seems to have perceived that a dictionary is in some measure capable of the advantages of a continued discourse; and, therefore, we see nothing like a whole in wdiat has, in this sort, been done.”

It was not, however, by comprehensive

views of the established divisions of knowdedge, introduced in the alphabetical order of their names, that he proposed to remedy the evil of fractured “ wholes,” of which he complains.

He sought to accomplish this by refer-

ences from general to particular heads, and from the latter to the former,

in

short, from the parts of all connected subjects or topics, reciprocally, conformably to an illustrative scheme with which he furnished his readers.

That

something was thus done to indicate and conjoin the subordinate parts of a science, fortuitously scattered under the different heads of the alphabet, needs not be questioned; but the inherent defects of the plan were incapable of being surmounted by any system of references, however complete.

The

sciences cannot be taught or understood without being viewed continuously, in their natural state of unity and coherence;

and the great and

primary objects of an Encyclopaedia cannot be attained, where that method of surveying them is

not

adopted.

In other respects,

* In two folio volumes—the first in 1706, the other in 1T10. course of the next thirty years.

too, Chambers’s

It passed through five editions in the

ix

PREFACE.

notions of what was required by the nature of his undertaking were confined and arbitrary; as in thinking that an hjncyclopasdia should only contain the conclusions, without any of the demonstrations of mathematical, or the experimental details of physical science.

But, with all its defects,

whether of plan or execution, his work must be allowed to be the production of a mind of no ordinary compass and vigour, as well as one of the most useful literary undertakings ever accomplished by a single hand.

It

did much through its numerous editions,* and the other works of the same kind to which it gave rise throughout Europe, to stimulate the curiosity, to enlarge the knowledge, and to diversify the intellectual pleasures and pursuits of the mass of mankind.

The popularity of the Cyclopaedia remained undisturbed by any rival for a considerable period; but the success with which it was frequently republished, and the progress of knowledge in some departments in which it was from the first defective, by holding out a prospect of encouragement to newer undertakings, led at last to a succession of similar works, mostly modelled upon its plan.

The title which Chambers chose, in preference to the more

classical one of Encyclopaedia, was however laid aside for that suggested by their alphabetical structure; nor was the correct name assumed conjunctively with the latter, in any British work of this class, till the appearance of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

The ,first of the wrorks now* referred to, Barrowr’s New and Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, consisting of a folio volume, was published in 1751; a supplement being added to it in 1754.

Its only recommendations, as com-

pared with its predecessor, consisted in an enlarged number of articles on mathematical subjects, on the mechanical arts, and on naval affairs; to make room for which church history and all scholastic topics were excluded. A garbled translation of D’Alembert’s celebrated Preliminary Discourse to the French

* The Cyclopaedia consisted of two very large folio volumes, of which there were/t^e editions published in the short period of eighteen years.

PREFACE.

X

Encyclopedic was prefixed, in two portions, to these two volumes, without the slightest notice being taken of the original.

This was followed, in 1754, by a New and Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, comprised in four large octavo volumes, written, according to the title-page,

11

by a Society of Gentlemen.”

The general brevity of its articles

enabled its compilers to widen its range in the departments of geography, commerce, and natural history.

Prefixed to it there is a scheme of the divi-

sions of human knowledge, intended to serve as the basis of its articles and references, and which is announced as “ more simple and natural, and likewise fuller and better distributed,” than that of either Chambers or D’Alembert.

It may, however, be fairly characterised as an exceedingly confused and

illogical performance, exemplifying an arbitrary use of philosophical terms.

In 1766 was published, in three folio volumes, The Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, compiled under the joint direction of the Rev. Henry Croker, Dr Thomas Williams, and Mr Samuel Clerk; the theological, philosophical, and critical departments being superintended by the first; those of anatomy, medicine, and chemistry, by the second; and the mathematical by the last. This division of labour does not appear to have contributed much to the excellence of the work, it being, with few exceptions, a sordid compilation. In point of method it has still less claim to praise.

Its authors either did

not perceive, or disregarded, the use of that chain of references by which Chambers endeavoured to remedy the defects arising from the division of naturally connected subjects under a multiplicity of separate heads.

Part of

D’Alembert’s Discourse was here also appropriated wfithout any mention of its paternity.

On the Continent, as well as in England, the Cyclopaedia of Chambers gave a new impulse to the desire for such publications.

Within little more

than twenty years from its first appearance, it had been translated into the Italian language; and became, in France, the foundation of the Encyclopedic, —the most extensive and celebrated undertaking of the kind that had yet

xi

PREFACE. appeared.

This great work, originally intended to consist of ten, was ultimately

enlarged to seventeen folio volumes, of which the first was published in 1751, the last in 1765.*

It is well known to those conversant with its history, that

it was founded upon an unpublished French translation of the work of Chambers.

That translation was undertaken in 1743, and completed in

1745, by an Englishman of the name of Mills, assisted by a native of Dantzic, named Sellius.f

It is not, perhaps, so generally known, that the Abbe de

Gua was the projector of the Encyclopedic: and that it was only in consequence ot a dispute between him and the publishers that the editorship was committed to D’Alembert and Diderot. J

Seeking no distinction, therefore, from novelty of method, they rested its claims to public favour upon the great extension of its several departments; upon the various attainments and literary eminence of its contributors; and, above all, on the philosophical spirit which animated their labours.

It would

be altogether foreign from our purpose to enter into any details concerning its philosophical or literary merits; or the irreligious and revolutionary designs with which its conductors were charged.

But with respect to its

completeness and consistency as a general repertory of knowledge, it may be observed that the popular branches of biography and history were excluded from its plan; and that, though it unquestionably contains many articles of great originality, depth, and ability, there is yet everywhere a large alloy of useless matter, dressed out in a vague, diffuse, and declamatory style.

* Besides seventeen volumes of text, it has eleven of plates and descriptions, of which the first was published in 1762, the last in 1772. f Memoire pour P. J. F. Luneau De Boisjermain, Souscripteur de VEncyclopedic. 4to. Paris, 1771. | Nouv. Mem. de V Academic Roy ale des Sciences de Berlin, pour 1’an. 1770, p. 52. Biographic Universelle, t. xviii. art. “ Gua de Halves.” While both concur in bestowing the highest encomiums upon the encyclopedical method—or plan of references—which Chambers had exemplified, they represent his execution as that of a servile compiler, particularly from French writers ; observing, that the design of publishing the translation of his work was abandoned because it was discovered that the public would thereby get little of which it was not already possessed in another form. They, at the same time, make the curious acknowledgment, that without the aids derived from that translation, it would have been next to impossible to procure the co-operation necessary to the composition of the Encyclopedic. 11II n’y a presqu’aucun de nos Collegues, qu’on eut determine a travailler, si on lui eut propose de composer a neuf toute sa partie; tons auroient ete ajfrayes, et VEncyclopedia ne se feroit point faite.” Encyclopedic, art. “ Encyclop.” tom. v. p. 645.

PREFACE.

xii

To its tendency to promote similar undertakings in the higher walks of literature, may probably be ascribed Goldsmith s proposal to publish Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences,

A

with the promised assistance of

the most distinguished British writers of that day;

who, as Bishop Percy

informs us, “ were to contribute articles, each on the subject in which he excelled.The plan was frustrated by his untimely death ; and it is matter of regret that his “ Prospectus,” described by Percy as “ giving a luminous view of his design,” has not hitherto reached the puolic.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica made its first appearance a few years after the completion of its great French precursor, then at the height of its fame. The first edition, which was completed in the year 1771, though, as already observed, far from imposing or attractive either in respect of extent or execution, wTas yet distinguished by a more philosophical plan than had been adopted by any of its predecessors, either abroad or at home.

Instead of

attempting to elucidate the sciences by a number of separate articles corresponding to their technical titles or sections, introduced in the order prescribed by the alphabet—and with no continuity of explanation other than could be obtained through references from one head to another—it treated each science completely, in a systematic form, under its proper denomination; the technical terms and subordinate heads being also explained alphabetically, when anything more than a reference to the general treatise was required.

This excel-

lent method has been prosecuted upon a wider scale, and with more regularity of execution, in the subsequent editions; and though not always followed out with perfect order and consistency—for that could hardly be supposed possible in a work composed by so many different hands—it has nevertheless been piactised to an extent that constitutes a great and beneficial improvement in the structure of Encyclopgedias.

Provision was thus made for the intermixture of

general treatises, upon all subjects requiring continuous discussion, with a full statement of their subordinate heads or divisions.

The objects aimed

at in the early Encyclopgedias were, in this way, reconciled to the lexico-

* Life of Goldsmith, prefixed to Bishop Percy’s edition of his work, vol. i. p. 112.

xm

PREFACE.

graphic plan, whilst its adaptation to particular topics was in no respect impaired.

It has, indeed, been alleged that this method has a tendency to

withdraw the attention from the inferior to the greater articles; and that the nobler provinces on the map of knowledge may thus appear in high culture and order, whilst the lower and obscurer districts and localities are found to bear the marks of desertion or neglect. means a necessary or unavoidable result.

But this is not by any

And the plan which is best adapted

to a satisfactory delineation of the higher subjects of inquiry, and which promises most effectually to communicate a knowledge of them, may be considered as being, on the whole, that which has made the nearest approach to perfection, and is most likely to be productive of beneficial effects.

The Editor of the first edition of this Encyclopedia, Mr William Smellie, was a man of considerable intellectual resources, and particularly conversant with Natural History. devised by him

His biographer says “ that the plan of the work was

and if this alludes to its method in respect to the sciences,

he was more likely to have suggested that great improvement than any of his coadjutors. tirely new.

That method, it may however be observed, was not en-

It had been partially exemplified many years before in Dr De

Coetlogon’s voluminous, but long forgotten “Illustrations of the Arts and Sciences,” published in 1745.

In that work, each art and science was fully

discussed in a separate treatise, introduced alphabetically under its name; thus exemplifying the distinguishing feature of the method in question. But whether it was suggested to Mr Smellie by that obscure publication does not appear.

The work, though bearing the title of Encyclopcedia, was at first little more than a Dictionary of Arts and Sciences upon a greatly improved plan. But its second edition, completed in ten volumes, about twelve years after the first, was enriched by the addition of the great and popular branches—not treated in the same form in any preceding work of the kind—of Biography

* Kerr’s Life of Smellie, vol. i. p. 136. b

PREFACE.

XIV and History.

In the

French Encyclopedic, though

occasional notices of

memorable persons occur in the articles relative to the history of philosophy and science, there is no series of separate lives; and no place whatever is assigned to civil history.

The supplement to that great work professed to in-

clude history in its plan; but its historical details being limited, for the most part, to what could be introduced under the names of kings and rulers, presented no substantive or connected views of nations and states.

To

include history, in any form, was considered by some critics, particularly by La Harpe, as an abuse of the purposes of an Encyclopaedia. n’est point,” says he,

u

u

L histoire

une acquisition de 1’esprit; ce n est pas dans une

Encyclopedic qu’on doit la chercher.”*

This is a manifestly arbitrary dictum,

and would equally strike at many subjects of importance to the introduction of which La Harpe does not object.

It derives no countenance either from

the practice of the earlier encyclopedists, or enlightened

of

those who

have

the opinions of the most

commented upon their

labours.

Thus

we find a general summary of the history of the world in the Encyclopedia

of

Alstedius ;

and

Leibnitz,

in

remarking

upon the

defects

of

that work, mentions the historical department as one of those requiring to be greatly extended.!

Till the publication of its third edition, which was completed in eighteen volumes, in 1797, its method and the comprehensiveness of its plan constituted the chief recommendations of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

In none of its

departments had it as yet attracted any marked approbation.

But in this

edition it rose greatly above its former level, both in its practical and speculative departments.

This edition was soon followed by two supplementary volumes, in which Professor Robison supplied the contributions wanting to complete that seiies which he had commenced when the principal work was far advanced.

* La Harpe, Cours de Litterature, t. xv. p. 74.

Taken

f Leibnitii Opera, t. v. p. 184

PEEFACE.

xv

together, “ they exhibited,” according to the late Dr Thomas Young, “ a more complete view of the modern improvements of Physical Science than had previously been in the possession of the British public.”*

A fourth edition, augmented to twenty volumes, was completed in 1810, under the able superintendence of the late Dr James Miller. |

Most part of

the new treatises which he introduced belonged, as was to be expected from his predilections and attainments, to Chemistry and Natural History—sciences then undergoing such rapid changes, that they added but little of permanent value to the work.

The case, however, was different with Professor Wallace’s

mathematical contributions, which not only elevated its scientific character, but imparted to it considerable lasting utility.^

The general value of the

edition would have been much enhanced could its Editor have availed himself of those articles which Professor Bobison contributed to the preceding supplemental volumes; but this was prevented by a temporary separation of the property from that of the principal work; and the incorporation of the whole— or rather of all that it was judged proper to republish—with the general text, was only effected in the seventh edition.§

With the completion of the fourth edition the progress of improvement was for some time suspended.

The next two editions were little more than

reprints of the former, and, therefore, contributed nothing to vary or advance the character of the work.

But this was compensated for by the addition of

a Supplement in six volumes.

This Supplement was projected by the late Mr Constable, soon after the principal work and its appendages had been purchased by his enterprising

* See Dr Young’s biographical account of Professor Eobison in the present edition, vol. xix. p. 303. f See the notice of his Life in the present edition. | The following were the most valuable:—Algebra, Conic Sections, Fluxions, Geometry, Mensuration, Porisms, Series, Trigonometry. § The following are the articles of'the series reprinted in the seventh edition:—Arch, Carpentry, Centre, Dynamics, Perspective, Philosophy, Physics, Pumps, Eesistance of Fluids, Kiver, Eoof, Seamanship, Signals, Steam-Engine, Strength of Materials, Telescope, Trumpet, Waterworks.

PREFACE.

XVI

house, then in the zenith of its prosperity.

The first half-volume was prefaced

by a discourse by Mr Dugald Stewart, being the first of those Preliminary Dissertations on the History of the Sciences, which, in their more complete state, have added so greatly to the value of the subsequent editions; and it was followed by a succession of treatises upon many of the most important branches of knowledge, written by men of the highest talents and reputation. Its fame was not confined to Britain, but extended to the Continent; and two of the most distinguished

philosophers of France — M.

Arago and

M. Biot — were enrolled and took an active place amongst its scientific contributors.

Its publication, which commenced in 1815, was completed

in 1824. Within a few years thereafter, the whole of these copyrights passed into the hands of the present proprietors: And this transfer of the property was soon followed by the announcement of preparations for the seventh edition, which was in every respect more perfect than any of the preceding editions.* In the Prospectus of their plan, the new proprietors stated, that “ the work would be widened in its compass, amplified and improved in its contents, and raised in all respects to a level with the modes of thinking and spirit of the age.”

And they believe it will be found that in most respects they

fulfilled this rather comprehensive engagement.

The attention

of the

Editor was early directed to the completion

of those Preliminary Dissertations on the History of the Sciences which had been published in the Supplement.

They were intended to form two

distinct Dissertations, each divided into Parts.

The first was to contain the

History of Metaphysical, Ethical, and Political Philosophy; the second, that of Mathematical and Physical Science.

The one was undertaken by the late

Dugald Stewart,—the other by his friend and colleague, the late Professor Playfair ; and, incomplete as they were left at the death of these eminent men,

* The seventh edition began to he published in monthly parts in March 1830, and was finished in January 1842.

xvn

PREFACE.

they yet, to a considerable extent, supplied a great desideratum in British literature.

The idea of a continuous delineation of the progress of the human

mind in the discovery of truth and the correction of error, as an Inti eduction to a work in which the sciences are examined in detail, was, for the first time, exemplified in the Discourse prefixed by D’Alembert to the French Encyclopedie; and nothing of the kind, of acknowledged merit, had, in any shape, been given to the world in our own language prior to these Dissertations.

That Discourse, though grand in its outline, was at once too rapid and

too compressed in its notices of those “ great lights of the world, by whom the torch of science has been successively seized and transmitted,” to impart to the student, or to fix in his recollection, any satisfactory views of their opinions and achievements.

The Scottish Discourses were written upon a scale which

enabled their authors to remedy that defect; and they accordingly present, in a style as eloquent as their subjects are dignified, instructive views of the advances and failures of human reason, and the progress of genuine science, combined with the justest estimates of those who have most affected that progress for good or for evil.

Stewart had originally intended to trace

the history of all the principal branches of philosophy connected with the knowledge of the Mind \

but his plan was completed

only in as far as

regarded the fundamental or Metaphysical branch; the others—with the exception of some valuable observations occasionally introduced in the former, concerning the Ethical and Political notions of the sixteenth and early part of the seventeenth centuries—having been left untouched.

Fortunately,

however, the portion completed and published had received, before the death of the venerable author, a careful revision and some additions of moment from his own hand.

The history of the Mathematical and Physical sciences,

again, was, at Professor Playfair’s death, brought down only to the period rendered memorable by the names of Newton and Leibnitz; thus leaving the discoveries of a century, eminently progressive in scientific knowledge, to be detailed by other hands.

It was the wish of the Editor to procure

such continuations as should complete the plan which the original masters had sketched out;

and, in as far as concerns Mathematical and Physical

science, this may be considered as having been in great measure accom-

PREFACE.

XV111

plished by the animated and instructive sequel to Professor Playfair’s treatise, written by the successor to his academical chair, the late Sir John Leslie.

To these has now been added a Dissertation by James David

Forbes, the distinguished Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, now Principal of the University of St Andrews, bringing down the history of modern scientific progress to the year 1850.

These

Dissertations form an appropriate vestibule to the work; and although they may not present a complete history of ethics and science, and though differences of execution may, no doubt, be perceived among them, it cannot be denied that they furnish admirable illustrations of the progress of most of their principal branches.

The editorial care of the seventh edition was placed in the hands of the late Mr Macvey Napier, who held the Chair of Conveyancing in the University of Edinburgh from 1825 until his death in 1847;

and it

is but due to the memory of that gentleman to say, that he discharged the duties of his trying position with zeal and success.

He was assisted

in the greater part of the work by Dr James Browne, a gentleman of talent and learning, who not only aided him in superintending the volumes as they passed through the press, but contributed numerous articles, conspicuous for their ingenuity and ability, on various subjects of literary and scientific interest.

In his account of the present [eighth] edition, the Editor is necessarily obliged to restrict himself to a brevity of statement which excludes the possibility of mentioning all the valuable treatises that have been transferred to it from the preceding editions and their Supplements.

It may be stated generally, that every article of value in any preceding edition has been reprinted in this,—in all cases with corrections, and frequently with considerable additions.

Besides these, it has received so great

an accession of original contributions, that nine-tenths of its contents may be said to be absolutely new.

The eighth edition of the Encyclopaedia

xix

PREFACE.

Britannica was begun at the close of 1852, and completed at the end of 1860. Encouraged by the success which had attended the previous issues of the work (upwards of thirty thousand copies of it having been sold fioni its commencement^), the publishers were emboldened again to undertake a new issue of the work.

From the rapid progress made by every bianch of science

and literature, and from the high estimation in which the work had hitherto been held, a presumption was afforded that, if judiciously edited, the book would secure a full share of public patronage.

The editorial charge was

entrusted to Dr Thomas Stewart Traill, Professor of Medical Jurisprudence in the University of Edinburgh.

His acknowledged taste and eminence in most

departments of learning and science, which the culture of a long life had greatly improved, pointed him out as being wull qualified for the task.

As

long as his health was equal to the labour, the work had the advantage of his learning and ability, and his editorial care was happily continued till near its completion.

From the beginning it was resolved that the revi-

sion and extension of the articles should be more thorough than had ever been attempted in any previous edition of the Encyclopaidici

Britannica.

This was rendered necessary by the advancement of knowledge, as well as by the increased demand for works of this class by the diffusion of education throughout the country.

On taking a review of the entire field of knowledge to be gone over by the encyclopaedist, and on carefully studying afresh all the methods, both of system and of detail, that have hitherto been proposed for such a work, it appeared that the arrangement hitherto followed in this Encyclopedia was, all things considered, decidedly the best.

This method consisted of a judicious com-

bination of the systematic and the particular.

It has in few instances been

attempted to exhibit any science or department of knowledge according to the analytical and merely technical headings occurring in the order of the alphabet: but it has, on the contrary, so far as was judged advisable, been attempted to treat each science completely and at once, in a systematic form, and under its own proper designation, referring for particulars to its subordinate heads.

All,

therefore, will be suited, whether they wish to acquire a systematic or scientific

PEEFACE.

XX

view of