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 was first suggested by Col. Gibbs, in November, 1817, during an accidental interview on board the steamboat Fulton in Long Island Sound.[1] The American Mineralogical Journal, by the late Dr. Archibald Bruce, (our earliest purely scientific journal,) which had been begun a few years before, was most favorably received both at home and abroad, but it never passed beyond one volume of 270 pages; and as the declining health of Dr. Bruce rendered the prospect of its continuance hopeless, it was thought that we ought not to lose the advantage already gained, and that a high demand of duty required that some man devoted to science, should undertake to sustain its interests and those of the connected arts, in our rising country. Although a different selection of an editor would have been much preferred, and many reasons, public and personal, concurred to produce diffidence of success, the arguments of Col. Gibbs, whose views on subjects of science were entitled to the most respectful consideration, and had justly great weight, being pressed with zeal and ability, induced a reluctant assent; and accordingly, after due consultation with many competent judges, the proposals were issued early in 1818, embracing the whole range of physical science and its applications. The Editor in entering on the duty, regarded it as an affair for life, and the thirty years of experience which he has now had, have proved that his views of the exigencies of the service 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 found inadequate to receive all the communications, and as the receipts proved insufficient to sustain the expenses, the work, having but three hundred and fifty subscribers, was, at the end of the year, abandoned by the publishers.