J. R. LEIFCHILD, M.A. AUTHOR OF OUR COAL AND OUR COAL-PITS; THE PEOPLE IN THEM, AND THE VIEWED IN THE LIGHT OF MODERN SCIENCE, AND AS AN AID TO ADVANCED CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY' PREFACE. THE PUBLISHERS having determined to republish my recent Article on the Consumption and Cost of Coal as it appears in the current number of the Edinburgh Review, I have thought it advisable to add two Articles upon other aspects of Coal and Coal Mining, which had previously appeared in the same Review. The second Article, which appeared in January, 1860, though nominally a review of the late Professor Rogers' work upon the Coal Fields of America, contains much general information upon the mineral fuel itself; and the third Article, which appeared in April, 1867, although specially devoted to the consideration of Fatal Accidents in Coal Mines, nevertheless includes many details of Coal Mining, particularly as it is carried on in the great North of England Coal Pits, which will help to acquaint the reader with certain conditions of mining exercising a considerable influence upon the extraction and cost of coal. I have not thought it desirable to alter either the second or third Article, and have only added three notes. I have written an Appendix, in expansion of one or two topics briefly treated in the first Article, and with a view to put the reader in possession of the latest |