KG 2454

HARVARD
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
46254

The following Articles in this Volume are Copyrighted, 1888, by J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY,

PREFACE.

CHAMBERS'S ENCYCLOPÆDIA, begun in 1859, was completed in 1868, and has thus been before the world for twenty years. The favourable reception the work obtained proved that it met a general want, and that the plan on which it was prepared is good and practical. It is in use as a book of reference wherever the English language is known.

Soon after the completion of the work, a process of revision was begun; and the whole of the articles were gradually subjected to thorough examination and correction, under the superintendence of the Editor, the late Dr ANDREW FINDLATER. This revision was continued without intermission from year to year, thus correcting the information and bringing it down to the latest possible date.

But this process of revising and altering the original work could not be carried on indefinitely. In twenty years much has happened to call for a completely different treatment of many articles. New subjects of interest have emerged; many have become of greater importance; while not a few have lost their claim to the prominence given to them in the plan laid down twenty years ago. The Publishers have therefore resolved to issue a thoroughly new edition of the Encyclopædia.

The nature of the work can hardly be better explained than in the words of the preface to the first edition: 'The general character of the work is indicated by the title— A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge. The several topics are not handled with a view to the technical instruction of those who have to make a special study of particular branches of knowledge or art. The information given may be characterised as nonprofessional, embracing those points of the several subjects which every intelligent man or woman may have occasion to speak or think about. At the same time, every effort is made that the statements, so far as they go, shall be precise and scientifically accurate. One great aim in the arrangement of the work has been to render it easy of consultation. It is expressly a Dictionary in one alphabet, as distinguished on the one hand from a collection of exhaustive treatises, and, on the other, from a set of Dictionaries of special branches of knowledge. To save the necessity of wading through a long treatise in order to find, perhaps, a single fact, the various masses of systematic knowledge have been broken up, as it were, to as great a degree as is consistent with the separate explanation of the several fragments. Throughout the articles, however, there will be found copious references to other heads with which they stand in natural connection; and thus, while a single fact is readily found, its relation to other facts is not lost sight of.'

In the present edition the original character has been systematically maintained, and the aim has been to carry out even more fully than before the plan on which the work was first conceived.

A large proportion of the articles have been entirely re-written, to adapt them more perfectly to the present position of the science or branch of knowledge to which they belong. The others have been carefully revised, and in many cases re-written to so large an extent as to be virtually new articles. No old article has been retained without scrupulous verification by competent authorities.

PREFACE.

By the exercise of a rigid economy of space, which will be continued throughout, room has been found in the first volume for several hundreds of articles not contained

in the corresponding volume of the old edition. These articles comprise Biography, Geography, History, Science, and all departments of knowledge. Space has been gained not merely for new subjects, but also for considerably extending articles which seemed to be too briefly treated in the former edition.

Special regard has been given to American and Colonial subjects. The more important articles on matters connected with America have been written in the United States by American authors expressly for this edition. In subjects where the American view or practice diverges from that of the United Kingdom, a special paragraph has been added from American sources; and in legal articles, where the law of the United States differs from that of England, a paragraph is given on the American law. Many of the articles. written by American authors are copyright in the United States, where an authorised edition of the Encyclopædia is published by Messrs J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, Philadelphia.

The work has been placed under the editorship of Mr DAVID PATRICK, who, with a literary staff, has been for several years engaged in preparing for this new edition. The Contributors constitute a large body of approved and eminent Specialists in their respective branches. A list of the more important articles is appended, with the names of their authors.

The Publishers take this opportunity of making their warm acknowledgments to a number of distinguished Scholars, who have read special articles in Volume I. submitted to them. Thus, Alchemy, Atomic Theory, were submitted to Professor CRUM BROWN: Amateur, to the Editor of The Field; Animal Worship, Animism, to Mr E. B. TYLOR: Ant, to Sir JOHN LUBBOCK: Dr Arnold, to Mr MATTHEW ARNOLD: Aryans, Beast-fables, Barlaam and Josaphat, to Professor MAX MÜLLER: Automaton, to Mr MASKELYNE: Ballad, to Mr ALLINGHAM, Professor CHILD of Harvard, Mr ANDREW LANG, and Professor VEITCH: Banking, to Mr J. S. FLEMING: Basques, to Prince Louis LUCIEN BONAPARTE, Mr W. J. VAN EYS, M. JULIEN VINSON, and the Rev. WENTWORTH WEBSTER.

A considerable addition has been made to the number of Maps, always an important feature in a work of reference; and amongst these are a series of carefully executed Physical Maps. The Illustrations, a department superintended by Mr J. R. PAIRMAN, are mostly quite new, and will be found much in advance of the old, alike in accuracy and in artistic character. A large number are from photographs, many of the plants especially having been engraved from photographs taken for this work.

The Publishers are confident that they are offering to the English-speaking world a really new and greatly improved edition of a work which has in the past received a large measure of popular approval.

EDINBURGH, February 4, 1888.

W. & R. CHAMBERS.

Among the more important articles in this Volume are the following: