For the spirit in which the Work will be conducted, the Proprietors take leave to refer to the last few volumes. They have the best reasons for believing that the labours of the present Editors have met the approval of their professional brethren; reasons founded on the increase in the number and value of the Original Communications, as well as the extended sale of the Journal. In other respects, no essential change will take place: the ORIGINAL PAPERS will be rendered still more select;-the CRITICAL ANALYSES of all important Works, both domestic and foreign, will be continued ;-and the departments of COLLECTANEA and INTELLIGENCE will, as before, contain short notices of cases, and facts of every kind interesting to the Medical Profession, arranged according to subjects. The new Series will constitute an immediate continuation of the old; the numbering of which will be continued, as well as that of the Series about to be commenced. The Journal will thus form a complete record of Medical Literature, from the beginning of the present century. Orders for the New Series will be received by all Booksellers; and those who intend to become Subscribers are respectfully requested to intimate their intentions as soon as possible, in order that the additional number of copies struck off may be made as nearly as possible to correspond with the demand. The Proprietors beg to add, that, notwithstanding the very considerable expense incurred by these new arrangements, the price of the Journal will continue the same as before, viz. 2s. 6d. per Number. ADVERTISEMENTS will be inserted on the Cover, and BILLS stitched in the Work, as hitherto, at the usual charges. Published by J. SOUTER, 73, St. Paul's Church Yard; and may be had through the medium of all Booksellers, in Town and Country. Printed by J. and C. Adlard, Bartholomew Close. ILLUSTRATED BY NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS MADE BY THE LATE FROM NEW DRAWINGS MADE BY THE AUTHOR, AND HIS BROTHER, THE great importance of the subject of this publication is so generally known, and the want of a practical treatise on the Steam Engine and its various applications is so universally acknowledged, that any apology for its appearance is unnecessary. The object of the work is fourfold. First, To form a complete history of the invention of this greatest production of genius, from its origin to its present state of perfection; showing to the statesman and political economist the influence that the adoption of steam powers has exercised upon our national prosperity and advancement during a century past, and the prospect of future advantages to be expected from more extended applications of the same principles. Second,-To form a correct guide for the instruction of professional students in the practice and theory of making and using Steam Engines. Such students being at present left to form and digest their own crude and imperfect observations, their conclusions are liable, for want of a scientific guide, to be tinctured with many erroneous notions and false reasons, which pass current with the unlettered artizans amongst whom they must of necessity seek their practical knowledge. Third,—To form a manual which will facilitate the practice of the experienced professional engineer and tend to perfect the practice of those engineers and others, who may be required to employ and apply Steam Engines to various purposes, but who have not had the advantage of instruction in the art of making Steam Engines; and who may, therefore, require much information which is at present only to be acquired in workshops. Many manufacturers, and engineers to public companies, for canals, mines, and waterworks, and many officers of our navy who are beginning to turn their attention to the subject of steam navigation, are thus circumstanced. Fourth,―To contain a record and brief explanation of all the speculative projects which have been proposed for the improvement of Steam Engines. This will exhibit to mechanical inventors, the various ideas which have been suggested for that object, and the instruction they may obtain from other parts of the work, together with the history of the circumstances under which the really great inventions have been made, may enable them to produce some farther improvements. To endeavour to attain those objects is not a light undertaking, and one which the author would willingly have given up to any other Engineer of competent knowledge; but it is well known that such men are two much engaged in active practice, to find time for a literary occupation; and that it is only in the course of an active practice, that opportunities offer for making valuable observations. The author would have been unable to have undertaken such a task, if he had not formed the plan and collected materials for its execution, at his first entrance into life; and it was chiefly in consequence of its becoming known that he had such a plan in view, that he be came personally acquainted with the late Mr. WATT, and with Mr. WOOLF, and acquired from them a full knowledge of the origin and progress of their respective inventions. At the commencement of his professional studies, more than twenty years ago, the author felt the want of a guide of this kind; and, after carefully studying Doctor Robison's Treatise and M. Prony's Architecture Hydraulique, he determined to preserve notes of all the observations and investigations, by which he should become practically acquainted with the construction and operation of Steam Engines, and their various applications, as materials which might at some future period be arranged to form part of a useful publication; and, although continual professional avocations have long since prevented him from devoting sufficient time to that object, it has never been abandoned. In the year 1815, the author drew up a descriptive article on the Steam Engine, for Dr. Rees's Cyclopædia; but the plan of that work, and the limited number of engravings, rendered it necessary to avoid details, which must constitute the great value of a practical work. Since the publication of that article in 1816, the want of a correct manual has been still more felt, from the great and increasing extension of the use of steam power, and the author was advised by many of the profession to complete his original project; this he undertook to do in 1820, and the historical part was written, and most of the plates were engraved by the late MR. LOWRY, in the next year; but other engagements have protracted the completion of the technical part until the present time. This Volume will contain the History of the Invention, and Technical Descriptions of Steam Engines, as they are now made by the best artists, with numerous Engravings and Wood-cuts, and tables of their Dimensions; also, a large collection of Theorems, which the Author has formed during the course of his own practice, for calculating the proportions of the parts of Steam Engines of all dimensions, and for estimating their performance. A Volume, containing a full account of the various modes of applying Steam Engines to Navigation and to Locomotive Carriages, also a Record and brief Description of Speculative Projects, is in preparation. LONDON: PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND green. JUST PUBLISHED, In One thick Volume, Royal Octavo, Price 25s. containing nearly 600 closely printed Pages, PART THE FIRST OF THE PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY AND REVIEW FOR 1826; Containing a revised Report of the Speeches in Parliament during the last Session upon every subject which affects the public interest; the several dẻbates upon the same topic being presented connectedly to view under some general head, and the several heads, into which it may be necessary to divide the whole matter, being arranged in such an order, as their relation to each other and the facility of reference may suggest as, for instance, Colonies, Finance and Trade, Law, Church Establishment, Public Instruction, Public Health, &c. On the First of January, 1827, will be Published, PART IL-THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW,→ Containing an examination, as well of the tendency of the measures discuss, ed in Parliament during the last Session, as of the soundness or fallacy of the arguments by which they have been supported or opposed, and an investigation of the causes which may have occasioned their adoption or rejection. Also, as speedily as possible, PART III. THE PARLIAMENTARY ABSTRACTS Containing the substance of all important Papers presented to the two houses during the last Session. The Parliamentary Papers contain much information which is highly va luable to every class of Society. The reports of Committees, and the evidence given before them on great public questions, furnish authentic and various information on the state of the country. The tables of Finance, of Imports and Exports, and other Commercial information, are wanted by every man who is engaged in Commercial pursuits. These papers amount annually to about twenty folio volumes, and are obtained with great difficulty, being solely printed for the use of the Members. If they were reprinted for the public, their expensive and useless bulk would preclude a profitable sale. The advantage of compressing their really valuable matter into an octavo volume, will, therefore, be duly appreciated. THE UTILITY of this work, which was commenced last year, is obvious; and its publication supplies a remarkable deficiency in our periodical literature. f Upon the importance of the proceedings of the British Parliament, both as regards England and the world at large, it is not necessary to expatiate. These proceedings, however, have never yet become the subject of a regular and systematic comment, and there is no record of them convenient for general reference or instruction. In resorting, for either of these purposes, to a mere collection of Newspaper reports, entirely destitute of arrangement, and encumbered with a mass of useless matter, the waste of time and attention necessary for obtaining the desired information on any given subject, is, to the greatest degree, inconvenient and repulsive. By bringing connectedly to view under one head all the speeches delivered on each important subject,-by excluding impertinent matter,—by adding a free and dispassionate examination of every great topic affecting the public, and by classifying the whole in the manner previously mentioned, -the Conductors of the present work trust they have framed a record of our Parliamentary proceedings at once convenient and instructive. With respect to the PARLIAMENTARY REPORTS, they have been accomplished by the editor of this work, so as to render it, in our opinion, much more worthy of patronage than the enormously expensive and ill-executed volumes which have hitherto monopolized the market. As to the critical part of the work, it manifests considerable information, and much dexterity of reasoning.—Times. PUBLISHED BY LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, & GREEN, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. |