THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA AMERICANA. A SUPPLEMENTAL DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, AND GENERAL LITERATURE. ILLUSTRATED. VOLUME IV. NEAGLE-ZUNZ. J. M. STODDART, NEW YORK, PHILADELPHIA, LONDON. 1889. PREFACE TO VOLUME IV. WITH the present volume the American Supplement to the Ninth Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica is brought to a close soon after the completion of the original work. This Supplement was commenced in 1882 at the earnest request of a large number of the American subscribers to the Britannica. A dozen volumes, forming one-half of that great work, had then appeared and its circulation in the United States was steadily increasing. Prof. Robert Ellis Thompson, Ph. D., was selected as editor-in-chief of the new undertaking and under his supervision the plan was drafted and the greater part of the first two volumes was prepared for the press. The original publishers having then relinquished the work Prof. Thompson retired and was succeeded by Rev. Howard Crosby, D. D., LL. D. Prof. John P. Lamberton, as associate editor, has had constant and direct charge of the work throughout its progress. It had been announced that the Supplement should be comprised in four volumes of size similar to those of the Britannica. The First volume corresponds to Volumes I.-IV. of that work; the Second to Volumes V.-VIII.; the Third to Volumes IX.-XVII., and this concluding volume to Volumes XVIII-XXIV. It is a fact manifest to all who have made the comparison that since this American work has been under way the successive volumes of the Britannica have given evidence of increasing attention to American subjects. Especially the several States and cities of this country have been more carefully described by American writers. Some of these, therefore, whose names fall within the limits of this volume, it has been deemed unnecessary to treat again. The Encyclopædia Britannica has also furnished in its Twenty-third Volume a compact article On the "United States," in which American authorities of the first rank have discussed our country's history, geography, climate, vegetation, mineral resources, population, commerce, etc. This elaborate treatise seemed at once to render it superfluous to discuss this subject again in a similar way. The reader should remember, however, that numerous topics, there briefly considered within the compass of one article, have been treated more fully under appropriate titles throughout the Supplement. The greater fulness of the Encyclopædia Britannica on American topics in its later volumes has enabled the editors of the Supplement to traverse the corresponding ground more rapidly. They have still found abundant room for judicious enlargement and addition to the original work. American biography, the careers and works of living persons of note at home and abroad, the political, legal, religious and social institutions of our country, its natural history and resources, are here exhibited at such length as their interest to Americans seemed to demand. The important subjects relating to the Bible, which have been treated in the Britannica in an extremely rationalistic spirit (the later volumes in this regard exceeding the earlier), have been discussed in this Supplement in a reverent manner by American scholars of acknowledged ability. The views here presented, so far as they controvert the assertions of the English and German writers in the Britannica, will be found to be based on an equally thorough knowledge of the original languages and to show a more thorough sifting of evidence. In concluding their labors in connection with this work the publishers and editors render their hearty thanks to the contributors who have diligently assisted them in their endeavor to amend,, enlarge, perfect and adapt to American ideas the marvellous treasury of information to be found in the Encyclopædia Britannica. They trust that the American public which has shown a kind appreciation of the former volumes will receive this concluding volume with the same generous favor |