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ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA.

(NINTH EDITION.)

A DICTIONARY

or

ARTS, SCIENCES, AND GENERAL LITERATURE.

ILLUSTRATED.

VOLUME III.

THE HENRY G. ALLEN COMPANY,

NEW YORK.

1889.

PREFATORY NOTE TO VOLUME III.

THE Third Volume of the American Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica has been prepared on the same general plan which had been laid down at the outset of the work. Both the previous volumes have been cordially received by an ever-widening circle of subscribers, who have frequently assured the Publishers of their gratification at the successful prosecution of this important undertaking. Critics of the highest rank in both hemispheres have passed encomiums on the former volumes. It has been the aim of the Publishers and Editors to continue to deserve these praises. For this purpose, not only have valued contributors to the former volumes been retained, but additions have been made to their number as the subjects to be treated appeared to demand. Attention is, therefore, called to the list of contributors to the present volume, as indicating at a glance the value of the present portion of a work, whose reputation has already been established on a firm basis.

As in the former volumes especial regard has been had to subjects relating to the United States, whether in biography, history, geography, science, politics, or religion. The development of the resources of our vast and rich inheritance has been treated in various articles with such fulness as the pressure of other important topics would allow. The social problems which have arisen from the rapid development of the country, and from the changes in transportation and industries, have been carefully attended to. In subjects even of a wider range care has been taken to discuss the questions on the lines most directly affecting American interests.

While in statements of fact and matters of general information in science and philosophy it has been the uniform rule of the Editors to avoid repetition of what is contained in the Encyclopædia Britannica, it has been felt that writers on certain topics in that valuable work had prepared articles which, however able, were so one-sided that fairness and justice demanded the presentation of the opposite views. This has been done, not only in case of certain subjects relating to the Bible, but in regard to Free Trade, Homœopathy, Freemasonry, and some topics of less prominence. In every such case the statements of this work should be compared with those under the corresponding title in Encyclopædia Britannica, before drawing conclusions.

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