A E 5 C4325 1886 196211 V.I Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. SEP 25 '35 P PREFACE. HE following "NOTICE," prefixed to the first volume of the original Edition of CHAMBERS'S ENCYCLOPEDIA, conveys with admirable, clearness the design of the projectors of the work and the methods adopted for its execution. A "Concluding Notice," containing a somewhat elaborate exposition of the labors of the distinguished Editors, will also be found prefixed to the last volume NOTICE OF THE ORIGINAL EDITION. IT is now considerably more than a hundred years since EPHRAIM CHAMBERS gave From Mother tonary of anowiuyv, formed the plan of their Conversations-Lexicon, a work which, extending to a long series of volumes, has passed through ten editions, and obtained a world-wide celebrity. Believing that a translation of the latest edition of that well-conceived and laboriously executed work would be generally acceptable, the Editors made an arrangement for that purpose with the proprietor, Mr. Brockhaus of Leipsic. After some time, however, had been spent in translating, the task of adapting the infor mation to English requirements was found so difficult, that the resolution was taken to bring out a substantially new work, following in its construction the admirable plan of the Conversations-Lexicon, but making use of its valuable matter, only so far as it might be found suitable. CHAMBERS'S ENCYCLOPEDIA, therefore, although constructed on the basis of the latest edition of the Conversations-Lexicon, is, in no part, a mere translation of that work. All that specially relates to Great Britain and her colonies, as well as to the states of North and South America, is collected from new and more direct sources The articles also on the physical sciences and practical arts receive greater promi |