Notes

Abstract

THE well-known German serial, Poggendorff's Annakn der Physik und Chemie has nowbeenin existence fifty years, and we are glad to see that practical recognition has just been taken of the striking fact that it has, during this long period, been under the sole editorial direction of Prof. Poggendorff, while printed and published by the same house in Leipzic. It was agreed, a short time since, by a number of friends of the learned professor, that they should relieve him of his editorial duties for one volume, and that this should be presented to him in honour of the occasion, as a “Jubelband,” or Jubilee volume. The importance of the work done by M. Poggendorff and his cottaborateurs, during half a century, through the Annalen, is sufficiently obvious to any who have taken an interest in the progress of physical science in recent years. The serial well reflects that enterprise, plodding industry, and philosophical Insight, which mark original research in Germany; and the 156 volumes that have appeared (six of these supplementary) constitute an invaluable storehouse for any one desiring to prosecute new lines of investigation in the wide field of physics. We learn from the preface to the Jubilee volume (which we hope to notice at greater length) that the entire number of papers published in the Annalen hitherto is 8,850; and among the 2,167 authors who have contributed to its pages, we find the eminent names of Liebig, Magnus, Berzelius, Rammelsberg, Rose, Faraday, Brewster, Becquerel, Regnault, and many others. A work of this kind, as is truly remarked, unites those engaged in similar researches all over the world, into one large brotherhood of mutual assistance and regard. We congratulate the learned editor on the completion of such a long term of arduous and honourable service to Science, and heartily join in the wish that this Jubilee volume maybe followed by many others edited by the “Jubilar” himself.