DIONYSIUS LARDNER,

DOCTOR OF CIVIL LAW, FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETIES OF LONDON AND EDINBURGH-
OF THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY, MEMBER OF THE PRINCIPAL EUROPEAN SOCIETIES
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, AND FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF ASTRON-
OMY AND NATURAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.

"The most obvious means of elevating the people, is to provide for them works on popular and prac-
tical science, freed from mathematical symbols and technical terms, written in simple and perspicuous
language, and illustrated by facts and experiments which are level to the capacity of ordinary minds."
LONDON QUARTERLY REVIEW.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

NEW YORK:

GREELEY & MCELRATH, TRIBUNE BUILDINGS.

1846.

Transportation
Library

Q

171

L32

18466
V. 1

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1845,

BY GREELEY & MCELRATH,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the Southern District of New York.

www.

STEREOTYPED BY REDFIELD & SAVAGE,

13 Chambers Street, N. Y.