1.4.1825

A

HAND-BOOK;

OR

CONCISE DICTIONARY

OF

TERMS

USED IN

THE ARTS AND SCIENCES.

BY

WALTER HAMILTON,

M.R.A.S.

LONDON:

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET.

MDCCCXXV.

102

PREFACСЕ.

DURING the course of many years' desultory reading, the author of the following short dictionary was in the habit of extracting from an infinite variety of periodical and scientific works, all the new terms that occurred, with the explanations given by their inventors, which he afterwards modified and corrected as subsequent discoveries rendered expedient, until their distinct and peculiar acceptation seemed conclusively fixed. In process of time these memoranda accumulated so greatly, that an alphabetical arrangement became indispensable, and having found the manuscript vocabulary thus gradually compiled, of great utility for his own occasional reference, he thought that when enlarged, it might also prove beneficial to others, more especially as no work of so compendious a form, or concentrating so many explications with

in so limited a space, had as yet been presented to

the public.

When finally resolved on publication, in order to render it more extensively useful, all the best existing encyclopedias and dictionaries were consulted, many additional terms procured, and the elaborate dissertations which explained them, reduced to the fewest words possible; -the great perfection of a definition being, clearness and brevity. But here it became necessary to draw a line of demarkation, for to have inserted the whole, or even a tenth part, would have swelled the work from a Hand-book to a cyclopædia, and completely nullified the objects contemplated; viz., conciseness, perspicuity, and facility of reference. As a general rule, therefore, seldom deviated from, only such terms have been admitted as are tolerably well defined, likely to remain permanent, and are of most frequent occurrence in the periodical literature of the day, into which the progress of science has introduced many words and phrases formerly considered the exclusive property of the learned. These last, a great majority of readers would willingly know the meaning of without intending to pursue the subject further; and it is for their assistance the following definitions have been attempted, which, if they do not completely satisfy

PREFACE.

the mind as to what a thing is, will furnish a tolerably clear notion of what it is not. But the reader must not be disappointed if he misses many terms; for the labour of selecting from the enormous mass has been so oppressive, that as much merit is claimed for those rejected (about half a million *,) as for those that have been inserted. Neither must he complain of the dryness of the subject and the hardness of the words, for if the words were not hard, they would not require explanation.

Owing to the circumstances above stated, it is possible that each person may think there is a deficiency in the department of science he is most partial to, and redundance in others; that some terms might with advantage have been omitted, and others substituted; but in this respect the Compiler had only a choice of difficulties, and was obliged to act according to the best of his judgment. He trusts, however, that as a whole, the volume will be found sufficiently con prehensive,

In Botany, according to the Baron de Humboldt, there are 56,000 plants, and their species; and in Entomology at least 40,000 insects, all accommodated with names. To the nomenclatures of chemistry and mineralogy, which are encumbered with double and treble names to designate the same object, it is impossible to assign any limits.