Letter from R. R. Livingston, Esq. relative to the Fezzan Ram, 248 PROSPECTUS OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL REGISTER: OR, ANNALS OF MEDICINE, NATURAL HISTORY, AGRICULTURE, AND THE ARTS. THE Editors of the Register, now announced, are fully sensible of the benefits which have resulted to this community from the various periodical publications which have already appeared in different parts of the United States. The respective journals of New-York, Philadelphia and Boston, have eminently contributed to the diffusion of medical science; and the several works of a similar kind, recently established in other cities of the Union, promise to be no less productive of lasting advantage to our country. But while they thus candidly acknowledge the claim which those several journals have to the re A gard of the public, they indulge the belief that this addition to their number will not be without its usefulness. Though much has been done to promote the interests of science and the arts, on this side of the Atlantic, much yet remains to be done. Under these impressions they propose to unite with their brother editors in their laudable attempts to extend the boundaries of useful knowledge. Lest, however, it should be concluded, that the editors of the Register intend, in every instance, to espouse the tenets propagated by any particular work, they are bold to pronounce, that upon some occasions they will be compelled to express sentiments totally different from those of many of their medical brethren of this country; and they have no hesitation further to declare, that upon the subject of the pestilential or yellow fever, which has lately made so great devastation in different parts of the United States, it will be one of the principal objects of their labours to combat the theories and opinions which many of those works have disseminated, to the discredit of our country, and perhaps to the loss of many valuable lives. To establish the line of distinction between those diseases which are of a foreign source, and such as are engendered at home, is an undertaking which must receive the countenance of every person actuated by love of coun try or humanity, and one in which the editors will embark with all the spirit of generous enterprise. But though an examination into the character of our fevers will be an object of primary importance, it will not exclusively occupy our pages. The United States, from their vast extent of territory, and the variety of their productions, will always furnish abundant subjects for philosophical investigation; while the numerous diseases of this continent open an extensive field of inquiry to the medical observer. Agriculture and the Arts will also find a place in this work. In a word, to advance the cause of Science in our country, the Register was projected. The work will be divided into three parts: 1st. Original Communications; embracing the various subjects of Medicine, Chemistry, Agriculture, Natural History, Botany, and the Useful Arts: Medical Topography, Antiquities of the American Continent, Articles of American Biography, &c. 2d. Review of new Publications in the several departments of medical science: Transactions of our learned societies, &c. |