In the following plan of this Work, we trust it will be understood, that we do not pledge ourselves that all the subjects mentioned shall be touched upon _in every Number_. This is plainly impossible, unless every article should be very short and imperfect. All that the Public are entitled to expect is, that in the progress of the Journal, the various subjects mentioned may occupy such an extent as our communications and resources shall permit. We have been honoured by such a list of names of gentlemen who are willing to be considered as contributors to this Journal, that the publication of it would afford us no ordinary gratification, did we not feel that it is more decorous to allow their names to appear with their communications, without laying them under a previous pledge to the Public. PLAN OF THE WORK. This Journal is intended to embrace the circle of THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES, with their application to THE ARTS, and to every useful purpose. It is designed as a deposit for _original American communications_; it will contain also occasional selections from Foreign Journals, and notices of the progress of Science in other countries. Within its plan are embraced NATURAL HISTORY, in its three great departments of MINERALOGY, BOTANY, and ZOOLOGY. CHEMISTRY and NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, and their various branches: and MATHEMATICS, pure and mixed. It will be a leading object to illustrate AMERICAN NATURAL HISTORY, and especially our MINERALOGY and GEOLOGY. The APPLICATIONS of these sciences are obviously as numerous as _physical arts_, and _physical wants_; for no one of these arts or wants can be named which is not connected with them. While SCIENCE will be cherished _for its own sake_, and with a due respect for its own _inherent_ dignity; it will also be employed as the _hand-maid to the Arts_. Its numerous applications to AGRICULTURE, the earliest and most important of them: to MANUFACTURES, both mechanical and chemical; and, to DOMESTIC ECONOMY, will be carefully sought out, and faithfully made. It is within the design of this Journal to receive communications likewise on MUSIC, SCULPTURE, ENGRAVING, PAINTING, and generally on the fine and liberal, as well as useful arts; On Military and Civil Engineering, and the art of Navigation; Notices, Reviews, and Analyses of new scientific works; accounts of Inventions, and Specifications of Patents; Biographical and Obituary Notices of scientific men; essays on COMPARATIVE ANATOMY and PHYSIOLOGY, and generally on such other branches of medicine as depend on scientific principles; Meteorological Registers, and Reports of Agricultural Experiments: and interesting Miscellaneous Articles, not perhaps exactly included under either of the above heads. Communications are respectfully solicited from men of science, and _from men versed in the practical arts_. Learned Societies are invited to make this Journal, occasionally, the vehicle of their communications to the Public.