Progress in the pure science of naval architecture, as distinguished from the practical application of scientific rules and principles to shipbuilding, is a great and complex subject, and one which it would be impossible to do full justice to here. Before attempting to treat upon these matters as concerned with the period covered by this review, it may be instructive to trace briefly the progress made in the past, and take note of the agencies through which such progress has been effected. In this undertaking, concerned as it is with matters relating to a period prior to that with which the present work chiefly deals, the author has availed himself to some extent of already published works traversing the same ground. As having afforded the needful assistance in this connection, and as being a source to which readers may turn for fuller information, reference may here be made to an article in the _Westminster Review_ of January, 1881, on “The Progress of Shipbuilding in England.” This article, though unsigned, is from the pen of Mr W. H. White, late Chief Constructor of the Navy, and author of the well known “Manual of Naval Architecture.” It furnishes an appreciative and concise account of the literature and the educational agencies connected with the theory of naval architecture, and sketches the influence of science on practice, and _vice versa_ in the profession since the beginning of the present century. As has already been indicated, the period during which scientific knowledge and methods have had any considerable place in merchant shipbuilding, does not extend back over very many years. In connection with the Royal Navy, however, the study of scientific naval architecture has been fostered and promoted under Government auspices almost from the commencement of the present century; not, however—it must be added—without alternating periods of regard and neglect, nor irrespective of pressure from extraneous sources.