Dictionary of Physics or an Attempt at an Explanation of the Most Important Concepts and Technical Terms of Natural Philosophy

Preface.

I feel with the liveliest conviction that many well-founded objections can be raised against the now common method of presenting scientific subjects in alphabetical order. Meanwhile, this method also possesses certain quite unmistakable advantages. It is indeed necessary for the beginner to obtain the first overview of a science through a textbook composed in systematic connection; however, with further progress, he will often wish to find everything that concerns one or another individual subject, and which is scattered throughout textbooks in various places, brought together and united under one viewpoint—a compilation that is often desirable, or at least convenient and facilitating, even for the expert in the science when working on individual subjects. Moreover, the alphabetical arrangement, in which every name used in the science appears in its place, provides the most beautiful opportunity for the correct and firm determination of the main concepts upon which all scientific propositions are based, not to mention the actual meaning of words, which are sometimes used in a fluctuating sense even in the best textbooks, and used differently in one place than in another, nor that the order of letters often leads to names of subjects about which one does not think at all, or only in passing, during the usual presentation of the science. That, finally, the historical and literary reports, which contribute so much to the thorough knowledge of the sciences, can be brought in with particular convenience in this order, is self-evident.