32 RR2055.2 US10071.20 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. CAMBRIDGE: METCALF AND COMPANY, PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. PREFACE. THE twenty-second volume of the American Almanac, being the second volume of the third series, is now offered to the public. Unwearied pains have been taken to collect full, authentic, and varied information concerning the complex affairs of the general and State governments; and a mass of official documents and private correspondence has been digested relating to the government, finances, legislation, public institutions, internal improvements, and resources of the United States, and of the several States. It is hoped that the present volume will be found equal to its predecessors in fulness and accuracy, and that it will sustain the high character of the American Almanac as a trustworthy manual for reference and a full repository of useful knowledge. The Astronomical Department has been, as for many years, under the direction of Professor Peirce. The computation of the elements and phases of the eclipses is full, particularly that of the eclipse of July 28th, which has been furnished the Almanac by Lieut. C. H. Davis, U. S. N., Superintendent of the Nautical Almanac, by authority of the Hon. Secretary of the Navy. The article upon "Animal Electricity" furnishes an interesting history of the researches in that branch of inductive science, and will be new to general readers. The Meteorological Information covers many points in our extended country, and the annual series of tables published in the work are valuable for comparison. There will be found on page 296 a meteorological table for Monterey, California, which was received too late for insertion among the other tables. In the Second Part of the volume will be found full lists of the Executive and Judiciary of the General Government; of the Army, and the various Military Posts, Military Divisions, &c.; of the Navy, and the public vessels; of our Ministers and Consuls in Foreign Countries, and of Foreign Consuls in the United States. These have all been corrected to the latest dates possible for publication. Later changes are noted in the "Additions and Corrections," at the end of the volume. The titles, Commerce and Navigation, and Revenue and Expenditure, published each year in the Almanac, are complete abstracts of the public documents of the same name, |