564 lire's Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, fyc. 



Art. IV. — A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines: con- 

 taining a clear exposition of their principles and practice. By 

 Andrew Ure, M.D. Part 1. London : Longman & Co. 



That the objects contemplated by the author in undertaking 

 the present publication are of a very important and compre- 

 hensive kind, may be judged from the following passage in 

 the Address. The Dictionary is, — 



" In the first place, to instruct the manufacturer, metallurgist, and 

 tradesman, in the principles of their respective processes, so as to ren- 

 der them in reality the masters of their husiness, and to emancipate 

 them from a state of "bondage to operatives, too commonly the slaves of 

 blind prejudice and vicious routine; 



" Secondly, to afford to merchants, brokers, drysalters, druggists and 

 officers of the revenue, characteristic descriptions of the commodities 

 which pass through their hands ; 



" Thirdly, by exhibiting some of the finest developements of che- 

 mistry and physics, to lay open an excellent practical school to students 

 of those kindred sciences ; 



"Fourthly, to teach capitalists, who may be desirous of placing their 

 funds in some productive bank of industry, to select j udiciously among 

 plausible claimants ; 



" Fifthly, to make gentlemen of the law well acquainted with the na- 

 ture of those patent schemes which are so apt to become subjects of li- 

 tigation ; 



" Sixthly, to present to legislators such a clear exposition of our sta- 

 ple manufactures as may prevent them from enacting laws which ob- 

 struct industry, or cherish one brauch of it to the injury of many others ; 

 and 



" Lastly, to give the general reader, intent chiefly on intellectual cul- 

 tivation, a view of many of the noblest achievements of science, where 

 its "boundless resources have most ingeniously effected those grand 

 transformations of matter to which Great Britain owes her paramount 

 wealth, rank, and power, among the kingdoms." 



Dr. Ure has been for a long period actively and laboriously 

 engaged in the prosecution of those departments of scientific 

 research, immediately connected with the various chemical 

 operations to which the products of our mines and manufac- 

 tures are in so many instances subjected ; and the right un- 

 derstanding of which, both as regards principle and practice, 

 is of such vital importance to the economist. There is a large 

 class of persons who will be glad to avail themselves of the 

 information here put together ; and so far as we are capable 

 of forming an opinion from a casual perusal of some portions 

 of the first part, the matter is well adapted for the attainment 

 of the ends contemplated by the author. The great deside- 

 ratum is to be sufficiently exact, and yet to compress the 



