140 Review of Dr. Thomson on the Atomic Theory. 



ahuays clear, and generally energetic*." We humbly apprehend, 

 that more obscure, flat, and tautological phraseology, than that of 

 which the present " Attempt" is made up, is not to be found within 

 the precincts of any English book -factory. Its periodic move- 

 ments are heavy and reluctant like those of a worn-out atmo- 

 spheric engine. 



In a prefatory address to the students of medicine and che- 

 mistry in the University of Glasgow, he advertises them, that 

 his " future courses of lectures will be more entertaining and va- 

 ried." He assures us that his first reason for publishing this 

 book, " is the great advantage which medical practitioners will 

 derive from a knowledge of the atomic weights of bodies, and of 

 the weights of the integrant particles of the salts, &c, which they 

 have occasion to employ in their prescriptions. This knowledge 

 will be easily acquired by a perusal of the following pages ; and it 

 will enable those who possess it, to avoid some very awkward 

 blunders into which I have observed too many practitioners, even 

 of considerable celebrity, frequently to fall, to the no little incon- 

 venience of their patients t." 



Does Dr. Thomson know a physician, celebrated for his medi- 

 cal attainments, in a printed circular, addressed by himself, to the 

 directors of a royal infirmary, who, to the no little inconvenience 

 of his patients, prescribed the fashionable medicine prussic acid, 

 under the form of prussiate of mercury ? Fortunately, this vi- 

 rulent poison was rejected by the stomach before it had time to 

 shew the power of an atomic theorist on medical prescription. 

 We may next hear of corrosive sublimate being substituted for 

 muriatic acid ; since they have the same relation to each other as 

 the above two bodies. 



Of the merit of his work, the Doctor speaks so authorita- 

 tively as to set criticism at defiance. Having affirmed that the 

 present publication will be of no little service to all medical 

 men, and medical students, he says ; " The tables contained in 

 this work ought to occupy a place in every laboratory, and to lie 

 upon the shop of every druggist, that he may have it in his power 

 to have recourse to them to regulate all his processes J." 



The fashion of paper roofs having gone out, we think it doubt- 

 ful whether his pages will have the fortune to lie upon the shop of 

 every or even of any druggist ; but there is another shop where 

 a pulverulent drug is retailed, on whose counter his pages may 

 possibly appear. 



Conceit of knowledge prevents its acquisition. Dr. Thomson, 

 having persuaded himself that all his experiments, however ill- 

 devised or ill-executed, are of infinite value and perfect precis 



* Annals of Philosophy for April, 1822, p. 245. 

 t Atternpt/i. Preface viii. % Ibid. Preface xiv. 



