264 Scientific Reviews. 



of reasoning as to forms, which constitutes the essence of the whole 

 book before us. When we saw the great parade of new and name- 

 less forms displayed in the plates ; and in the references found one 

 to indicate an atom of oxygen, another an atom of phosphorus, a 

 third an atom of chlorine, &c. all as faithfully and accurately 

 drawn as if the atoms of these substances had actually sat for their 

 likenesses to Mr. M 'Vicar, we felt as if philosophy had achieved a 

 great discovery, and we suspended all opinion on the facts of the 

 case, till we should search the work itself for the evidence from 

 which these forms derived their character ; but we searched the 

 book in vain, and we can find no evidence for any one form better 

 or more trust-worthy than what we have quoted above. They are 

 in fact, all of them, mere fancies from first to last, little better 

 than the scratches of the Row prophets, which they choose to call 

 Chinese. * 



Could our readers desire a finer tissue of gratuitous supposition 

 t|han the following, which occurs in page 33 ? 



" If nickel and cobalt recognize the magnetism of iron, and are really magne- 

 tic in a similar manner, it is to be inferred that some considerable part of their form 

 is isamorphous with irMi. As to that very general attraction of small bodies, ex- 

 ercised by the magnet, in as far as it is purely an attraction, arising solely from 

 the influence proper to the angles of particles, it seems to arise from tlie iron which 

 they contain ; for where is there a body that may not contain iron ? And, as to 

 those south and north magnetic poles which are found at the summit and base of 

 most bodies, the iron, in their composition, may be the means of enabling us to 

 recognize such an interesting fact, becoming thus, by its universal diffusion, to 

 the magnet, in reference to the attractive influence, what light is to the eye in re- 

 ference to the repulsive, but it is not to be inferred that the iron in them alone 

 possesses these polarities. This mutual disregard, however, bears in its quantity 

 a certain relation to the quantity of diiference between the dissimilar bodies ; and 

 it may be that there is scarcely any form in nature that might not acknowledge 

 the influence of a vigorous magnet, by attractions and repulsions. As to rotation, 

 it is probably the effect of the re-action of the subtile matter of dissimilar bodies, 

 though much more eminently in those which are most nearly allied." 



It may be amusing to our readers to see how one or two more of 

 the atomic forms are deduced. That of Carbon is attained by the 

 following summary process : — 



" In our inquiries into the atomic constitution of natural bodies, we are natu- 

 rally anxious to find a form to suit the properties of carbon, which, after water 

 itself, performs the most curious and admirable part in developing the beautiful 

 series of organic forms. We have seen that there is something very eminent in 

 the structure of water and nitrogen, the other organic elements ; doubtless we 

 may expect the same in carbon. Now, the form into which atoms of matter re- 

 solve themselves most simply, after hydrogen itself, is that of a pentagonal bipy- 

 ramid, for which the mind immediately contracts the prejudice that it is carbon. 

 Its atomic weight is 5." P. 313. 



* A new religious sect, whose devotees claim the gift of tongues, has recently 

 sprung up at a place called Row, in the west of Scotland. " This celestial gift, 

 it appears, coi sists in uttering certain articulate sounds, without any meaning 

 attached to them, but which are supposed to be a language ; and in forming on 

 paper certain marks or characters, supposed to be either letters or words." 



