3,90 Analyses of Boolis. [May , 



The number of reagents is not very great, and they are easily 

 procured in a state of purity : they are carbonate of soda, borax, 

 salt of phosphorus, prepared by dissolving together 16 parts of 

 muriate of ammonia and 100 parts of crystallized phosphate of 

 soda, and crystallizing the solution ; vitrified boracic acid, nitre, 

 gypsum, fluor spar, solution of nitrate of cobalt, tin, iron, bone 

 ashes, silica, and oxide of copper. 



Three plates accompany this work ; two represent the instru- 

 ments recommended by the author, and which may be procured 

 cither at Messrs. Knights', in Foster-kne, or Mr. Newman's, in 

 Lisle-street. The other plate is introduced by the translator, 

 representing Brooke's, or Newman's blowpipe, an account of 

 •which has been very properly introduced, although, we think, 

 it is a very powerful rather than a very useful instrument. 



Our observations have been hitherto nearly confined to the 

 original work ; but we should do even that injustice without notic- 

 ing the share which the translator has had in forwarding and 

 elucidating the views of his author. Mr. Children is too well known 

 to require any encomium from us for the zeal which he has ma- 

 nifested in every thing relating to chemical science. His acquaint- 

 ance with the blowpipe has already been exhibited in his transla- 

 tion of the fourth volume of Thenard's Chemistry ; but both on that 

 and the present occasion, we must consider him rather as the 

 illustrator than the mere translator. 



In our opinion, he has most properly rejected Berzelius's signs 

 and formulae; and connected as they are with their author's 

 peculiar views of atomic composition, we think, with Mr. Chil- 

 dren, '* that they are rather calculated to perplex than facilitate 

 our progress." That the reader, however, may not lose the 

 information they are intended to convey, Mr. Children has sub- 

 joined in notes, the compounds they respectively indicate in 

 common language. The least useful part of the translator's 

 labour has, we think, been the introduction of a sketch of Ber- 

 zelius's mineralogical arrangement. It will, however, probably have 

 its use by deterring others from hastily following him in similar 

 attempts. Who, for example, is likely (in this country at least) 

 to describe a garnet as a bisilicate of protoxide of iroiiy silicate of 

 protoxide of manganese, and silicate of alaminal 



Notwithstanding this last remark, we beg most earnestly to 

 recommend the work to our readers ; and to offer both to the 

 author and translator our best thanks for the benefit which they 

 have bestowed both on chemical and mineralogical science. 



