Ure's Dictionary of Chemistry. 339 



highly creditable to its celebrated author, and was several 

 times republished in the English language. Nicholson con- 

 structed, in 179.5, on that model, his quarto dictionary, a 

 work distinguished for perspicuity of style, and parallel views 

 of the lately co-reigning chemical hypotheses, the phlogistic 

 and antiphlogistic. In 1808, after having conducted his Phi- 

 losophical Journal with candour, diligence, and urbanity, he 

 published his octavo dictionary of chemistry, which, though 

 compiled with less diligence and discernment, than his high 

 character as a journalist gave reason to expect, was well re- 

 ceived by the public. It presented, at a moderate price, and in 

 a condensed form of typography, a great accumulation of che- 

 mical details. Nothing, however, shews more remarkably the 

 slovenliness with which several of the articles were got up, 

 than a comparison of them with the corresponding articles in 

 Messrs. Aikin's quarto dictionary, published the preceding year. 

 In almost every thing belonging to mineral analysis, and par- 

 ticularly to that of the ores, Mr. Nicholson was content to 

 transcribe, or rather to reprint from his former dictionary, the ob- 

 solete and defective processes of Cramer, instead of drawing his 

 analytical methods from the more recent and valuable researches 

 of Vauquelin, Klaprolh, and Hatchett. Hence, though Nichol- 

 son's octavo dictionary, from its price and form, had an ex- 

 tensive sale among chemical students and manufacturers, it 

 never possessed much authority with men of science. 



After an interval of twelve years from its publication, in 

 which eventful period, discoveries of greater splendour, variety, 

 and importance, had been added to the science, than during a 

 century before, the proprietor of the copyright of the book 

 took it into his head to print a new edition, and requested Dr. 

 Ure, as we learn from the preface, to superintend its re- 

 vision for the press. It would appear, that the Doctor had 

 contracted the serious obligation of editorship, for a very 

 trifling sum, without duly considering the great difficulty of 

 revising and printing, within six months, a multifarious work, 

 which required to be, for the greater part, re-written ; and 

 that, after the agreement had been made, he was left to struggle 

 through the irksomeness of his task, with no hope of recom- 

 pense, except the credit of its execution, or the consciousness 

 of deserving well of the chemical world. " The dissertations," 

 says Dr. Ure, " on Caloric, Combustion, Dew, Distillation, Elec- 

 tricity, Gas, Light, Thermometer, &c., which form a large pro- 

 portion of the volume, are beyond the letter and spirit of my 

 engagement with the publisher. I receive no remuneration for 

 them, not even at the most moderate rate of literary labour ; 

 they are, therefore, voluntary contributions to the chemical 

 student, and have been substituted for what I deemed frivolous 

 aad unintcresLing details, on some unimportant dye-stuffs, and 



