352 Analysis of Scientific Books. 



riiat attend their spontaneous decomposition, are the subjects 

 of the two concluding chapters ; to the latter, " mineral waters" 

 are tacked on as a kind of outrider ; how these are connected 

 with, or related to toasted cheese and adipocere, we cannot even 

 guess; the printer, probably, is to blame ; Dr. Gorham, how- 

 ever, gives a most faulty sketch of the analysis to be adopted in 

 ascertaining their constituents ; and what is less pardonable, he 

 refers to threadbare and insufficient authorities for further 

 details ; Phillips, Marcet, and Klaproth, are the sources to 

 which he should have directed his readers. 



Having already said that Dr. Gorham's book contains nothing 

 either new or original, we have not thought it necessary to 

 canvass the theories which he has adopted ; of the arrange- 

 ment we have already spoken in terms of sufficient appro- 

 bation ; but, having also briefly adverted to some of its de- 

 fects, we doubt not that in a future edition we shall see 

 considerable improvement. Unfortunately every page of this 

 work shows that the author is not at home in the laboratory ; 

 although therefore his reading is extensive, and has made him 

 well acquainted with the labours of others, there is a want of 

 that free and easy description which we meet with in the writings 

 of really practical chemists, and which makes the reader, as it 

 were, an assistant and participator in the processes that are 

 brought before him. Dr. Gorham's style and language, though 

 without elegance, are sufficiently correct and unobjectionable, 

 but for the reasons we have just stated, his book is dry and 

 uninteresting to any except the mere tyro ; he has every where 

 done ample justice to the British school of Chemistry, and in 

 the introduction to the first volume, has given a very creditable 

 sketch of the causes which have influenced the recent progress 

 of the science, and which have tended to annihilate the visionary 

 and speculative generalizations of Lavoisier and his associates. 



I. 



