300 Analysis of Scientific Books. 



what was breathed out, precisely because it was unfit to benefit 

 and sustain our animal functions." Yet in the same lecture Mr. 

 Gurney dwells upon the " quality cf permanently-elastic fluids of 

 interfusing themselves equally amongst each other, when they are 

 in contact." 



Our chemical readers are probably aware that the nature of 

 nitrogen is a problem which has attracted the attention of almost 

 all eminent chemists, they will therefore naturally be anxious to 

 learn Mr. Gurney's notions on the subject which are thus modestly 

 set forth. 



" Nitrogen I suspect, is a peculiar compound, formed by the 

 crgans of the animal body, and not a simple element as is gene-' 

 rally supposed." " Under strong suspicion that nitrogen is a com- 

 pound, and not a simple element, I am now prosecuting a series 

 of experiments with a view of satisfying my mind upon this sub- 

 ject ;" " and from the experiments I have already made, I am dis- 

 posed to believe that it is not a simple substance, but a compound 

 of oxygen, and hydrogen nearly in equal proportions." p. 202. 



But this lecture teems with novelties, for at p. 204, we find to our 

 infinite satisfaction and surprise, that " charcoal contains 64 parts 

 of pure carbon united to 36 parts of oxygen in every 100 parts," 

 and " that it forms nearly the whole body of the vegetable king- 

 dom," and " gives their peculiar character to those very rocks 

 and cliffs, which form an impregnable barrier round the island 

 which we inhabit, and render it inaccessible to the inroads of any 

 foreign enemy, or even of the ocean itself." 



By this time, any moderate reader will be satisfied with the " no- 

 velties" offered by our author, under the heads of nitrogen and car- 

 bon ; turn we therefore to phosphorus. Phosphorus, we are told, is 

 exclusively an animal product, and is " generated, or at least 

 makes its appearance during the conversion of vegetable and mi- 

 neral into animal matter," and that it has " some mysterious con- 

 nexion with animal life. In proof of this, it is found, that several 

 animals possess the power of generating and giving forth this sub- 

 stance at will." The glow-worm, the fire-fly, Sfc, are next cited 

 as instances ! 



In the lecture on the metals, there is an uncommon scarcity of 

 those blunders and mistatements, or novelties, as one of the writers 

 above quoted calls them, which pervade the other discourses ; 

 yet there are a few interspersed, as for example: " Nitrate of 

 silver is so powerful an antiseptic, that a single ounce of it dis- 

 solved in 1200 ounces of water, will preserve the water in a state 

 of purity for ever ! The nitrate of silver is deleterious in its 

 effects on the animal system ; but when the water thus preserved 

 is needed for use, the whole of the silver may be separated from it 

 in a few minutes, by adding a small portion of muriate of soda or 

 common bait," p, 217. In the same page, a compound of silver 



