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Art. XIV. ANALYSIS OF SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 



Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, for 

 the Year 1821. Parti. 



In the limits assigned to this portion of our Journal, it will 

 not be possible to enter into a detailed account of the im- 

 portant papers contained in the present half-volume of the 

 Philosophical Transactions ; we shall therefore aim at pre- 

 senting our readers with a succinct view of the principal no- 

 velties which ihey contain, and with the heads of the leading 

 subjects which they discuss. 



The chemical papers, once forming so prominent and import- 

 ant a feature in the publications of the Royal Society, have 

 lately suffered a serious defalcation, both in number and inte- 

 rest : in the part now before us there is, however, a very inte- 

 resting essay on the compounds of chlorine and carbon, by 

 Mr. Faraday, the chemical assistant in the laboratory of the 

 Royal Institution : there is also a communication from Dr. 

 Henry on the aeriform compounds of charcoal and hydro- 

 gen, which may be considered as supplementary to a memoir 

 on the same class of bodies inserted in the Transactions 

 for 1808. 



Physiology was so favourite a study with the late president, 

 and his means of patronising and propagating the pursuit were 

 so extensive, and generally so well directed, that the Trans- 

 actions, during the long series of years which he filled the chair 

 of the Society, were the depositary of the principal investiga- 

 tions and discoveries in that department of knowledge; and 

 comparative anatomy, which may be regarded as its basis, was 

 proportionally promot';:d under the same auspices; it is, how- 

 ever, remarkable, when the botanical propensities of the late 

 Sir Joseph Banks are taken into the account, that the structure 

 and physiology of vegetables have been very sparingly and imper- 

 fectly noticed in tiie publications of the scientific body over 

 which he presided ; whereas the anatomy and functions of the 

 animal creation are prominently treated of, and sumptuously 

 illustrated, in almost every volume of the Transactions pub- 

 lished during the last five-and-twenty years. For these con- 

 tributions we are principally indebted to the indefatigable 

 exertions of Sir Everard Home, who has thus shown that the 

 abstract pursuits of science are not incompatible with laborious 

 and extensive surgical avocations, and who, in furnishing the 

 student with an example of the true means of acquiring pro- 

 fessional celebrity, has also opened to himself an inexhaustible 

 mine of occupation and amusement during those hours of 



