130 Analysis of Scienlijic Books. 



mical science ; Mr. Faraday is simple and perspicuous without 

 being superficial or hasty ; he has sometimes handled the 

 more abstract parts of chemistry, but has always kept clear 

 of that affected jargon which characterizes a set of writers that 

 may be designated the Berzelian School, and who are fond of 

 mystifying and obscuring the simplest facts and doctrines of 

 the science, by symbols and algebra : nothing is easier than 

 to write a, b, c, instead of 1, 2, 3 ; to represent carbon by a 

 great C, and chlorine by a little c, and then to call the chlo- 

 ride of carbon C + c, and the bichloride C + c, and so forth ; 

 but what then? chemistry is not yet ripe for these innovations ; 

 and when it is, they must come from abler heads than those of 

 their present propounders. 



vii. An Account of the Comparison of various British Standards 

 of linear Measure. By Captain Henry Kater, F.R.S. 



Captain Kater's communications to the Royal Society have of 

 late been numerous and important ; they are not, generally speak- 

 ing, of a popular cast, and have not tlierefore attracted that gene- 

 ral notice which is bestowed upon productions carrying more sail 

 with less ballast ; independently too of their intrinsic value, they 

 are written in a style peculiarly clear and intelligible. Nothing 

 is hastily thrust forward in an unfinished state, with the mere 

 view of pre-occupying the ground ; no immature opinions are 

 started for the purpose of anticipating the results of others 

 engaged in similar pursuits *. 



The paper before us, one only of several connected with the 

 same subject, contains the details of a laborious series of in- 

 quiries connected with the Reports of the Commissioners of 

 Weights and Measures ; for the third and last of which we refer 

 to the last volume of this Journal, p. 378. Our readers will 

 also there find the results of some further inquiries instituted 

 by Captain Kater, relative to the re-measurement of Sir George 

 Shuckburgh's cube, sphere, and cylinder, the details of which 

 he has also given to the Royal Society, whose Transactions 

 are certainly the fit repository for these and all similar docu- 

 ments. 



y'm. All Account of the Urinary Organs and Urine of two Species 

 of the genus Rana. By John Davy, M.D. F.R.S. 



The bull-frog, (rana taurina, Cuvier,^ and the brown toad, 

 (bufofuscus, Laurenti,) are the two species to which the author's 



* These remarks are suggested to us by tlie sweeping and unbounded 

 surmises in which some cotemporary s^arans are accustomed to indulge, for 



