356 Anali/iis of Scieiili/ic Books. 



predicament with the French, that is, suppose them to buy thek 

 materials as dear, and to sell their product as cheap, we know 

 that every vitriol work would of necessity be shut. Even under 

 the existing advantages many of them are making scarcely any 

 profit. 



The truth is, that tlie principles of the formation of oil of 

 vitriol depend on the solution of a chemical problem of four 

 conditions, or where four conflicting affinities are concerned, 

 viz., those between sulphurous acid, nitrous gas, oxygen, anel 

 water. Now these affinities are modified in a very essentia! 

 manner by the quantity of nitrogen present in the mixture, and 

 the degree of its temperature. Thus, a problem which requires a 

 very clear chemical head to regulate, is generally left to a very 

 rude operative hand, or intrusted to a speculative impostor, 

 who knows nothing of chemistry but a few technical terms. 

 The consequence is, that a great part of the materials of that 

 manufacture are sent off by such managers into the air, in 

 the form of sulphurous acid and nitrous gas, to the great an- 

 noyance of the neighbouring animals and vegetables, and the 

 ruin, too often, of the proprietor. " Drink deep, or taste 

 not," is an adage much more applicable to the Hermetic, than 

 the Pierian spring. 



The work, the title of which is prefixed to this article, and 

 of which the perusal has suggested these preliminary remarks, 

 is admirably adapted to the meridian of the great tribe of che- 

 mical dabblers. It will furnish them, at no expenditure of in- 

 tellect, either in its author or themselves, with the ready means 

 of juggling the public. Contemplated simply as a literary 

 object, it is perhaps the strangest farrago which ever issued 

 from our press. " There is no method in its madness." It is 

 calculated to give the same idea of chemistry as we should 

 have of Homer or Milton, if the whole of the lines of thtir di- 

 vine poems were transposed and printed at random. Indeed, 

 such dislocations as these thousand experiments exhibit, ap- 

 pear even greater than hazard could have produced. Chance 

 would now and then have tossed together two similar subject^, 

 as in a thousand rattles of the dice-bo.K two similar throws 

 might appear in succession. 



The elaborate confusion of its parts might be accounted for, 

 on the hypothesis that the whole affair is a sort of literary lar- 

 ceny ; in which case it would become necessary to disfigure 

 and derange the stolen articles, to prevent their being recog- 

 nised by their respective owners. This would afibrd the 

 simplest solution of the Chemical Millenary. 



It should have been named, however, after a far more edir 

 lying and instructive compilation from Arabia, the thousand and 

 o«c experiments, for we conceive the experiment of such a book 

 upon the British public much more surprising than any chc- 

 n.ical wonder whicli its pages display. 



