340 Anal^iis uf Sciciilijic Books, 



And the weight of an atom of ammonia is 2.125." Vol. 11., p, 

 27., el seq. Should our readers wish for further examples of bare- 

 faced repetition, they may compare the articles, azote, carbon, 

 phosphorus, sulphur, hydrogen, 4"c., in the first volume, with 

 nitric and nitrous acids, phosphoric and phosphorous acids; sul- 

 phuric acjd, muriatic acid, ^c, in the second. 



In our Review, we said, that " azote, which had figured by 

 itself as an incombustible in the first volume, becomes a combust- 

 ible in the second." Let us hear his Answer on this head. " What 

 pitiful quibbling is the Reviewer guilty of, in order to make out 

 the combustibility of this substance." This exclamation of the 

 Doctor's is diverting ; for the quibbling is all his own, as the 

 following quotation proves. " The only simple combustibles, as 

 far as we know at present, capable of uniting with oxygen, and 

 forming unsalifiable oxides, are azotk, hydrogen, and carbon*." 



Of his consistency, the following is a fine example. 



" Chap. II. Of simple incombustibles. By incombustible, I 

 mean a body neither capable of tmdergoing combustion, nor of 

 supporting combustion. It unites to all the supporters ; but the 

 union is never attended with the evolution of heat and light. 

 We are at present acquainted only with one such substance, 

 namely azotef." What a confined intellect must that man have 

 who contradicts himself so flatly in difierent parts of the same 

 book, revised for the sixth time ; and who pours out a torrent of 

 invective on the critic, who calls azote a combustible, 07i his ovjn 

 authority. 



" As for Dr. WoUaston," says he, " the introduction of his 

 name is most uncandidj." We certainly think that it was most 

 uncandid in the Doctor to introduce such a name, in such a way; 

 for the introduction was not our doing, but his own, as the fol- 

 lowing quotation, from his Annals, many months before the Re- 

 view was written, will shew. •' The methods followed by Dr. 

 Wollaston, Professor Berzelius, Mr. Dalton, and every other 

 person, who has hitherto turned his attention to the atomic the- 

 ory, are obviously not susceptible of any great degree of preci- 

 sion. They have been guided entirely by the analytical re- 

 searches, without any general principle to direct their choice." 



In his System, he says, " All acids, therefore, (with the ex- 

 ception of those above-named, sulphuretted hydrogen, telluretted 

 hydrogen, and arsenuretted hydrogen) are combinations of 

 supporters and combustibles. ||" We ventured in the Review to 

 ask "What is iodic acid .^ what is chloriodic acid? what is 

 chloric acid.-* what is Count Von Stadion's perchloric acid.-' 

 where is their combustible element? we do not find it among 



* T/umison's Si,stt>n, 6'lh EJ. II. 3. J Answer, p. "251. 



t System 1., p. 202. H II., BO. 



