Trciite Elementaire des Reactifs. 337 



gravity 1.36. This solution when added to oil of grains (as poppy 

 seed oil) leaves it liquid, while it solidifies oil of olives. 



VVe have occasionally adverted in our Journal to the defective 

 and confused notions entertained among the continental chemists 

 about the atomic theory, which, in every useful point of view, is 

 the offspring and growth of this island. The following paragraph, 

 translated from this treatise on re-agents, affords a curious con- 

 firmation of our opinion. 



Dr. Wollaston, in the construction of the scale of equivalents, did not 

 believe that he could make the numbers tally with the atomic theory ; ac- 

 cording to which, Mr. Dalton conceives that in the relative weights of the 

 chemical equivalents, we estimate the united weights of a determinate 

 number of atoms. Dr. Wollaston, moreover, did not see the utility of doing 

 so for an instrument of application to practical purposes. However, we 

 have learned, that since tlie publication of these synoptic rules. Dr. Wol- 

 laston has discovered tliat the doctrine of simple multiples (on which is 

 founded the atomic theory), could be applied to the construction of his loga- 

 rithmic scale, by simplifying all its relations ; for if we assumed for unity, 

 hydrogen instead of oxygen, all the results obtained till the present day 

 would appear to confirm the first data; but, undoubtedly, they have not 

 appeared sufficiently numerous to Dr. Wollaston, to induce him to gene- 

 ralize them. We expect, impatiently, the result of the important labour 

 which this learned chemist has undertaken on this subject. — Traiti p. 205. 



Surely any man acquainted with the first elements of chemistry, 

 who glances his eye over the scale, must see that the successive 

 numbers, corresponding to the names, express the atomic weights 

 or combining ratios of the different bodies, beginning with oxygen 

 at the number 10. The French chemists, in general, have 

 suffered themselves to be mystified on the principles of equivalent 

 and multiple combination by the Essay of Berzelius, on the Theory 

 of Chemical Proportions ; a work which has done as much injury 

 to the philosophy of the subject, as his precision in analytical 

 research has improved its details. AVe recommend MM. Payen 

 and Chevallicr to read with attention the translation of Dr. Wol- 

 laston's Memoir on Chemical Equivalents, inserted by M. Descotils 

 in the Journal des Mines, xxxvii. 101. 



III. Reliquiae Diluviance; or, Observations on the Organic Re- 

 mains contained in Caves, Fissu?-es, and Diluvial Gravel ; and 

 another geological Phenomena attesting the Action of an Univer 

 sal Deluge. By the Rev. William Bucrland, B.D., 

 F.R.S., ^c. 



There are few persons in whom zeal for the progress of a parti- 

 cular branch of natural knowledge is united to the same extent 

 with capacity for the pursuit, as in Professor Buckland ; he has 

 taken up a very interesting branch of geology, and has investigated 

 it witii no less activity than success, and his researches have con- 

 ducted him, by the legitimate steps of inductive reasoning, to 

 some very important facts connected with the remote history of 

 the earth. The existence of the bones of a great variety of ani- 

 mals, in some cases of extinct genera, and almost always of ex- 

 Z2 



