1S24.] Literary and Cri 



is generally understood,) rereive ample 

 illustration from a small pamphlet now 

 before lis, entitled, "^ Letter /rum Mr. 

 Goldsuvrlliu Gurnet/, author of Lectures on 

 Chemical Science,* to (V. T. Brande^ 

 esf/. ;" vvheiein it is shown, that a long 

 Kevlew of IVlr. Giirney's book, inserted in 

 the Journal in question, easterly fastens 

 on every eiror of the pr^ss, or inadvertent 

 slip pi' the pen, on tlie commonest subjects 

 of chemical lectures, holdin» up both the 

 book and its author lo ridicule on these 

 accounts ; and entirely overlooks itndsuppres' 

 ses all which is new or valuable therein, 

 in the way of discovery or improved elu- 

 cidation; although, on account of such 

 novelties, the lectnres had been delivered 

 and pnblislicd. Dr. Wollaston had con- 

 tended for three different forms of atoms 

 of bodies beinc; necessary to account for 

 the various forms of crystals ; but Mr. 

 Giirney, by help of a movable diagram (of 

 liis own invention, executed by Mr. Banks 

 of the Strand,) whereby 36, or 49, or 64, 

 &c. equal spheres, of the same or of three 

 different kinds, distinguished by colours, 

 Hiay be arranged and held as a basis, on 

 which other similar spheres can be piled 

 np thereon, and studied by this mean«, 

 Mr. G. shows, in his Lectures, that this 

 one spherical form of atoms, can explain 

 the formation of all the nuclei or primitive 

 forms of crystals, and thereby he explains 

 the true atomic principles on which crys- 

 talograpliical inqniries should be carried 

 on. Compound atoms, made up of a num- 

 ber of adherent spheres, compose the 

 molecules of a great portion ot natural 

 bodies; and Mr, Gnrney has shown the 

 probability, that before snch bodies can 

 enter into new combinations, thfir com- 

 ponent simple atoms mus( be let loose and 

 be separated, in order to their forming 

 new and differently arranged molecules 

 in the new compound. By decisive expe- 

 riments, Mr. Giirney fixes the temperature 

 of inilamed hydrogen gas at 428° Fahren- 

 heit, and that of carburetted hydrogen at 

 500^ ; the former being vastly below the 

 heat which Sir H. Davy had assigned to it ; 

 and hence, very apparently, the choler of 

 Mr. G.'s reviewer has been raised to an 

 intemperate pitch, and which, apparently, 

 has been further elevated, by the showing 

 of Mr. G. in pp. 281 and 283, &:c. that 

 inflamed gas, under a slight prcssive, will 

 readdy pass through the finest wire-gauze 

 of Davy, and even through the pores of 

 Honduras mahogany. The musical tones 

 produced by the burning of inflannnable 

 gasefl at the orifices of tubes, are shown by 

 Mr. Gnrney not to he produced by quick 

 •uccessiuius of small detonations, as here- 

 tofore supposed, but by the mechanical 

 action of a stream of atmospheric air, 

 rashing into the tube, or the neck of a 



* See our last vol. p. S57 and 459. 



tlcal Pro'emhun. 2^1 



bottle, to supply the combustion of the 

 gas ; and acting, just as the breath, or any 

 other stream of air, obliquely impinging on 

 the open top of a tube or bottle, would 

 act, in setting the column of air con- 

 tained in the tube or bottle into iso- 

 chronous vibrations, either of its whole 

 length or of the half, the one-third, &e. of 

 the length of inclosed air; the tones de- 

 pending, as to pitch, on the length of tube, 

 or depth of bottle, at whose mouth the 

 gas was burning. The new and perfectly 

 safe construction of the oxyhjdrous blow- 

 pipe of Dr. Hare,* whicii Mr. Gurney 

 has effected, and amply described in his 

 concluding Lecture, enables him to exhi- 

 bit heats, perhaps ten times as intense as 

 Dr. Clarke, or any of his imitators, could 

 hitherto produce; with correspondingly 

 new and surprising effects, which our 

 limits will not admit of particularizing. 

 By a beautiful experiment, he shows that 

 flame has its heat greatly altered, and also 

 its colour, through all the prismatic range, 

 by different degiees of velocity with whicli 

 its supplying gas issues from the jet-pipe; 

 until, by a certain velocity, the flame is 

 extinguished, and the greatest heat yet 

 produced accompanies this extinguishment 

 of the flame • 



That truly eloquent writer, the Rev. 

 Robert Halt., has ably advocated a 

 great cauie, in An Address on the State of 

 Slawry in the West-India Islands, which has 

 been published by the Committee of the 

 Leicester Auxiliary Anti-Slavery Society. 

 The following is his picture of the state of 

 a black slave :— " Scourged, branded, and 

 sold at the discretion of their musters, the 

 slaves in our V/est-India islands are 

 doomed to a life of incessant toil, for the 

 benefit of those from whom they receive 

 no recorapencc whatever ; they are in- 

 debted for their principal subsistence to 

 the cultivation of small portions of land 

 allotted them under the name of provision- 

 grounds ; and the time ordinarily allowed 

 for that purpose, is the day whicli ilie laws 

 of all Christian states have devoted to rest. 

 They are driven in the field by the cart- 

 whip. They are followed by a driver, 

 with this dreadfnl instrument constantly 

 in his hand, with which he is empowered 

 to inflict, at his own discretion, a certain 

 number of lashes on their backs, with no 

 exception whatever in favour of the softer 

 sex. During the four or five months of 

 their harvest, many of them are compelled 

 to protract their labour through half the 

 night, or through the whole of each alter- 

 nate night. They ate liable lo be re- 

 moved, at the will of their master, to the 

 remotest parts of the island, or be trans- 

 ported into other islands. The ties of 

 kindred 



• See Phil. Mag. 1802, vol. 14. p. 239, 

 «nd 298. 



