174 Notices respecting New Books. 



*' immediate or proximate analysis (another name for what 

 he calls mechanical analysis, which consists in expression, 

 trituration or washing preparatory to an analysis), mediate or 

 remote analysis, true or simple analysis, and false or com- 

 plex analvsis." These, however, are not all ; there are still 

 ** mineral anaH"*i3, vegetable analysis, animal analysis," 

 &c. &c. to be discussed. Will it be pretendt^d that such 

 futile, not tosav erroneous, distinctions can either be necessary 

 or useful to the perspicuity, precision or elucidation of che- 

 mical philosophy ? In general the briefest is the most clear 

 definition, but there is neither brevity nor perspicuity in 

 such pedantic distinctions. In the next article, on the" at- 

 traction of aggregation," we have " solid, soft, liquid and 

 elastic fluid, aggregates." These arc followed by •' parti- 

 ciliary attraction," (as Mr. Desmond translates it) and 

 *' molecular attraction." Several sections are occupied in 

 announcing the well known fact, that on our acquaintance 

 with the operations of the affinities depends all our know- 

 ledge of the theory and practice of cheunstry. The descrip- 

 tion of the diflerent chemical operations, indeed, such a» 

 calcination, evaporation, Sec, is much more accmate and 

 precise. 



But the great merit of this " chemical philosophy," in 

 the estimation of its author, is the " classification of bodies," 

 in which, he tells us, " after many long attempts in iiea-rch- 

 ing for the distinction of bodies, he has fixed upon a me- 

 thod which divides all beings into eight grand classes, 

 agreeable to their characteristic coinposiiionsi" These 

 classes are: " 1st, Simple or inJeccmiposable bodies j 

 Sdly, Blnarv compound deflagrated bodies (here translated, 

 binary /7ir;/6'f? bodies) ; 3dly, Salifiable bases; 4thly, Saline 

 substances; 5thly, Wetallic substances; 6lhly, Mineral of 

 fossil compounds; 7thly, Vegetable compounds ; and Sthlyv 

 Animal compounds." In this arrangement there is nothing 

 novel or peculiar. Hie following is the author's classifica- 

 tion of the chemical phaenomena of nature, which con- 

 sists of a series of twelve sections : '* 1st, Action of light; 

 Sdly, Action of caloric; Sdly, Action of air; 4thly, 

 Nature and properties of combustible bodits ; ^tlily. Nature 



and 



