[ 265 ] 



XXXVII. Xolices resjjcclbig New Books. 



The C]t£inical Pocket Book; or. Memoranda Chemica: ar- 

 ranged in a Compendium of Chemistry. By James Par- 

 kinson. Fourth Edition; with the latent Dl^coveri^, 

 382 Pages, 8vo, 1S07. — Synioads. 



J. HAT one of the most useful comp'endiurns of the most 

 useful science should b.ave passed through four editions in a 

 few years, is a circumstance periiaps not less honourable to 

 ihe taste and discrinnnalion of the English public than to 

 its author. It is, indeed, a pleasing pioof of the growing 

 taste for chemical knowledge, anxl of the general utility of 

 this science to the conveniences and even necessaries of 

 social life. Mr. Parkinson, in this fourth edition of his cxt 

 cellent Pocket Book, has not only added all the recent dis- 

 coveries and observations made in chemical researches, espe- 

 ciallv in subjects connected with the arts and manufactures, 

 but has greatly improved it in perspicuity and scientific ar- 

 rangement. The neutral salts, particularly the nitrates, are. 

 very properly arranged according to the order of the affinities 

 of their respective bases with nitric acid ; a classificaiion 

 which, while it assists the memory, tends considerably to 

 familiarise the mind of the yo'-siig chemist wiih the impor- 

 tant action of the affinities, which produce such e.xtraoidi- 

 nary changes in almost all bodies. The additions and im- 

 provements, indeed, throughout every page of this interest- 

 ing compendium are often highly imjwrtant, as relating to 

 the arts of dyeing, gilding, tanning, &c. &c., and suffix 

 ciently numerous, as will appear in (he following extract 

 fronj the article on sulphur, which is nov>^ nmch more com- 

 plete than formerly. In addition to a descripticm of all the 

 sulphurels, the author has added that "f the hydrosuiphurets. 

 " Sulphuretted hydroguret of potash of Clienevix, hydro- 

 genated sulphuret, &c. of Berthollet, and hydrosulphuret, 

 &c. of others, is lormed by impregnatmg a solution of the 

 basis with sulphuretted hydrogen duiing ihe solution ol sul- 

 phuret of potash and soda. The comi)ound is crystallizable 

 in Iran'^pareul crystals J the solulionj whilst recent, being 



colourless. 



