43S Notices respecting New Books. 



owing to its greater density. This has been so often re- 

 peated as to be deemed quite conclusive. Before termi- 

 nating these remarks on electric attraction and repulsion, 

 the Professor very judiciously guards the young student 

 against idle speculations respecting electricity and sensitive 

 action. ''Thelawsof dead and living nature," he truly 

 observes, *' appear to be perfectly distinct : material powers 

 are made subservient to the purposes of life, and the ele- 

 ments of matter are newly arranged in living organs; but 

 they are merelij the instruments of a superior principle.'* 

 This sovereign truth deprives the modern materialists of 

 the suffrage of the first chemist and philosopher of the age. 

 ' The section " on analysis and synthesis, the circumstances 

 to be attended to in these operations, and the arrans;ement 

 of undecompounded bodies," equally abounds in new and 

 luminous views of chemical phaenomena. One insfance 

 will suffice to show that the results of even the mo&t familiar 

 experiments have been strangely misinterpreted, and tliat 

 almost the very basis of all our chemical theories consists 

 of errors and misconceptions. Thus; "when concen- 

 trated oil of vitriol, which consists of sulphuric acid and 

 water, is poured upon common salt, and they are heated 

 together, muriatic acid gas flies off, and sulphate of soda is 

 obtained : hence it was concluded, that common salt con- 

 sists of muriatic acid gas and soda ; and that the sulphuric 

 acid merely displaced the muriatic acid gas ; and no ac- 

 count was taken of the water of the sulphuric acid in the 

 operation : yet the whole change depends upon this water; 

 and no soda and no muriatic acid can be procured from 

 common salt, without water; and common salt is made 

 directly by heiiting sodium, the metal which I discoveted 

 to be the basis of soda, and chlorine together, and these 

 are both as yet undecompounded bodies ; and if 92 parts of 

 oil of vitriol, which consists of 75 parts, by weight, of sul- 

 phuric acid, and 17 parts of water, be made to act upon 

 111 parts of common salt, which consists of 44 sodium, 

 and 67 chlorine, the water will be decomposed, 15 of 

 oxvgen will combine v/ith the sodmm to form 39 of soda, 

 and two of hydrogen will combine with 67 of chlorine to 

 form 69 of muriatic acid gas, and the sulphate of soda will 

 be 134 parts." 



The second division, of radiant or ethereal matter, and 

 its effects in producing vision, heat, and chemical changes, 

 shows how much we are still deficient in correct data on 

 these curious and important points. Sir H. inclines to 

 the Newtonian theory of light, but seems to admit Rum- 

 ford's 



