Notices. respect'mg New Books. 3 1 1 



paratus and instruments; but the pliaenomena which these bodies 

 produce form an assembhige of facts, the knowledge of which 

 is of infinite service, and absohitely necessary to the successful 

 practice of the science. 



Mr. Accuin's treatise is drawn up with a view to facilitate the 

 study of this department of operative chcmisfvv. His aim ha'5 

 been to txliibit experimentally to the voune cheuiist, a sununary 

 view of the general nature of chemical tests, with the eOects 

 and phaenomena which are produced bv the action of these bodies 

 — the particular uses to which thev niav be ajijilied in the various 

 pursuits of chemical science, and the practical means, or art of 

 applying- them successfully. To accomplish this ol)ject, the au- 

 thor has in the first place stated separately, and in the synthetic 

 form of propositions, the charactistic powers of each individual 

 test, and has then exhibited a series of apposite, experiments, to 

 * illustrate its attributes and peculiar mode of action, so as to 

 interest the mind of the operator and to imprint the specific 

 powers of the test under considertion on his memory. The youna; 

 chemist may therefore easily convince himself of the action of 

 Rach test enumerated in the treatise, bv repeating in his own 

 closet the experiments pointed out by the author. To accom- 

 plish this object with facility, Mr. Accum lias chosen such parti- 

 cular ex])eriments only as are easy to be performed, and the ex- 

 hibition of which requires no other agents than those enumerated 

 in the work, together with a small table lamp-furnace, a few 

 test tubes, two or three evaporating basons, flasks, &c.* And 

 as the science of chemistry affords numerous instances which 

 render it necessary that the substances used as tests should l)e 

 applied with particular care, the precautions to be observed, 

 to guard against deceitful a])pearances that may occur under 

 certain circumstances (and without which chemical tests are of 

 little utility), are carefully pointed out by the author of tins trea- 

 tise, to put the experimenter on his guard, to deduce the effect- 

 produced from their true causes, and to applv tests successfully 

 in the pursuits of analysis. 



A list of all those substances for which there exist any ap- 

 propriate tests has also been added; together with direct re- 

 ferences to those reagents, by means of v/hich the substances 

 exhibited in that list may individually be detected. 



From what we have so far stated, it will be obvious tliat the 

 aim of the author, in composing this treatise, has been, to furnish 

 instructions to enable the student of chemistry to apply chemical 

 tests to original investigations, or to enable him to perform a 



* A" collection of chemical tests fittetl up in a portable cnsc, for per- 

 ftinniiig the experiments described in the treatise, may be had as a com- 

 panion to llic work. 



U 4 scries 



