Notices respecting New Books. 299 
These valuable documents show the entire composition of the 
sculpture in the west front. 
Dr. Adams is preparing for the press, Memoirs of the Life, 
Doctrines, and Opinions of the late John Hunter; founder of 
the Hunterian Museum at the College of Surgeons in London. 
These memoirs are carefully collected. from authentic documents 
and aneedotes, and also from the writings, lectures, and con~ 
versations of the deceased. 
A Journal of Science and the Arts, No.1. Edited at the Royal 
Institution of Great Britain. Published Quarterly. 
In a former number we announced the expected appearance of 
this publication, edited by Mr. Brande. The first number was 
published at the beginning of April, and contains—}. A paper by 
Sir H. Davy on his safe-lamp, of which we have already laid a 
description before our readers.—2. Demonstrations of some of 
Dr. M. Stewart’s General Theorems; and an account of some new 
properties of the Circle: by C. Babbage, Esq. F_ R.S.—3. Onsome 
phenomena attending the process of Solution, and on their appli- 
cation to the laws of Crystallization: by J. F. Daniell, Esq. F.R.S. 
and M.R.I.A. This is a very interesting paper, and the ex- 
periments of the author tend to support the ingenious theory of 
Dr. Wollaston respecting crystalline arrangement. 
“If a mass of any moderately soluble salt be suspended ina 
vessel of water, we may shortly observe that it is not equally 
acted upon by the fluid. We shall perceive that it has been more 
dissolved toward the upper than the lower part, and the whole 
piece will assume, more or less, the form of a cone, with the apex 
at the surface of the liquid. The particles of water which are in 
immediate contact with the salt combine with a portion of it, and 
thus becoming specifically heavier than the remainder, sink to 
the bottom of the vessel; others succeed, and follow the same 
course. A layer of saturated solution is thus deposited, which 
increases in bulk as the process proceeds, protecting in its rise 
that part of the mass which is covered with it, from further action. 
The power of the solvent is therefore longer exercised upon the 
upper than the lower surfaces, producing, by its gradual decrease, 
the above-mentioned peculiarity of shape. This modification of 
solution by gravity is entirésy counteracted by agitation; but if the 
process be carried on in a glass vessel, with some care, the cur- 
rent of descending liquid may be rendered perceptible to the eye, 
‘* But there isa much more important circumstance attending 
this process, which it is the particular object of the present paper 
to illustrate and consider, Independent of the modification of 
forny 
