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IX. Notices respecting New Books. 



A Handbook of Chemical Manipulation. By C. Greville "Williams. 

 London : John Van Voorst. Post 8vo. Pp. 580. 



THE importance of skilful manipulation in several of the branches 

 of natural science, and e^jecially in chemistry, can perhaps 

 scarcely be overrated ; 3'et we have sometimes noticed in students a 

 tendency to cultivate it to the neglect of those mental powers, without 

 a due exercise of which mere manipulatory skill becomes little better 

 than a pleasing accomplishment. Like mathematics to science, ma- 

 nipulation should be to chemistry a skilful handmaid, whose mecha- 

 nical aid, although of great value, must not be allowed to supersede 

 or degrade those higher powers of induction which stand in need of 

 her assistance. It is well known that Dalton was one of the clum- 

 siest of manipulators ; his operations were performed in the crudest 

 manner, and his experimental results were, for the most part, far from 

 falling within that narrow circle around perfect accuracy which we 

 usually assign as the boundary of the errors of experiment. But 

 although the great results achieved by the almost unaided intellect 

 of Dalton may serve to point out the true place of manipulation, yet 

 it cannot be doubted that those results would have been still more 

 brilliant, had that intellect been associated with manipulatory skill. 



We welcome, therefore, Mr. Williams's book as a valuable contri- 

 bution to a department of chemical literature which has long been 

 neglected ; Faraday's admirable work on chemical maniijulation, the 

 only one that ever appeared in our language, having been long out 

 of print. It is singular, but perhaps not wholly inexplicable, that 

 whilst the study of other departments of this science has of late years 

 been much facilitated by numerous treatises, this important branch 

 should have received so little aid from the same quarter. The truth 

 is, that the clear and successful description of the manipulatory por- 

 tion of any science is much more difficult than is commonly imagined. 

 To write a really useful book on chemical manipulation, an author 

 must unite with lucidity of style, an extensive personal experience in 

 a wide range of chemical operations, qualifications which are not 

 often met with in the same individual. 



Mr. Williams's book is written in a terse and intelligible manner, 

 and his descriptions, even of complicated apparatus and operations, 

 are for the most part remarkably clear and comprehensible ; conse- 

 quently the student, v.ho has not the advantage of a teacher's gui- 

 dance in his manipulations, will especially find this ' Handbook ' an 

 invaluable companion ; whilst even those who enjoy regular instruc- 

 tion may frequently consult it with advantage in devising the arrange- 

 ment of apparatus for jiarticular processes. The illustrations inserted 

 in the text are numerous and excellent ; some of them are from pho- 

 tographs, an apj)lication of photography which we are glad to see 

 gradually coming into use. Illustrations thus made have many of 

 the advantages of drawings executed to scale, and can be at once 



