56 Analyses of Books. , [euny, 
consider gum and starch as acids because they combine with 
metallic oxides? 
It would be difficult, or perhaps impossible to suggest any 
mode of describing such compounds, as I have adverted to, 
without incurring ambiguity or impropriety: I think, however, 
it would be possible to employ a nomenclature which would not 
involve the inconsistency of describing the same substance some- 
times as an acid, and at others as an alkali. With this view I 
would propose to consider these compounds as resulting not 
from the same law as that which determines the combination 
of acids and alkalies, but as derived, at any rate, in most cases, 
from the general disposition which oxides have to combine 
with each other. By reverting to the original mode of ex- 
pressing the compounds of silica and the alkalies, and alumina 
and the alkalies, we should avoid all theory, and employ terms. 
sufficiently descriptive of the compounds. 
Instead, therefore, of speaking of silicates or aluminates, we: 
may use the term silicated or aluminated potash, soda, or lime ; 
it may be convenient so far to regard the compounds as saline, 
as to consider the more distinctly marked alkaline body as the 
base, and without involving any theory. Thus oxide of tin pos- 
sesses greater power of combination with alkaline bodies than 
oxide of gold does; the powder of Cassius may therefore be de- 
nominated stannated gold. Mercuriated lime, plumbated lime, 
antimoniated and antimonited potash, plumbated gum and zin-- 
cated potash, are terms which may be employed without violating 
the present system of nomenclature, and without confounding 
bodies whose properties are not merely distinct, but diametrically 
opposite. The compounds of metallic oxides with ammonia 
might be included in this method; thus we might say cuprated 
or zincated ammonia; but as.no ambiguity arises from the use 
of the term ammoniuret, it would be worse than useless to 
attempt any alteration in these cases. 
ARTICLE XIII. 
ANALYSES OF Books. 
An Historical and Descriptive Account of the Steam Engine, 
comprising a general View of the various Modes of employing 
Elastic Vapour as a prime Mover in Mechanics; with an 
Appendix of Patents and Parliamentary Papers connected 
with the Subject. By Charles Frederick Partington, of the 
London Institution. 8vo. London, 1822. 
THE great importance of the steam engine in a commercial 
point of view will, perhaps, render it unnecessary for us to offer 
any thing in the way of apology for presenting our readers with 
