2826.3 to Dr. lire's Review. 3 



good deal in that gasconading manner for which he has been 

 always notorious, and which constituted a standing joke 

 against him in Glasgow when he was admitted into society. At 

 present neither his gasconades nor his pretensions excite much 

 attention in his native city. 



My remarks on the present review will be short. I have no 

 intention of noticing, far less of retorting, the abuse in which the 

 author has indulged. I have too great a respect for my own 

 character to engage in any such degrading employment. Indeed 

 if I even felt the disposition to retaliate, i should be restrained 

 by the simple consideration, that in the city where we both 

 reside, all justification of myself is quite unnecessary. The bare 

 name of the author of the review will be considered by every one 

 who knows him as a sufficient refutation of every thing injurious 

 which the review contains ; and if I could suppose that the 

 character and pretensions of this writer were as accurately 

 appreciated at a distance as they are in Glasgow, nothing more 

 would be necessary to divest the review of ail its injurious effects 

 than barely to make known the name of the author. 



1. I shall begin my remarks by quoting the first paragraph of 

 the review. 



" The well-known author of this work regards the soul and 

 body of chemistry to consist in a knowledge of the relative 

 weights of the combining substances. This is to form a very 

 narrow conception of the science. The true function of the 

 chemical teacher is announced in the following' verse of the 

 Roman poet : — < 



In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas 

 Corpora. 



'' It is the characteristic of chemical genius to reveal new 

 elementary bodies, to form new compounds of the elements 

 known before, to discover new quahties and relations both 

 among simple and complex substances, and to arrange the mani- 

 fold and marvellous phenomena of corpuscular action under a 

 few general laws. The philosopher of ardent and inventive 

 mind, content to know the general proportions, is unwilling to 

 stop his career of discovery in order to learn the minute frac- 

 tional quantities ; nor will he suffer his whole faculties to flutter 

 round the oscillations of a balance. Let none, however, hence 

 imagine, that we desire to disparage quantitative research ; we 

 would only assign it a place of due subordination, below the 

 qualitative, conversant with new powers and forms of matter." 



Such is the elegant exordium of Dr. Andrew Ure — indicating, 

 if the author aflixed any meaning to his v/ords, that accuracy in 

 chemical researches is a poor low quality unworthy the atteniioa 

 of a man of genius. Now 1 wish to impress upon those gentle- 

 men who are entering upon the career oi experimental chemistry, 

 that no opinion can be more erroneous^ or hkely to lead them 



b2 



