1844-54- LIFE OF CAVENDISH. IQl 



work may be studied as a choice example of scientific 

 literature." 1 



" Dr. Wilson's work is intended as a simple introduction 

 to chemistry for the youth of both sexes ; but it deserves a 

 higher place than the author claims for it, from the ex- 

 cellence of the spirit in which it is written. Most works of 

 the class attempt to do no more than to give an account of 

 the strange and striking phenomena of the science, and rarely 

 venture to discuss its principles ; but Dr. Wilson has entered 

 with considerable fulness, and in a remarkably clear, simple, 

 and intelligible manner, into the general doctrines of che- 

 mistry, and has explained many matters which are generally, 

 but as we believe erroneously, considered too abstruse for 

 the popular student." 2 A second edition was desired by 

 the publishers in 1857, but engagements on hand put it out 

 of his power to give attention to this request, as considerable 

 additions would have been necessary, owing to the progress 

 of chemistry since its first appearance. 



In 1851, the growing reputation of Dr. Wilson, both as a 

 scientific writer and a biographer, was greatly enhanced by 

 his "Life of the Honourable Henry Cavendish." 3 Eight 

 years previously, while laid aside from active work, he had 

 begun to collect materials for the Lives of British Chemists, 

 already alluded to, and these were found of service in this 

 arduous undertaking. He had also had unusual oppor- 

 tunities of mastering the difficulties connected with the 

 discovery of the composition of water, and the claims of 



1 "Athenaeum," January 4, 1851. 



2 "Edin. Monthly Medical Journal," December, 1850. 



3 "The Life of the Honourable Henry Cavendish, including abstracts 

 of his more important scientific Papers, and - a Critical Inquiry into the 

 Claims of all the alleged Discoverers of the Composition of Water." 

 London : Printed for the Cavendish Society, 1851. 



