218 
NATURE 
ee ARY 7, 1897 
detailed account of this wonderful phenomenon in the 
successive Bakerian Lectures and other papers, in which 
he communicated to the Royal Society the results of his 
numerous experiments with the battery, and only in his 
‘“* Chemical Philosophy,” published in 1812, is it referred 
to specifically. To us who live so long after, and who 
enjoy advantages arising directly or indirectly out of 
Davy’s work, it seems strange that the poet, in his nature, 
did not supply the prophetic insight which was wanting 
in the philosopher. 
The existence of two previous biographies of Davy— 
the one by Dr. Paris (1831), and the other by his brother 
John (1840), by no means render this new “Life” 
superfluous. The book has characteristics and charms 
of its own which ought to make it popular, and it is to 
be hoped that the remarkable collection of letters referred 
to in the preface may wholly or in part find its way into 
print, as the letters serve to throw an interesting light 
on the personality of the remarkable man by whom they 
were written, or to whom they were addressed, as well 
as on many interesting events of the time. 
In reading carefully through the book two statements 
are to be found, which, as they are matters of fact, ought 
not to be matters of dispute. The author will forgive 
us, therefore, for drawing his attention to points in which 
we believe that he is misinformed. 
It is true that Northmore obtained chlorine in a liquid 
state before this was accomplished by Davy and Fara- 
day ; but it was not by “heating the so-called hydrate 
of chlorine under pressure” (p. 149). Northmore used 
a brass condensing syringe and pear-shaped glass re- 
ceivers in his experiments, and there can be no doubt 
that he liquefied chlorine by mechanical compression 
(Nicholson's Journal, xiii., 1806, p. 234-) 
The other is a point of somewhat greater interest. On 
p. 126 the statement occurs that “Lavoisier never 
hazarded any conjecture as to the nature of potash and 
soda.” This, however, is apparently irreconcilable with 
the following passage, which will be found in Lavoisier’s 
“ Collected Works,” vol. i. p. 119, and which it would 
seem that Dr. Thorpe must have overlooked or for- 
gotten: ‘“‘ L’analogie pourrait porter 4 croire que l’azote 
est un des principes constituants des alkalis en général, 
et onen a la preuve 4 Végard de ’ammoniaque comme 
je vais lexposer, mais on n’a, relativement a la potasse 
et Ala soude que de légére Hp eSNG q’aucune ex- 
périence decisive n’a encore confirmées.” This passage 
appears, of course, in Kerr’s translation of the “ Elémens,” 
and a footnote is there added by the translator to the 
effect that, from experiments made in Germany, there 
is reason for supposing that soda is a modification of 
magnesia, and that the latter seems to be a metallic 
oxyd. The experiments referred to are obviously in- 
conclusive ; but, in discussing them a few pages later, 
Mr. Kerr makes the statement that these discoveries, if 
confirmed, ‘have been in great measure predicted by 
the conjecture of Mr. Lavoisier, who supposes that those 
substances which have long been considered as primitive 
earths are only metallic oxyds combined with oxygen, 
and that their reduction has hitherto been prevented by 
the attraction which subsists between them and oxygen 
being stronger than that between oxygen and carbon.” 
The translator explains in his “advertisement,” at the 
NO. 1419, VOL. 55 | 
beginning of the book, that the “new edition of the — 
original having appeared at Paris last winter, expectations | 
were formed that the author might have made consider- 
able improvements ; but from a correspondence with 
Mr. Lavoisier, the translator is enabled to say that the 
new edition is entirely a transcript from the former. 
Some very material additions, though not numerous, 
have been added by the translator in this edition relative 
to certain discoveries which have been made in some | 
parts of chemistry since the publication of the original.” 
From all this it appears certain that Lavoisier thought 
at one time that azote was a constituent of potash and 
soda. He may have changed his mind later, and have 
communicated his altered views to Mr. Kerr, but he does 
not seem to have put them upon record in any other 
way. W. A:T. 
EGYPTIAN MADE EASY. 
An Egyptian Reading Book for Beginners: being «a 
Series of Historical, Funereal, Moral, Religious and 
Mythological Texts printed in Hieroglyphic Characters, 
together witha Transliteration and a Complete Vocabu- 
lary. By E, A. Wallis Budge, Litt.D. (Cantab.), 
Keeper of the Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities in 
the British Museum. Pp. liv + 592. (London : 
Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner, and Co., 1896.) 
Some Account of the Collection of Egyptian Antiquities 
in the possession of Lady Meux, of Theobald’s Park, 
Valtham Cross. By E. A. Wallis Budge, Litt.D., 
&c. Pp. xii + 361. (London: Harrison and Sons, 
1896.) 
i Songer who remember the profound excitement 
caused by the appearance of Bunsen’s “ Egypt's 
Place in Universal History,” and who now take up such 
a book as Dr. Budge’s “ Reading Book,” will be surprised 
at the advance the study of Egyptian hieroglyphics has 
made since that time. Egyptology, in fact, is now on a 
footing of permanence which its best friends would have 
despaired of seeing a few years ago, and not only does 
it rouse the interest of the archeologist and the historian, 
but the student of folk-lore and of comparative religion, 
in his search for data, is beginning to lay under con- 
tribution its numerous legendary and mythological 
texts. To sucha student a knowledge of the language, 
however slight, is of great value, as it enables him to 
control to some extent the translations on which he 
depends for information, and in many cases to under- 
stand the necessary limitations of a rendering into any 
modern idiom. To attain to even so slight a knowledge 
has been for many years extremely difficult for the 
beginner without the aid of a teacher, and only possible 
after a somewhat heavy initial expenditure in books. 
Last year, however, it was our duty to call attention to 
the publication of an extremely serviceable handbook 
or introduction to the study of the Egyptian language, 
entitled, “First Steps in Egyptian,” by Dr. Wallis 
Budge, and it is with pleasure that we now note the 
appearance of a sequel to that volume in the form of a 
“Reading Book” by the same author, containing a series 
of complete texts for study. In 1888, Dr. Budge first 
printed these texts, and, although they appeared without 
