300 REVIEWS—COURSE OF PRACTICAL CHEMISTRY. 
about by the perfection of one of its branches —that which relates to 
the analysis of mineral and organic bodies, and which, in conventional 
language, is often called Practical Chemistry. This forms, as it were, 
the basis or groundwork on which the whole structure of Modern 
Chemistry has been reared. Without a knowledge of the accurate 
composition of bodies—a knowledge won only by the gradual per- 
fection of chemical analysis—the law of Definite Proportions or 
Combining Weights, with its natural sequence the Atomic Theory, 
the great facts of Isomorphism, the Theory of Compound-Radicals, 
and other leading views of the modern science, would have been 
still unrecognised. The Chemical-Reagent and the Balance, it 
should also be remarked, first truly deprived the designing hosts of 
the Subtles and Faces of their knavish office, in dispelling the 
alchemistic dreams in which this science ata and which so 
long controlled its progress. 
Chemistry is often taught, or attempted to be taught, in schools 
and elsewhere—but how? In many instances, simply by word of 
mouth, by recitations from some elementary text-book, in which 
merely the broad facts of the science are set forth and commented 
upon in popular language, whilst neither teacher nor pupil possesses 
the slightest practical knowledge of the various bodies whose proper- 
_ ties are brought under discussion. We once heard a school-teacher 
of this kind, discourse very flowmgly on some chemical topics, but 
who, on being subsequently applied to by one of his scholars for 
information as to whether a certain substance, a sample of which he 
brought him, contained copper, was utterly unable to reply, or even 
to suggest the proper means by which the question might be solved. 
This is certainly not a desirable method of either teaching or learning 
chemistry ; and he who would obtain a correct knowledge, elementary 
or otherwise, of this subject, is strongly urged, after mastering its 
general principles, to resort to his reagents, his blowpipe, and his 
test-tubes ; and to familiarise himself with at least the common pro- 
perties and reactions of the ordinary metals and non-metallic elements, 
and their compounds. No special laboratory is required for this 
purpose, nor is any expensive apparatus necessary. One of our best 
chemists, the celebrated Dr. Wollaston, kept all his working instru- 
ments on a tea-tray. A trustworthy handbook will be wanted, and 
the student cannot certainly find a more suitable one for his purpose, 
than that of which the title is placed at the head of this notice. The 
