Bibliography. 191 



The chemist in his laboratory, is better armed for the investigation of nature than 

 if his organs of sense had been many times multiplied. He has many instruments 

 at his command, each of which, like the taper, tells him of properties which nei- 

 ther his senses nor any other of his instruments can discover ; and the further his 

 researches are carried, the more willing does nature seem to reveal her secrets to 

 him, and the more rapidly do his chemical senses increase. Do you think that 

 the rewards of study and patient experimental research are confined to the labora- 

 tory of the chemist, and that the Deity will prove less kind to you, whose daily 

 toil is in the great laboratory of nature ? As yet you see but faintly the reason of 

 many of your commonest operations, and over the results you have comparatively 

 little control : but the light is ready to spring up, the means are within your 

 reach ; you have only to employ your minds as diligently as you labor with your 

 hands, and ultimate success is sure." 



Did our limits allow, we should be pleased to give, as specimens of 

 the author's happy style of discoursing popularly on scientific subjects, 

 copious extracts from different portions of these lectures ; and espe- 

 cially from the sections on the relations of water to vegetable life ; on 

 the source whence plants derive their carbon, nitrogen, &c. ; on the 

 absorbing and excretory powers of the root ; and on the mutual trans- 

 formations of lignin, starch, gum, cane-sugar, and grape-sugar ; all of 

 which subjects are treated with great clearness, and with consummate 

 ability. But it is unnecessary to make large extracts from a book 

 which we hope and trust will soon be in the hands of nearly all our 

 readers. Considering it as unquestionably the most important contri- 

 bution that has recently been made to popular science, and as destined 

 to exert an extensively beneficial influence in this country, we shall 

 not fail to notice the forthcoming portions, as soon as they appear from 

 the press. 



10. Pkinciples of Geology ; or the modern changes of the Earth 

 and its inhabitants, considered as illustrative of Geology ; by Chakles 

 Lyell, Esq., F. R. S. Reprinted from the sixth English edition, from 

 the ox'iginal plates, and wood cuts, under the direction of the author. 

 Boston, Hilliard, Gray & Co. : 1842. 3 vols. 12mo. 



Elements of Geology ; by Charles Xyell, Esq., F. R. S., &c. Re- 

 printed from the second London edition, from the original plates and 

 wood cuts, under the direction of the author. Boston, Hilliard, Gray & 

 Co. : "1841. 2 vols. 12mo. 



Our favorable opinion of the above productions has long since and 

 repeatedly been expressed in former numbers of this Journal. Every 

 geologist will be glad to find that we have now new and greatly im- 

 proved editions of both, brought out in the exact form and appearance 

 of the original. The principal changes are the removal from the Prin- 

 ciples of the fourth book, which treated of tertiary strata, and the incor- 

 poration of the most prominent facts in it with the Elements. The two 



