04 Chemical Works. 



tioned will prove very advantageous; under correct definitions, con- 

 -cise notices of the leading facts of chemistry are given, in a compre- 

 hensive and attractive form. 



10. Thenard's Chemistry. — This, the only recent and full sys- 

 tem of chemistry of the French, is a substitute for Fourcroy's great 

 work — ^the System of Chemical Knowledge, in 1 1 vols. 8vo — which 

 although diffuse and verbose, was very complete up to the time when 

 it was written, (nearly thirty years ago ;) it was on the whole a learned, 

 eloquent and interesting work, and was ably presented, in analysis, in 

 the perspicuous and condensed synoptic tables by which it was accom- 

 panied. Thenard's work, in five full volumes octavo, is not surpassed 

 in learned fullness and accuracy. The author's method has how- 

 ever caused him to divide the different members of the same subject, 

 and to separate them into all the volumes, which makes it an incon- 

 venient work for consultation. As the last edition is four years old, 

 we trust that another must soon be forth-coming, and it will be wel- 

 comed by the scientific world. 



^ ^ (1. CouRS OF Gay Lussac, ) p • 

 ( 2. CouRS OF Laugier, ) 



M. Gay Lussac, in a note in the Annales de Chimie et de Phys- 

 ique, protests against the publication of his lectures without his con- 

 sent, and disclaims any responsibility for their accuracy,* observing 

 at the same time, that the Parisian booksellers have thus discovered 

 a new species of industry. It appears however that the work was 

 revised by one of his friends. It is in 3 vols, with plates. 



That of Prof. Laugier is in four volumes, one of which contains 

 plates, &;c. ; both works are very neatly printed. I have not seen 

 any disclaimer by Prof. Laugier. 



In both works there is necessarily much that is common to all able 

 courses of chemical lectures ; but we are not certain that either work is 

 exactly what their celebrated authors would have made them. Still, 

 the chemical student and the chemical teacher will find in them much 

 that is interesting and instructive, and he would read them with the 

 greater interest could he be sure that they present a fair specimen of 

 the manner of these distinguished teachers. There are gentlemen in 

 this country who have hstened to them, and who, on this Jiead, could 

 give us information upon which we can rely. In a pretty exten- 

 sive examination of these works (the latest on elementary chemistry 

 that have issued from the French press,) we have not been able to 



"^ He even intimates that this account of them is not altogether accurate. 



