330 Notice of a Manual of Chemistry. 



acter has long since been established, and its merits as a work of 

 reference and a text-book have been admitted and duly apprecia- 

 ted. Indeed, as a text-book it was introduced into many of our 

 colleges, and continued to be employed in them so long as copies 

 could be procured. The second edition was long ago exhausted, 

 and although the demand for the work continued unabated to the 

 last, such were and are the arduous duties of the author, as Pro- 

 fessor of Chemistry in the University at Cambridge and in the 

 Medical School at Boston, that we have been somewhat appre- 

 hensive lest sufficient leisure should not be left him to prepare 

 another edition, considering the labor required properly to digest 

 the amount of material which has so abundantly accumulated of 

 late years, and bearing in mind the many discoveries in, and im- 

 portant additions to, the science that it was necessary to post up. 

 We are however not only highly gratified to find our fears at 

 length happily and satisfactorily removed, but are also much 

 pleased to observe the improved appearance of the work, and to 

 notice the many important and judicious changes that have been 

 made in it. 



This edition may indeed be almost considered as an entirely 

 new work, so thorough a revision is evident on every page ; af- 

 fording ample evidence of the unremitted care, patient research, 

 sound judgment, and nice discrimination, that were exercised to 

 render it in all respects what a Manual should be ; perspicuous, 

 comprehensive, and withal concise. The author never sacrifices 

 sense to sound ; he never leads the reader away from the subject,* 

 and as he is dealing with facts, he proceeds in a strictly philo- 

 sophical manner. He avoids the two extremes ; being neither so 

 brief as to bewilder and confuse, nor so prolix as to weary and 

 disgust. Frequently, whilst examining its pages, have we been 

 forcibly reminded of the truth of a remark made by the celebra- 

 ted surgeon. Pott. "Any man," observed he, " may give an 

 opinion, but it is not every mind that is qualified to collect and 

 arrange important facts." All the great principles of the science 

 are clearly laid down, and most of the recent discoveries are in- 

 corporated in its pages. So solicitous indeed has Dr. Webster 

 evidently been to present every thing of value that was made 

 known in his favorite science to the moment of sending the last 

 page to press, that it will be found, by referring to the Addenda 

 and Appendix, he has incorporated every discovery of any worth 



