332 Notice of a Manual of Chemistry. 



student, if not satisfied with the condensed or abridged account, 

 knows where to seek for farther details. It is pleasing to observe 

 how scrupulously the author "renders unto Cesar the things that 

 are Cesar's," and bestows honor upon whom honor is due, by 

 crediting every important observation or discovery to its rightful 

 owner ; an act of justice ihat is too often neglected. 



Dr. Webster alludes to Prof Bache, the accomplished editor of 

 the American edition of Turner's Elements, in well merited terms 

 of commendation. To Mitchell, Hare, Silliman, Jackson, Hayes, 

 Torrey, and others, that we with pride rank among our prominent 

 scientific men, he gives due acknowledgment for such of their 

 labors as come within the scope of his work. The various valu- 

 able pieces of chemical apparatus figured and described, which 

 are the products of the inventive genius of some of our own sci- 

 entific men, are attributed to those to whom he is indebted for 

 them ; and the same just course is pursued in regard to many of 

 the processes and experiments mentioned. 



The arrangement of the subjects in this edition is quite differ- 

 ent from that which was followed in either of the former editions. 

 It is very nearly that of Turner ; and a better model could not 

 have been selected. The first chapter treats " of the Powers 

 and Properties of Matter, and of the general laws of cliemical 

 changes ;" and in it are incorporated the new facts relating to 

 heat, electricity, and galvanism. The discoverie"s and deductions 

 of Dr. Faraday are given principally from the lucid and satisfac- 

 tory statements of Dr. Turner, some additions being made to the 

 account from Faraday's later papers. The very curious and in- 

 teresting observations of Forbes, on \he polarization of heat, are 

 also referred to in this chapter. 



The second chapter is a highly important one, inasmuch as it 

 contains the very alphabet of the science, without a knowledge 

 of which every thing would be as unintelligible and as incompre- 

 hensible as the alchemistic gibberish of former days ; and also a 

 full description of the apparatus to be used, and the manner of 

 using it, without a familiarity with which, all previous knowledge 

 would be of little practical advantage. This chapter is divided 

 into three sections ; the first embracing an outline of the new 

 nomenclature, with an explanation of the principles upon which 

 it is founded; the second, a detailed account of "Apparatus and 

 Manipulation," fully and clearly illustrated by explanatory cuts ; 



