Notice of a Manual of Chemistry. 335 



works of general use, will greatly enhance the value of this 

 Manual, and render it the more acceptable both to teachers and 

 students. The arrangements of apparatus^ and the descriptions 

 of the figures are unusually full and complete. In the frontis- 

 piece we find represented Dr. Charles T. Jackson's newly in- 

 vented oxy-alcohol and air-blast lamp, which possesses great 

 power. We also find in the frontispiece a figure of a new air- 

 pump of great simplicity and beauty, recently made for Harvard 

 College. It was constructed by N. B. Chamberlain. Philosophical 

 Instrument Maker, School street, Boston ; and we learn from the 

 Manual that it will freeze water on Leslie's plan, with perfect 

 ease and great rapidity. It affords us much pleasure to direct 

 attention to this instrument, as we can well remember how ex- 

 tremely difficult it was, until within a few years, to get chemical 

 and philosophical apparatus of good quality made in this country. 

 We were often compelled to forego the pleasure of prosecuting 

 our investigations, and of following along the paths newly opened 

 by our transatlantic brethren ; to make the essay with inferior 

 instruments and the almost positive knowledge that we should 

 in consequence fail of attaining the desired result ; or to lose much 

 valuable time and expend much money in ordering the requisite 

 instruments from Europe. This difficulty was owing in part, 

 undoubtedly, to our artists not having been duly encouraged to 

 exert their ingenuity and skill. Dr. Webster informs us that all 

 the apparatus figured and described in his work, is or can be made 

 by Mr. Chamberlain. As therefore there is no longer any defi- 

 ciency of skill or ingenuity upon the part of artists, we trust there 

 will be no withholding of patronage upon the part of our men of 

 science ; and most sincerely do we hope, for the honor of our 

 country, that public institutions as well as individuals, will be 

 more patriotic than to send abroad for apparatus, when it can be 

 so well and so cheaply made under their own inspection at home.* 

 We cannot close this notice, without expressing a desire that 

 Dr. Webster would abridge his Manual for the use of the higher 

 classes of schools and of academies. A good text-book is much 

 needed in such seminaries. 



* It is but justice to our excellent artists and to the progress of practical as well 

 as theoretical science among us to say, that our principal cities now contain estab- 

 lishments, in which almost every kind of philosophical apparatus is manufactured 

 with elegance and skill. — Eds, 



