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LXIV. Notices respecting New Books. 



A Dictionary of Chemistry and the Allied Branches of other Sciences. 

 By Henry Watts, B.A., F.C.S. Parts I. and II. London: 

 Longmans, 1863. 



WE have here the first two Parts of a work which, if completed 

 upon the same scale and in the same style of excellence as it 

 has been begun, will be one of the most important, in respect both of 

 comprehensiveness and of real scientific value, that the chemical 

 literature of our language possesses. We fear, however, from the 

 announcement that it is to be completed in sixteen Parts, that the 

 limits assigned to the work are such as will make it impossible for 

 that fulness of detail which is one of the chief merits of the portion 

 already published to be maintained throughout. This portion, con- 

 sisting altogether of 384 pages, carries the work as far as " Arsenic " ; 

 so that a considerable share of Part III. will evidently still be needed 

 to make room for all the articles which come under the first letter 

 of the alphabet. With more than an eighth of the total space 

 assigned to the work thus occupied by the letter A, it is easy to 

 foresee that the subjects falling under the remaining letters must 

 be treated very much less fully, or else that the book must be ex- 

 tended considerably beyond the limits at present contemplated. A 

 new edition of the first part (comprising the letters A to E) of the 

 great German Dictionary of Chemistry, commenced twenty-six years 

 ago by Liebig, Poggendorff, and Wohler, was begun in 1856 and 

 finished last year. Here the first five letters of the alphabet extend 

 over more than 4500 pages, and the letter A alone over 1720 pages, 

 while in the first edition, which is at last approaching the other end 

 of the alphabet, we find the letter S occupying upwards of 1400 

 pages. Of course the plan of Mr. Watts's Dictionary is altogether 

 less comprehensive than that of the German one ; yet, on examining 

 the Parts before us, we find that the difference in the amount of 

 really useful information contained in the two works is much less 

 than the mere consideration of the size of each would have led us 

 to expect. Mr. Watts has very judiciously economized space by 

 the total omission of articles of small importance, instead of cur- 

 tailing those devoted to more important subjects. In some instances, 

 indeed, wc find more information in his work than in the correspond- 

 ing articles of its much more bulky German contemporary. The adop- 

 tion of a close but clear type, and of a style that is condensed with- 

 out being awkward, have also tended to increase still further the 

 amount, of matter which could be compressed into a small space. 

 But, making every allowance for the saving thus effected, we cannot 

 think that 4000 pages, instead of the 3000 which sixteen Parts such 

 as the two already issued would provide, would be found to afford 

 anything more than the space absolutely necessary for the comple- 

 tion of the work in a satisfactory manner. We have said so much 

 on this point because we feel that it would be a serious loss to 

 British science if the utility of a work like the present were to be 



