222 Royal Society .— 



the charge of being somewhat deductive or speculative. A well- 

 marked instance appears in the present work. The following pas- 

 sage occurs at p. 605 : — " The existence of atoms is itself an hypo- 

 thesis, and not a probable one ; all speculations based on this hypo- 

 thesis, all names which have grown up with it, all ideas which would 

 be dead without it, should be accepted by the student provisionally 

 and cautiously, as being matter for belief but not for knowledge." 

 Yet the entire volume is provided with the dicta and terminology of 

 the atomic theory, and even contains discussions of " true molecular 

 formulae." Such an inconsistency (or perhaps inadvertence) is the 

 more to be regretted, since any allusion to the atomic theory in the 

 systematic teaching of chemistry is quite unnecessary. The authors 

 themselves evidently regard Daltonism with disfavour ; and it is to 

 be hoped that, for ordinary school-purposes, it may ere long cease to 

 be regarded at all. 



The matter of this work gives us great satisfaction. It is well 

 arranged, drawn from good sources, and very correct. Many of the 

 experimental illustrations are new, and upon all of them that we 

 have examined a large amount of judgment and thoughtfulness have 

 been expended : they are, moreover, sufficiently numerous for a 

 lengthy course of instruction. Professors Eliot and Storer have 

 therefore achieved, and very well achieved, the object they had in 

 view. Their manual would no doubt have read more agreeably if 

 the Berzelian nomenclature had been employed and multiplied for- 

 mulae (such as H 2 N 2 O u for hydric nitrate) had been omitted ; but 

 these may be matters of local and temporary expediency, which time, 

 we trust, will remove. We should also recommend the enlargement 

 of the appendix (on Chemical Manipulation), its present dimensions 

 being somewhat disproportionately small. 



The publication of an American manual of chemistry in England 

 is a rare circumstance, and would in itself be of interest to our 

 readers ; but the intrinsic merits of the book constitute a more legi- 

 timate claim on their attention. Its unique character will also 

 commend it to the perusal of every one whom the results of the 

 present educational crisis may nearly affect. 



XXX. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 



[Continued from p. 157.] 



May 28, 1868. — Lieut, -General Sabine, President, in the Chair. 



THE following communications were read : — 

 "On Supersaturated Saline Solutions." By Charles Tom- 

 linson, F.R.S. 



This memoir is divided into six parts. The first part contains a 

 definition of the subject ; the second an historical sketch ; the third 

 is on the action of nuclei in inducing crystallization, and the effect 

 of low temperatures on a number of supersaturated solutions con- 

 tained in chemically clean vessels ; the fourth is on the formation of 



