﻿Notices respecting New Books. 303 



the book had already owed certain changes in style and arrangement, 

 undertook to see it through the press, and has discharged his trust 

 with the very great care and pains which distinguish his contribu- 

 tions to scientific literature. 



Self-instruction in any subject is generally unsystematic in its 

 course and vague in its results ; few have recourse to it, unless to 

 find that they have lost time and made habitual mistakes in the 

 absence of a teacher. Yet, if we were asked to name the most satis- 

 factory chemical handbook for a self-instructing student, the one 

 now before us would naturally occur to our mind. It is so simple 

 and straightforward. These were characteristics of the author him- 

 self ; and they would have rendered it easy to recognize the work as 

 his, even had no name been prefixed to its pages. 



Dr. Miller's book is divided into seventeen chapters. The first 

 relates to preliminary matters, such as the Scope and Aim of Che- 

 mistry, Chemical Notation, Mixture and Combination. The next 

 nine chapters relate to the Non-Metals ; the remainder to the Metals. 

 Short explanations of theoretical points are scattered throughout the 

 book; and very clear directions are given for the performance of a 

 large number of experiments, which for the most part only require 

 very little outlay for their execution. The metric system, the cen- 

 tigrade scale of temperature, and the Berzelian nomenclature are 

 adopted throughout. Dr. Miller's text-book is altogether one of the 

 most useful elementary manuals w r e have met with for a long time. 



Professor Storer's * Cyclopaedia ' has been compiled with the view 

 of making quantitative chemical methods more accessible in their 

 literary aspect than heretofore. Hence he prefers an alphabetical 

 arrangement. Moreover, after he has named any substance that is 

 intended to undergo determination, he prominently specifies the 

 "principle" upon which the estimation is based, the " applications " 

 of the principle, and then the " methods " of the estimation itself. 

 Thus, under ANTIMONY we find "Principle I. Sparing solubility 

 of the metal in chlorhydric acid. Applications. Estimation of anti- 

 mony in antimony-salts. Separation of antimony from tin. Me- 

 thod A. Precipitate the antimony by means of metallic zinc from a 

 dilute nitric solution. Methods B, C, D, &c." In this manner it is 

 easy for a working chemist to select at once, without the trouble of 

 reading many paragraphs (as in other analytical treatises), the me- 

 thod t that suits his particular problem for the time being. The 

 various processes described in this first Part of the Cyclopaedia are 

 given with very considerable care, great directness of description, 

 and copiousness of detail. We regret, however, the intentional ab- 

 sence of figures from Professor Storer's work, and hope he will re- 

 consider his decision upon this point. Without some pictorial aid it 

 is impossible to describe satisfactorily such apparatus as a combus- 

 tion-furnace, or to do justice to even a few of the more valuable 

 modes of determining carbonic acid ; and the narrative — graphic as it 

 undoubtedly is — becomes lifeless without the picture. 



Dr. Blyth's ' Handbook of the Metals,' as it is termed on the cover, 

 becomes " Metallography as a Separate Science " on the title-page. 



