﻿Notices respecting New Books. 63 



tains ; but while the one has the narrower limit of an individual 

 effort, it is included in the other, which hands down to the historian 

 the general character of a time. 



The present edition of Fownes's ' Manual of Chemistry ' has the 

 curious property of blending both these distinctions. It does this 

 by adhering to the design of the late Professor Fownes, which, if 

 interpreted from the first edition and preface, was to lead to the prin- 

 ciples of chemistry by an inductive ascent, and convey as complete 

 an impression of the entire range of the science as could fairly be 

 expected. Hence we find a special place allotted to the analytical 

 characteristics of the elementary bodies, brief notices of laboratory 

 operations, of higher researches, of the relations of chemistry to 

 physics and biology. Such a plan was not then a novelty abroad ; 

 but no students' book of this kind had, so far as we are aware, ap- 

 peared in this country. The sale of nine editions in twenty-four 

 years, and the almost universal approval of English teachers, are 

 gratifying proofs both of the value of the original conception and of 

 the manner in which it has been carried out at subsequent intervals. 



Though succeeding editions have thus been invariably prepared 

 upon the primitive model, the progress of science has made con- 

 siderable readjustments and amendments necessary to them ; and 

 the influence of all the great ideas which have arisen in chemistry 

 since 1844 may be readily observed here at the appropriate epoch. 

 But, unfortunately, in this process the modest octavo of less than six 

 hundred pages has so far overgrown as to contain at present more 

 than a thousand. We cannot help thinking that some part of this 

 growth is excessive, and that means might be taken to repress it with 

 advantage. The physical introduction, for example, is no longer jus- 

 tifiable, when physics is beginning to be taught (even in elementary 

 schools) by a distinct official, or as a distinct subject from chemistry. 

 If that were omitted, about one-eighth of the entire volume (or one 

 hundred and twenty-five pages) would be removed, referring to sub- 

 jects which, as their very able writer occasionally admits, cannot be 

 satisfactorily treated in so small a compass. For the electricity and 

 crystallography afterwards described, and occupying about thirty 

 pages, the student might also be referred to other and appropriate 

 quarters. Most of the Tables, too, at the end of the book are usu- 

 ally sought for in larger works, and seldom noticed in their present 

 position. An additional reason for this curtailment is to be found in 

 the increased length of the sections which are devoted to chemistry 

 proper. On account of the growing attention which is now paid to 

 inorganic chemistry, there is much fresh matter to summarize and 

 record in that department. Still, the number of those who pur- 

 sue organic research preponderates ; and it is here consequently that 

 we notice the greatest enlargement in the size of the manual. 



The best mode of treating the multitudinous detail which the 

 science continues to produce is a point upon which chemists either 

 doubt or disagree. The philosopher laments a dreary desert of facts 

 fruitless and even dangerous for want of law ; the teacher bewails 

 each serious trifle that he is compelled to read, as adding only to the 



