﻿64 Notices respecting New Books. 



dust and effort of his pilgrimage. It is to be hoped that something 

 may be done in the next decade to disencumber chemistry of the in- 

 convenience and reproach of want of generalization. Meanwhile, 

 however, a contrivance which has been frequently resorted to of late 

 years has a certain temporary value ; we allude to the statement of 

 general formulae for series of bodies, followed by the particular de- 

 scription of the constituent members. This is the method pursued 

 in the organic part of the work now before us, and adds much to its 

 clearness of exposition ; but it is impossible to avoid feeling that 

 there is a great deal of matter given which the average student never 

 reads and never will be called upon to read with advantage. There 

 is scarcely a single group of substances of whose individuals it is 

 desirable or necessary for him to know more than a few ; and an 

 excess of information has the demerit of making chemistry positively 

 less accessible to him. Accordingly the removal or abridgment of 

 one or several paragraphs in the description of the various series 

 would, in our opinion, render Fownes's manual a much more useful 

 aid to learning. The inorganic part, though of course admitting of 

 very little seriation, would obviously allow of considerable curtail- 

 ment of a like nature. 



The chapter on the General Principles of Chemical Philosophy has 

 been very carefully rewritten, and is as compact and lucid an ex- 

 pression of the prevailing views as could be desired. The reader's 

 attention is frequently called to such matters in connexion with 

 special instances which subsequently occur ; and, in the organic sec- 

 tion more particularly, characteristic reactions of groups are pointed 

 out with exemplary copiousness and accuracy. Such is the case 

 under "Alcohols," "Aldehydes," "Ketones," &c. The manner in 

 which this task is performed is one of the best criterions by which to 

 estimate the value of a manual, and the care and talent of its writer ; 

 for here he is performing his highest duty, namely, developing the 

 idea of a chemical function. We do not remember any book of the 

 kind where that duty has been so well fulfilled as in the present 

 instance. 



Among the novelties in this edition we notice Erlenmeyer's judi- 

 cious definition of an equivalent (a definition which did not appear 

 too early), with the consequent division of the elements into " mono- 

 genic and polygenic." The primary classification of the elements is 

 of course based on their " equivalence or atomicity ;" but the secon- 

 dary classification seems to have been made on the natural-history 

 principle. The nomenclature employed in this manual partakes 

 quite appropriately of both of the existing usages ; so that we find 

 such names as " sodium phosphate" (taken from the mode advocated 

 by Harcourt and Roscoe) and " ferric chloride " (from the far pre- 

 ferable Berzelian nomenclature lately revived by Williamson) . 



Fownes's manual undoubtedly owes its success in recent times 

 chiefly to its representative character, which has rendered it, perhaps, 

 the most popular and useful of its class. On no other occasion has 

 the editorial work been better executed than in the present edition, 

 which contains a large amount both of new matter and fresh arrange- 



