Notices respecting New Books. 309 



to which tjxe information contained in it is intended to be com- 

 plete. 



The contributions to this volume of the Dictionary by other writers 

 than Mr. Watts, amount, according to a rough estimate, to about 

 310 pages, or to not much more than one quarter of the whole. 

 The names of the contributors of articles in this volume, arranged 

 according to the extent of their contributions, are : — Mr. F. T. 

 Conington, who has written the articles on Amides, Amines, fyc., 

 Ammonia and its compounds, Inorganic Analysis, compounds of the 

 Anisic group, and compounds of the Benzoic group ; Mr. G. C. Foster, 

 author of Acids, Alkali, Alkaloids, Ammonium-bases, Anhydrides, 

 Classification, and Ccesium ; Dr. Odling, author of Atomic Weights, 

 and the articles on Chlorine and its oxides and acids ; Dr. Atkinson, 

 author of Bismuth, Butyric, Capric, Caproic and Citric acids, and of 

 the articles on the compounds and derivatives of these substances ; 

 Mr. W. S. Jevons, author of Balance, Barometer, and Clouds ; Dr. 

 W. J. Russell, author of Analysis of Gases; Dr. Ditmar, author of 

 Volumetric Analysis ; the late Mr. C. E. Long, author of Blood and 

 Casein ; Mr. A.W.Wills, author of Coals and Coal-Gas ; Dr. Roscoe, 

 author of Atmosphere ; the late Dr. Alexander Ure, author of various 

 short articles, chiefly descriptive of minerals (these articles are taken 

 from Dr. Ure's Dictionary of ' Chemistry and Mineralogy,' edit. 1831, 

 of which Mr. Watts's work was at first intended to be a new edition ; 

 but so completely has it been rewritten, that the whole of the arti- 

 cles retained in the first volume would scarcely occupy nine pages if 

 collected together) ; and Dr. F. Guthrie, author of articles on the 

 compounds and derivatives of Amyle. 



The above list illustrates to some extent the range of subjects 

 included in this work ; but we ought further to point out that it is 

 really, as stated on the title-page, a " Dictionary of the Allied 

 Branches of other Sciences " as well as of Chemistry. Mineralogy 

 especially occupies a large share of space, Mr. Watts having appa- 

 rently endeavoured to render his work a complete Dictionary of Che- 

 mical Mineralogy, by giving, as far as possible, the locality, physical 

 characters, crystalline form, and analysis of every described mineral. 

 The results of the chemical investigation of plants are also very com- 

 pletely recorded, including in all cases the published analyses of 

 their ashes, — a circumstance which will no doubt render the work 

 very valuable to agriculturists, at least to those who accept Liebig's 

 mineral theory of agriculture. Meteorology, again, is represented 

 in Mr. Jevons's articles already mentioned on the Barometer and on 

 Clouds, which, as well as the same author's article on the Balance, 

 are among the very best in the volume. The principles involved in 

 the applications of chemistry to the purposes of every-day life (as in 

 the preparation of Beer and Bread), to Pharmacy, to Metallurgy and 

 to other manufacturing arts are also very fully elucidated, and 

 technical processes are described with as much detail as the nature 

 of the work permits. Still another collateral subject which occu- 

 pies a prominent place is Physiological Chemistry : among the more 



