70 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
lias only become students of late years. Will it serve its purpose ? We 
cannot say in exact terms, but we can tell what our impression is, and that 
is to the effect that it will not. In no way is this due to Messrs. Longmans, 
who have displayed as much care in the publishing of this work as of any 
other, and who have turned it out in such a manner that, for illustration 
and typography, it is inferior to none ; but we fancy that the editor and the 
author have both gone upon the wrong scent. It is true that against this 
view is the fact that the work has gone through two editions already ; yet 
must we express the opinion, that it is not exactly the work suited to the 
student of mechanics. The book is of course addressed to a different class of 
men from those for whom most similar writings are intended. In fact it is 
not intended for the ordinary student at all. Yet may we not say that the 
engineering and mechanical pupil, pure and simple, will not understand it if 
perchance it be the first work of the kind placed in his hands. For our- 
selves, we confess that if the work now before us — ably and intelligibly 
written as it is — were the first book given us as a manual of mechanics, we 
should fail to follow it in such a manner as it should be followed by the 
student. Yet may it prove quite the opposite with most students, and 
we heartily hope it may, for, though quite different from most treatises on 
mechanics, it is admirable in all its parts, and is most clearly and intel- 
ligibly written by the author. It is the first of Messrs. Longmans’ series 
that we have seen, and we have judged rather unfavourably of its appear- 
ance. 
CURIOUS book, and one which not often presents itself to the reviewer. 
What shall we call it, or how shall we describe it ? It is not strictly, 
as its name implies, a manual of colours, for it contains many other subjects ; 
but it is mainly such information as those interested in the chemistry of 
colours require. It is, in fact, an elementary manual of dyeing, and yet it is 
not entirely so. But if the reader will imagine a book in which is contained 
all the information that a scientific dyer requires — that is, a dyer who is pre- 
pared to go into the chemistry of dyes — he will form a good idea of the nature 
of the work. It is got up in dictionary form, which we think most excellently 
convenient for such a book — each paragraph being commenced by a titular 
word in deep black letters, or Egyptian type. What shall we say of the 
work ? We cannot afford it much praise, for the reason that it by no means 
equals the subject it proposes to discuss. But then comes the question, Can 
you have better P and to this we fear must be answered, No. The fact is that, 
save a rudimentary manual, or one considerably behind the time, none can now 
be written. Why ? the uninitiated will inquire. For the simple and very 
intelligible reason that if it dealt with the subject in such a manner that all 
should be able to glean from it the different methods of dyeing, each would 
* u The Manual of Colours and Dye-Wares, their Properties, Applications, 
Valuation, Impurities, and Sophistications, & c.” By J. W. Slater. London : 
Lockwood & Co. 1870. 
A MANUAL OF COLOURS* 
