REVIEWS. 
191 
able to come before the public with so difficult a subject so well dealt with 
as the present one has been by Mr, Josiah P. Cooke. 
The other volume is one by a very distinguished operator and teacher of 
chemical science, and it is likely, in our opinion, to be approved of. We 
think in the outset that the author has been wise in omitting a vast 
number of substances whose relations to other well-established bodies has 
not been completely made out. By doing this he has, in our opinion, given 
compactness and completeness to a volume which would otherwise have 
been a great disjointed mass. Besides, it must be borne in mind that the 
works of which it forms one are addressed especially to the student, and it 
is hardly required to bring under his notice an entangled mass of facts. We 
do not agree with the author in regard to his non-recognition of the division 
of the carbon compounds. It seems to us that the division into the two 
groups — fatty and aromatic — is one which has been more and more justified 
by recent work, and we therefore think it is to be regretted that Professor 
Armstrong has adopted a different tone of thought. Still, we think his 
decision a good one so far as it goes. He divides the substances into — first, 
carbons ; then follow in this order the others, as, for example, hydrocarbons, 
alcohols, ethers , aldehydes, acids, ketones , and amines. We note, too, with 
pleasure, that the author’s style is clear and to the point, even if it be a 
little Germanic ; and his explanations are in most cases sufficiently ample. 
TWO OF FARADAY’S WORKS.* 
I T seems to us that Mr. Crookes has done very wisely in editing these 
splendid works of Professor Faraday’s, and once more bringing them 
before the public. For there is a power in them that is unequalled in most 
modern essays on the subject; and further more, as they are addressed to 
children or young people, they will form admirable class-books for those 
who attend the Christmas lectures of the Royal Institution. Besides, the 
editor has introduced a capital feature — he has brought in between 
parentheses, wherever it was necessary, a description of what Faraday 
actually did in the endeavour to make an experiment succeed. The 
lectures are in two books, one of which is devoted to the subject of force in 
general; and the other relates the 11 Chemical History of a Candle.” We 
may remark en passant that they are both remarkably well got up — paper, 
printing, illustrations, binding, being all of them excellent. Of course, 
there is nothing new in the books, but there is a vast amount of extremely 
useful information, put in a form that very few indeed of those who have 
followed Farady have been able to imitate. We wish we had space to 
give one of the lectures, but we have not. We have gone over several of 
the different chapters on the subject of “ the Candle,” with a view to see 
whether we could not find some of them from which we could take about 
* u The Chemical History of a Candle;” by Michael Faraday, D.C.L., 
F.R.S. Edited by W. Crookes, F.C.S. London : Chatto & Windus. 
u The Various Forces of Nature ; ” a Course of Lectures at the Royal 
Institution, by Michael Faraday, D.C.L., F.R.S. Edited by W. Crookes, 
F.C.S. London : Chatto & Windus. 1874. 
