1830.] 
Notices of Books. 
261 
but the solid nutriment of real knowledge. Such a project is manifestly beyond 
the means or power of any single bookseller or author ; but a Society constituted 
S “ with lome capLl and an unheard of sale for their works, aught have 
done much. They might have brought the whole resources of the sc.ent.fic world 
to bear upon the subject-thcy could afford to purchase the co-operation of all 
those not disposed to labour gratuitously— and by inviting communications to be 
paid for, if found useful, they might have embodied a mass ol information which 
they could have also commanded the means of properly digesting and reducing to 
sysLn Instead of this, what have they done ? They appear *9, 
themselves with one treatise on each subject, which has een pu i is PP‘ £ 
as received from the author, without any reference to the other parts of the 
or subject of which it formed a part. As a consequence of this want of plan, 
we have uninteresting repetitions and a general want of connection amo . 
facts detailed. For instance, the different water wheels and pu 3-imLt bv 
described in the volume of Natural Philosophy. The common ^ 
which the expansion of metals is proved, is twice detailed, and each time with tl e 
same cut. This is certainly a blemish, and takes from the unity and systematic 
character of the treatise. Equally difficult do we find, it to agree with then 
classification of the subjects of Natural Philosophy. If heat be included, w ly 
omit magnetism and electricity ? They may reply, that these are branches of 
chemical science; although this can hardly be said of magnesia , and as 
for electricity, it is not more closely related than heat ^to that division of kno - 
ledge. Again, why omit Hygrometry, which is as much a branch of Natural Philoso- 
phy as Pneumatics, and, in its application to the steam engine, of infinitely more 
practical value. But, in fact, we object altogether to any such title as Natural 
Philosophy, which, as being perfectly unmeaning, may be made to include oi x- 
clude any thing. The treatises which go to form tins volume should have een 
preceded by a general one on Statics, showing the application of the &eory ' * 
regarded solid matter, fluids, or gases. This would have comprised g eat pa t of 
the three treatises of Mechanics, Hydrostatics, and Pneuma ms ; °r at leas wmfld 
have connected well with them. Hydraulics might have followed, and heat, light, 
magnetism, and electricity, as being imponderable agents, and onl y ^ the 
their effects, would have gone well together as a second part. \\ ith heat 
of «he different hvanche, of 
science I.as always been found a difficult task, and that no table of this kind has been 
yet proposed, to which objections may not be made ; nor are we so presumptuous as 
to suppose that wc have attained to a new light ... a subject winch puzzled Bacon, 
Locke, aud D'Alembert. Still we do not hesitate to say that our arrangement » 
better than that of the Society, which, indeed, could scarcely be worse. After all, 
however, had the individual treatises been executed m the style which they might 
have been, the objections to the arrangement would not have weighed much with 
us Had the scientific truths really established been clearly stated, and all useless 
and erroneous °m a tter been excluded, the merit of such inventions or process as 
are noticed strictly and impartially discussed, credit given to whom credit is due, 
and charlatanerie and pretension exposed wherever they appeared even though in 
the garb of a Professor, they would have had a merit superior to that of mere ar- 
rangement— a merit which we hoped to have seen in them, anil which, considering t le 
history of their birth, it is surely extraordinary that they have not. We cannot, 
in thJ number, enter into the subject so fully as we could wish ; but as an instance 
of exuberance that might be lopped off without injury, we may mention the ac- 
count of Wedge wood’s Pyrometer, which, with its appended table of melting points, 
w onnsider to be a brio-lit example of what we will venture to call the fudge of 
Tc enT Unde, he same head we would place Chapter VIII. of the treat, se 
H eat C heiuu an account “of the absolute quantity of heat which any body con- 
tains ’’ and°“ of Dr. Irvine’s ingenious method of determining the point of ABSO- 
lutf* urivItion of heat.” The author may well say, that “ the results obtained 
i t • • it lnpo erp difficult to reconcile with one another, and with those 
by Lavoisier and Laplace aie mmcuii to k-wbuk. ^ 
obtained by other philosophers.” The wonder would be were , the case otherwise. 
All the absurdities connected with the question of the zero of temperature are the 
necessary consequence of the use of those object, ona eenus urn- - * 
capacity for caloric : for which reason we also object to Chapters VII. and IX. as 
being very far removed from a phUosoplucal and discriminating account ot the 
subject. 
