385 
MetoieU). 
Quid sit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non.*— Hor. 
Magnacopia; or, a Library of Useful and Profitable Infor- 
mation for the Chemist and Druggist, Surgeon-Dentist, 
Oilman, and Licensed Victualler. By William Bateman, 
Practical Chemist. Churchill. 
We took up this book with a prejudice against it : — Magna- 
copia ! w T e had heard of Cornucopia — we could well imagine that 
the adjective and the substantive might follow each other; but 
the compression of the two into one word did not quite agree 
with our now fading and somewhat inaccurate recollection of 
our school days. Well! we will not condemn too hastily. We 
turn to the preface, and in the third sentence we read as follows : 
“ Books written merely for the sake of pleasing, neither impro- 
vative of science nor practical in the end/’ &c. Here we stuck 
fast. Improvative! It is a new word, a harsh word, and it has 
not the slightest derivation to sanction it. How is it that this 
affectation of novelty, and a strange antithetical style of writing, 
should characterize so many of those who really have nothing to 
do, but to give a plain straightforward statement of facts ? 
Still we will not condemn, for we know and value more than 
one writer, who, although he cannot quite lay aside the stilts on 
which he mounted when a boy, and therefore nowand then gives 
us a little trouble to follow him, yet amply repays us for our la- 
bour, and our journey with whom is abundantly profitable in the 
end. 
This book is principally addressed to the chemist, the oilman, 
the licensed victualler, and the housekeeper ; and it is designed, 
in the language of the author, that they shall “ meet their right- 
hand friend at every page.” The chemist is a regular purveyor 
of medicine for horses and cattle. If he has no mercy on the 
apothecary, we must not be surprised if he prescribes as much 
and as often as he can for our patients. Let us look over his 
collection of “ General Recipes,” so far as it concerns us veteri- 
nary surgeons : we confess that we have met with many worse 
collections of recipes. 
But before we arrive at any of his horse prescriptions, we 
stumble on one, the waived of which pleases. “ Furniture Oil : 
Take a pint of linseed oil, half an ounce of gum arabic in lump, 
two drachms of alkanet root, and one ounce of shell-lac varnish. 
Put all these into a bottle, and stand by the fire for a week (Qy. ? 
