EDITOKIAL. 
95 
branch of industry. Yet in reference to that section of the extracts, which are 
made from recent plants, the position of botanical gardeners is so favorable 
as to give them great advantages, assuming them possessed of the requisite 
knowledge, skill, and apparatus. We have confidence in the business in- 
tegrity of the " United Society " as far as their experience goes ; but we be- 
lieve they need more chemical knowledge, especially more of that which 
relates to the preximate principles of plants. 
Dictionnaire des Alterations et Falsifications des substances Alimentaires, Medi- 
caments, et commercialese avec Vindication d,es meyens de les reconnoitre. Par. 
M. A. Chevallier, Pharmacien, Chemist, Professor, &c. Tome premier. 
Paris, 1850. pp. 470. 
The above is the title page of the first part of a work on sophistications, 
etc., by M. Chevallier of the School of Pharmacy at Paris. This volume ex- 
tends from A. to K., inclusive, and professes to point out the deteriorations 
and adulterations of substances, used in medicines, for food, and in the arts ; 
with the means of detecting them. We have not given the volume before 
us a very thorough examination ; but after having carefully read over a num- 
ber of the articles and glanced at numerous others, we cannot withhold the 
expression of satisfaction. Like air books which treat on this subject, 
however, there is much in it that is of little value to the investigator. In 
fact, there are many substances, the subjects of adulteration, that seem entirely 
beyond the skill of the chemist, whose best efforts will hardly be able to as- 
certain their presence, much less specify their character. Many of the adul- 
terated essences and extracts, come under this head. In reference to sub- 
stances which are capable of proximate analysis, very full and distinct means 
are suggested for the detection, and sometimes for the isolation of the so- 
phistications. We will notice it more critically when the remaining portion 
has made its appearance. 
Chemical Experiments, Illustrating the theory, practice, and application of the 
science of Chemistry, and containing the properties, uses, manufacture, purifi- 
cation, and analysis of all inorganic substances, with numerous engravings of 
apparatus, 3fc. By G. Francis F. L. S.. etc., etc. A new and improved edi- 
tion. Philadelphia, Daniels &. Smith, 1850, pp.250 octavo. 
The above volume, under the modest title of Chemical Experiments, pre 
sents an unusual amount of interesting and instructive information. It is a 
combination of the abstractly scientific, the useful, and the amusing. Without 
any claims to a regular treatise on Chemistry, and therefore not intended as a 
text-book to the regular student, it nevertheless will be found useful by him, 
owing to the great variety of experimental illustrations it offers. But to the 
amateur chemist, to the man of general knowledge desirous of information 
on chemical subjects, and especially to the apothecaries' apprentice, and to 
the apothecary himself, the book will prove a valuable store-house of facts. 
The apparatus and manipulations are extensively illustrated by wood cuts. 
