284 
EDITORIAL. 
as an example to those not now willing or able to adopt it, which will be 
more influential than volumes of precepts. 
WORKS OF THE CAVENDISH SOCIETY. 
Handbook of Chemistry. By Leopold Gmelin, Professor of Chemistry in 
in the University of Heidelberg, &c. Six volumes octavo. Translated 
by Henry "Watts, B. A., F. C. S., Assistant in the Birkbeck laboratory, 
University College, London. 1848-49-50-51. 
The " Handbook of Chemistry " has long enjoyed a high reputation in 
Germany, where its author, the veteran Chemist, Privy Counsellor Leopold 
Gmelin, announced his intention of issuing the first volume of a fourth 
edition in 1843. The long interval of fifteen years that had elapsed since 
the previous edition, rendered a revision of the work highly necessary in 
order to incorporate the very numerous discoveries and improvements in- 
troduced into the science since that time. The author observes, « I have 
studied in the present edition, still more than in the preceding, to incor- 
porate into a systematic whole every fact which appears to be worthy of 
confidence, carefully referring it to its first observer, or source, as com- 
pletely as I could compatible with due brevity. Thus the work may serve 
not only to communicate fundamental instruction in the chemistry of the 
present day, but to indicate the original store-house from which I have 
made my selection, so that others may be guided directly to the spot. I 
have also sought to render this edition more generally useful than the 
previous one, by embracing in its details a fuller exposition of the 
most important subjects of pharmaceutical, technical, and analytical 
Chemistry.* 
As the " Handbook " gradually evolved from the German press, occa- 
sional extracts and reviews in the English Journals directed the attention 
of those not familiar with the language of the author to it, and when 
it was announced that the work was to be translated and published 
under the auspices of the Cavendish Society, much satisfaction was 
evinced by the increased number of subscribers to that useful Association. 
Thus far, only the inorganic part of the Handbook has been translated 
and published, comprised in six octavo volumes ; and a large number of 
English chemical readers have had an opportunity of examining the book, 
and can testify to its great comprehensiveness. 
To give a review, or even an analysis of the " Handbook," such as it de- 
serves, is not our object; space and^'me, and perhaps inability, will prevent 
it, but the following is a scattered outline of the groups of subjects: — 
The first volume commences with an introductory chapter which includes 
a short outline of chemical progress in the modern era of history, followed 
by a full exposition of cohesion, crystallization and adhesion. 
*Pharm. Journ., vol. iii., page 84. 
