EDITORIAL. 
285 
Part 1. The Philosophy of Chemistry ; affinity treated under the follow, 
ing heads, viz : 1, fundamental notion of affinity ; 2, range of affinity : 
3. formation of chemical compounds ; 4, decomposition of chemical com. 
pounds ; 5, strength of chemical affinity ; 6, origin and nature of the phe- 
nomena of affinity. 
Part II. Special Chemistry; 1, the chemistry of the imponderables, 
light, heat and electricity, with which the first volume concludes. 
The second volume discusses the non-metallic elements and their mutual 
compounds. The third, fourth, fifth and sixth volumes are occupied with 
the metals and their compounds with each other, and with the non-metallic 
bodies. The metallic salts of all kinds, which, from their great number, 
are, to a large extent, passed over in all the ordinary treatises, have re- 
ceived due attention : and this feature will prove exceedingly useful to 
pharmaceutists who often need information on that class of substances. 
In the discussion of a subject, the various authorities, whether separate 
works or isolated papers in the journals, are placed in a list at the head of 
the chapter, by which investigators are at once refered to the spring sources 
whence the author derived his information. Its history is then succinctly 
given ; then the natural sources of the substance ; and lastly, its prepara- 
tion, properties, affinities, &c. The author brings all the facts worthy of 
credence to bear on his subject with a discrimination and industry as won- 
derful as it proves useful. 
The translation and preparation of the "Handbook" for the press was 
entrusted by the Cavendish Society to Mr. Henry Watts. The most extensive 
additions by the translator will be found in the first volume, which had 
been longest published, and embraced so many important subjects in the 
higher range of chemico-physical inquiries which of late years have been 
pursued with much success by Faraday, Regnault and others, as " the re- 
lation between atomic weight and density, the relation of light to mag- 
netism, the calotype process, thermography, radiation and conduction of heat, 
expansion, specific heat of liquids and vapors, tension of vapors, liquefac- 
tion and solidification of gases, development of heat in chemical combina- 
tion, decomposition of water by heat, development of electricity during 
the escape of high pressure steam, voltaic batteries, and the magnetic con- 
dition of all matter." 
The organic part will be commenced this year, and will, when completed, 
be by far the most comprehensive treatise on this branch of chemistry ex- 
tant. A review of this part of the German edition (Pharm. Journ., vol. 
vi., page 550,) says : " We are fully persuaded that no such philosophical 
digest of chemical science, in its most intricate and interesting department, 
has ever before been presented to the world. It is, in fact, one of the 
noblest monuments of industry, sagacity and candor, ever produced by one 
mind. By completing his Handbook in this same admirable manner ; the 
