EDITORIAL. 
477 
last,  and  we  have  been  dependent  on  a  friend  for  a  sight  of  its  countenance. 
We  appreciate  its  friendly  visits  too  well  to  be  satisfied  with  their  discon- 
tinuance, and  trust  that  we  shall  soon  be  favored  with  their  continued 
return.  Our  country  is  large  enough  for  both,  and  there  is  labor  sufficient 
for  half  a  dozen. 
WORKS  OF  THE  CAVENDISH  SOCIETY  FOR  1852. 
Hand  Book  of  Chemistry.  By  Leopold  Gmelin.  Vol.  VII.  Organic 
Chemistry,  vol,  I.  Generalities  of  Organic  Chemistry.  Organic  Com- 
pounds containing  two  atoms  of  Carbon.  Translated  by  Henry  Watts, 
B.  A.,  F.  C.  S.    London,  1852.  pp.  501,  8vo. 
Physiological  Chemistry.  By  Professor  C.  G.  Lehmann.  Vol.  II.  Trans- 
lated by  George  E.  Day,  M.  D.,  F.  R.  S.,  &c.    London,  1853.  pp.  465,  8vo. 
Atlas  of  Physiological  Chemistry.  Consisting  of  Microscopic  Figures. 
By  Dr.  Otto  Funke.  Being  a  Supplement  to  Lehmann's  Physiological 
Chemistry.    London,  1853. 
The  books  above  enumerated  constitute  the  issue  of  the  Cavendish 
Society  of  London  for  the  year  1852.  The  advantages  offered  by  this 
Society,  to  the  chemical  student,  are  made  apparent  by  the  fact,  that  these 
three  works,  which  probably,  in  the  ordinary  course  of  publication,  would 
never  have  been  put  forth  in  English,  are  being  presented  under  the  aus- 
pices of  the  Society,  all  expenses  paid,  at  less  than  two  dollars  a  volume. 
We  have  neither  the  time  nor  the  space  to  notice  these  works  as  they 
deserve.  The  seventh  volume  of  the  *•  Handbuch  "  is  the  first  of  the  six 
volumes  that  will  embrace  the  department  of  organic  chemistry.  Nearly 
one  half  of  it  is  devoted  to  the  generalities  of  organic  chemistry — namely  : 
To  the  constitution,  formation,  properties,  and  classification,  of  organic  com- 
pounds ;  together  with  nomenclatural  suggestions,  and  a  general  view  of  the 
theory  of  types.  The  remainder  treats  of  "  Compounds  containing  two 
atoms  of  carbon/'  the  "  Methylene  series." 
The  author  adopts  the  nucleus  theory,  in  explaining  the  constitution  of 
compounds,  and  he  considers  that  it,  "  when  properly  carried  out,  arranges 
organic  compounds  in  a  natural  order,  which  is  as  easy  of  comprehension 
as  the  extraordinary  variety  of  the  compounds  will  admit."  It  has  so 
happened,  since  the  German  edition  of  this  volume  was  published,  that 
several  remarkable  discoveries  have  been  made,  which  uphold  the  Binary 
radical  theory  of  Berzelius,  Liebig  and  others ;  and  which  remove  some  of 
the  arguments  used  negatively  in  favor  of  the  nucleus  theory  of  Laurent, 
as,  for  instance,  the  ?ion-isolability  of  the  organic  acids  and  the  alcoh.  1 
radicals,  both  of  which  have  been  accomplished  in  several  instances.  In 
glancing  over  this  work,  one  is  struck  with  the  immense  accumulation  cf 
observations  which  chemists  have  heaped  together  within  the  last  twenty 
years.  With  all  the  ingenuity  of  Berzelius,  Dumas,  Laurent,  Liebig, 
Lowig,  Gmelin  and  others,  the  simplest  arrangement  they  can  make  pre- 
sents so  many  complexities  and  anomalies,  and  requires  so  much  hype- 
