194 ON THE N A.PTHA OF DR. HASTINGS. 
Dumas, the action of ferments, and the molecular theory of 
organic compounds, are embraced in a preliminary section; 
Liebig's method of arrangement under compound radicals 
has been adopted, which gives greater unity to the subject, 
and facilitates its study. This part of the work contains 
much that is new in animal chemistry, and "important con- 
clusions respecting the functions of digestion and respira- 
tion, results which are entirely new, and now enter, for the 
first time, into a systematic work on chemistry." 
Under the supervision of its able editor, the text has 
undergone a careful correction, and, in the form of notes, 
several important observations, made subsequently to its 
publication, have been appended. The work contains one 
hundred and thirty-three illustrations, and, in fine, consti- 
tutes a most valuable addition to our chemical literature. 
W. P. 
. ART. XLVI.-ON THE N APT HA OF DR. HASTINGS. 
Dr. Hastings, of England, has recently published state- 
ments in relation to the use of Naptha in Phthisis, and as 
there has been a difficulty in understanding what substance 
was alluded to, the editor of the London Pharmaceutical 
Journal has given some judicious remarks in the July num- 
ber of that periodical. After noticing Naptha proper, 
pyroxylic spirit, etc., Mr. Bell observes, " Another volatile 
and inflammable fluid closely resembling, and indeed not 
easily distinguished from the last described, in its physical 
characters, is obtained by the destructive distillation of an 
acetate, as the acetate of lead or lime. This product has 
been called by chemists, pyroacetic spirit, mesitic alcohol, 
