372 
REVIEW. 
Such an essay, while it would possess an exceeding interest 
to the general reader, would form the very best preparation 
for, and introduction to, the expositions which should follow. 
The short article on the subject which is given in the body 
of the work, is not only too scanty and incomplete, but 
scarcely seems to occupy a proper place amid a series of 
topics, all of which are assumed to be its subordinates. 
From the nature of such a publication, — the joint produc- 
tion of various pens, — and from the different degrees of at- 
tention naturally bestowed on different parts, it is not sur- 
prising that there should be considerable inequality in the 
performance ; but there will be found occasional inaccuracies 
of expression or construction, which mar the elegance, and 
sometimes the perspicuity, of the composition. This is no 
doubt owing to the hurry almost unavoidably attendant upon 
the preparation of so voluminous a book for the press. 
It is perhaps scarcely worthy of note, that several chemi- 
cal terms have been omitted, which we should have expected 
would have found a place in the "Encyclopedia;" while 
others are occasionally met with, scarcely connected with 
the science or the practice of Chemistry. 
It would have formed a very interesting paragraph under 
the head of " Synthesis" — after noticing the very slight 
advance as yet made in this department of chemical science f 
in comparison to that made in analysis, and remarking upon 
the difficulties which beset the subject, together with some 
of their probable causes — to have enumerated the more im- 
portant attempts which have been made at different times by 
philosophers to reconstruct the familiar materials which Na- 
ture so readily obtains in prosecuting her wondrous mechan- 
isms, and to have exhibited in detail the few instances 
wherein they have been successful in obtaining organic pro- 
ducts by combining their elements. The difficulties which 
surround this most curious branch of scientific inquiry will 
be partially illustrated by the simple yet puzzling phenomenon 
of isomerism. When we turn, for instance, to the word " Hy- 
