dreams of a poet, doomed at last to wake a “Cyclopædist”. The long task which I had undertaken soon exhibited its truly onerous character, and daily grew in urgency, until that which promised to be a pleasure had been transformed into an exhausting and continuous labour. At first, a sacrifice of the hours of leisure only seemed necessary to the undertaking—next, those assigned to professional and business avocations were demanded, and absorbed; but, ere long, one by one, the hours usually devoted to repose were sucked into the insatiable vortex, until the bright beams of the rising sun not unfrequently illumined the lamp-lit study or the gloomy laboratory, and surprised the author, no longer an enthusiast, at his still-enduring task. But long ere this I had learned that to carry out my original resolutions in all their completeness and entirety was impossible, and “that to pursue perfection was, like the first inhabitants of Arcadia, to chase the sun, which, when they had reached the hill where he had seemed to rest, was still at the same distance from them.”[2] All I can further say in reference to this point is simply to assure the reader that three of the elements usually deemed essential to give value to a technological work—viz. zeal, industry, and capital—have not been wanting in the production of the present one;—the first two depending on the author, and the other chiefly on the liberality and enterprise of the publisher.
[2] Dr Samuel Johnson’s Preface to his English Dictionary.
As heretofore, I beg to solicit my readers to apprise me of any inaccuracies or omissions in this volume which may come beneath their notice. I shall also thankfully receive any hints or suggestions tending to the improvement of future editions of this work. Such communications, to be useful, must, however be written on only one side of the paper. Parties who may thus kindly afford me assistance will, in due course, have their services publicly acknowledged; and their names and addresses, unless when otherwise requested, will be published in full.
I have endeavoured to render the present volume as self-explanatory as possible, and, in general, have appended ample directions to the several formulæ and processes that seemed to me likely to cause embarrassment to those inexpert in chemical manipulation; but should any party find it otherwise, I shall be happy to reply, gratuitously, to any reasonable questions tending to elucidate the difficulty.
In conclusion, I may add that, having now for nearly a quarter of a century devoted my attention to the applications of chemistry in most of the useful arts and manufactures, both British and foreign, and in sanitation, I am in possession of many valuable processes and formulæ, hitherto wholly unknown, or but partially developed, with various
improved plans of factories, laboratories, ventilation, &c., which the limits of this work will not permit me to describe in its pages, but on which I should be happy to communicate with parties interested in the same. Persons desirous of establishing any new branch of manufacture, or of improving an existing one, or of determining the purity or value of articles of food, wines, liqueurs, medicines, &c., or of obtaining formulæ or processes which are not contained in this work, may, in like manner, have their wishes complied with, by enclosing to me samples, or the requisite information.
ARNOLD J. COOLEY.
NAMES OF THOSE WHO HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO, OR ASSISTED IN THE REVISION OF, THIS EDITION
John Attfield, Ph.D., F.I.C., F.C.S., Professor of Practical Chemistry to the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. J. Wortley Axe, P.C.V.M.S., Professor of Histology in the Royal Veterinary College. Lloyd Bullock, F.I.C., F.C.S. E. L. Barret, B.Sc., F.I.C., F.C.S. E. Canton, F.R.C.S., Surgeon to Charing Cross Hospital. Spencer Cobbold, M.D., F.R.S., Professor of Parasitology and Botany in the Royal Veterinary College. Stephen Darby, F.C.S. Dr De Vrij, of the Hague. John Gardner, F.I.C., F.C.S. William Harkness, F.I.C., F.C.S., F.R.M.S., Assistant Chemist in the Laboratory of the Inland Revenue Department, Somerset House. C. W. Heaton, F.I.C., F.C.S., Lecturer on Chemistry at the Charing Cross Hospital. Edmund Neison, F.I.C., F.C.S. William Pritchard, Professor of Anatomy in the Royal Veterinary College. A. E. Sansom, M.D. Lond., M.R.C.P., Physician to the Royal Hospital for Diseases of the Chest. J. B. Simonds, Principal of, and Professor of Pathology in, the Royal Veterinary College. John Spiller, F.I.C., F.C.S. John Stenhouse, LL.D., F.R.S., formerly Lecturer on chemistry in St. Bartholomew’s Hospital.