On the ultimate composition of simple alimentary substances; with some preliminary remarks on the analysis of organized bodies in general. By William Prout, M.D., F.R.S.
A Practical Treatise on the use of the Blowpipe in chemical and mineral analysis; including a systematic arrangement of simple minerals, adapted to aid the student in his progress in mineralogy, by facilitating the discovery of the names of species. By John Griffin, Author of Chemical Recreations. Glasgow, 1827. [◊]
PERFORMING with the blowpipe is something like playing upon the fiddle—it looks mighty easy, but for its perfect accomplishment requires a combination of skill and dexterity which practice alone can confer. We are disposed, therefore, to think lightly of those essays upon the subject which pretend to instruct the beginner in the actual use of the instrument; telling him how he is to puff out his cheeks, breathe through his nose, make a valve of his tongue, and keep up a [p381] perpetual stream through the nozzle of the tube; all which is much easier described than done, and is entirely matter of experimental acquisition, more easily attained without than with the usual instructions. In the little work before us, all these matters are passed over with fit brevity, and the attention of the student is chiefly directed to the appearances which different substances exhibit before the blowpipe, and by which minerals may be distinguished and classed. The history of these constitute the bulk of Mr. Griffin’s duodecimo, being preceded only by a few remarks upon the different kinds of blowpipe, respecting which we have merely to observe that justice is not done to Mr. Newman, who first suggested what is here called “Dr. Clarke’s blowpipe;” indeed elsewhere the author seems a little angry with Mr. Children for recommending Mr. Newman’s apparatus. We observe, moreover, that no notice is taken of Mr. Newman’s and several other papers on the blowpipe, which have appeared in the old series of this Journal; nor of Dr. Clarke’s original Essay, published in the second volume of that work, from which, and sundry other symptoms, we conclude that Mr. Griffin is a pupil of Dr. Thomas Thomson. Be this as it may, we bear him no malice, and very conscientiously recommend his book to the mineralogical student, as a valuable and clear epitome of what relates to the behaviour of substances before the blowpipe.
Circle of the Seasons, and Perpetual Key to the Calendar and Almanack; to which is added the Circle of the Hours and History of the Days of the Week, being a compendious Illustration of the History, Antiquities, and Natural Phenomena of each Day in the Year. London, 1828. Small 8vo. [◊]
THE title of this book may lead our readers to suspect it as an interloper among works on science; but it touches upon many points of scientific inquiry, and upon botany especially, and is compiled with so much evident labour and accuracy, as to merit recommendation. The saints and festivals of each day are recorded, by which we make the acquaintance of many worthy persons and curious anecdotes; there is also a brief natural history of each day, containing short notices of the plants which on an average begin to flower or to fade, and of the birds which arrive or begin to sing. [p382] The merits of the descriptive poetry, which is thickly interspersed, we leave to other critics. Those who are destined to live in the “fuliginous tenebrosity” of this smoke-saturated metropolis, and to breathe an atmosphere “sated with exhalations rank and fell,” care little about the first peeping forth of the modest snowdrop, or the early bursting of the golden crocus; but such as reside in the country will be glad to have their attention pleasingly directed to the successive products of the field, the flower-garden, and the green-house.
Conversations on the Animal Economy. By a Physician. 2 vols. small 8vo. London, 1827. [◊]
WE have more than once expressed our opinion on the subject of conveying information to young people in the way of “Conversations,” which in the present volumes are carried on between Dr. A., Harriet, Sophia, and Charles; they are at once instructive and amusing, and evidently the produce of one possessed of much information upon the subjects discussed, and, what is more to the point, of the art of pleasantly and intelligibly conveying it.
The Conversations open with an account of the coverings or integuments of animals; their arrangements by systematic writers are then adverted to, and a short but useful description is given of the varieties of mankind, as enumerated by Blumenbach and illustrated by Camper. The bones and muscles form the subjects of the fifth and sixth conversations; they are concisely described, and with sufficient accuracy. The brain and nervous system and the organs of sense are next talked about. The doctrines of phrenology are fairly explained; and in the conversations on smell and taste, vision, hearing, and touch, the anatomy of the respective organs, and their varieties in the different animal tribes are treated of, the dulness of the details being relieved by physiological illustrations. The remaining conversations are occupied with an account of the principal functions of animals, and of the several organs chiefly concerned in their performance; the varieties of teeth and stomachs are here treated of, and the structures of the heart and blood-vessels, as concerned in circulation and respiration. The production of heat by animal systems is then noticed; and the twentieth and concluding conversation is employed in the exposition of the general phenomena of growth and decay. [p383]
We have thus briefly stated the contents of these volumes, which are further illustrated by numerous woodcuts and several plates; and are perfectly ready to commend the performance as an extremely useful and proper book for young persons, but not, in our opinion, of both sexes: we should have been better pleased if Harriet and Sophy had been replaced by William and Thomas; for we cannot fancy the subjects here discussed as quite fit for young ladies. Boys, on the contrary, ought to know much more of these matters than they commonly do; and for conveying such information in a pleasing and familiar, yet neither vulgar nor superficial style, this compilation seems perfectly appropriate, and will, we trust, find, as it ought, a numerous class of readers.