been examined; and this division has been still retained, though it is no easy matter to say what particular bodies ought to be arranged under each of these heads. Luckily the point is not of much consequence. The common division has been followed in the two preceding chapters. But some modern chemists, especially Fourcroy, have placed barytes and strontian among the alkalies. No fault can be found with this arrangement, because the division of these bodies into earths and alkalies is perfectly arbitrary. But surely if barytes and strontian be placed among alkalies, lime ought not to be excluded; for barytes and strontian do not possess a single alkaline property of which lime is destitute. And if lime be reckoned among the alkalies, no good reason can be given why magnesia should be excluded. The truth is, that these bodies graduate into each other so nicely that they can scarcely be placed in different classes. This is a sufficient reason for preferring the common division to the new one proposed by Fourcroy. Vol. i. p. 467.

These bodies, too, may be divided into pairs, which have a striking resemblance to each other; as potash and soda, barytes and strontian, yttria and glucina, alumina and zirconia. Between the two last, however, the similarity is not very great. Of the existence of agustina, as a distinct earth, there are certainly some doubts; and Tromsdorf, its discoverer, has lately omitted it in his Manual.'

The first volume concludes with the oxyds; and those particularly noticed, are, the oxyd of carbon, and of azot, and water. This may be a chemical arrangement, but is by no means a natural, or a convenient one; and the acids, placed at the com mencement of the second volume, at a distance from, and independently of, the alkalies, increase the difficulty.

The acids are fully enumerated, and completely described; but the sulphurated hydrogen gas, which so much resembles the acids, should have been noticed among them. It occurs, indeed, in the third volume. The formic and the bombic acids are not particularly specified: the uric and amniotic are examined among the animal substances. The compound combustibles follow: these are the inflammables of other chemists.

The second division contains the secondary compounds; and of these the first are earthy combinations, including stone-ware, or porcelain; the second, glass; the third, the various neutral salts. What relates to the manufacture of glass is very imperfect. The use of the oxyd of lead is not explained; nor is a single word mentioned of magnesia, or of its peculiar property of clearing the glass from the metallic tinge. It is, indeed, noticed as giving a purple colour to glass; but it produces this colour only when in excess. We must again mention the singular inconvenience of placing the neutrals at so great a distance from their component parts. The metals occur early in the first volume; the metallic salts at the end of the second, and the beginning of the third.

The fourth chapter of the second division is on hydrosulphurets; and the fifth on soaps: and the third book, the last of the first part, on affinity, including the theory of crystallisation, according to M. Hauy, by whom it was published previous to the appearance of his last work.

The second part contains the chemical examination of nature; and the first book is on the Atmosphere; the second is on Water; and the third on Minerals. The first chapter of the book on the atmosphere relates to its composition; and the second to metrology; under which is given the chemical explanation of the various changes of its weight and temperature; of evaporation, rain, wind, and atmospherical electricity. On these subjects we have nothing particularly new. The author will not admit of evaporation being occasioned by the decomposition of water, as hydrogen is absent when rain is forming. We believe, however, that our eudiometric experiments are neither so numerous, nor so much to be depended on, as to make this objection valid. We know, that, from its levity, hydrogen is chiefly in the upper regions of the air; and, if electricity have any share in this change, as is highly probable, hydrogen will be produced in atmospheric air by its action.

The book on Waters' comprehends common, sea, and mineral waters. A good abstract of the contents of mineral waters, and of the different methods of analysis, occurs in this part of the work; and the last book contains an equally accurate and comprehensive view of mineralogy. What relates to metallic ores, which certainly belong to the chemical history of metals, and should not have been separated from that part of the work which relates to them, is full and satisfactory.

The fourth book is on Vegetables, and the fifth on Animal Substances. The first chapter of the fourth book is on the component parts of vegetables; the second contains the general doctrines of vegetation; and the third is on the decomposition of animal substances-a term not perfectly apposite, though not very erroneous. This chapter treats of fermentation, including bread, wine, beer, &c. A good specimen of the clearness of our author's views and explanations may be selected from what he says respecting the succi proprii of vegetables.

The peculiar juice is easily known by its colour and its consistence. In some plants it is green, in some red, in many milky. It cannot be doubted that its motion in the vessels is performed in the same way as that of the sap.

If we had any method of obtaining this peculiar juice in a state of purity, the analysis of it would throw a great deal of light upon ve getation; but this is scarce possible, as we cannot extract it without dividing at the same time the vessels which contain the sap. In many cases, however, the peculiar juice may be known by its colour, and then its analysis may be performed with an approach towards accu

racy. The experiments made on such juices have proved, as might have been expected, that they differ very considerably from each other, and that every plant has a juice peculiar to itself. Hence it follows, that the processes which go on in the leaves of plants must differ at least in degree, and that we have no right to transfer the conclusions deduced from experiments on one species of plants to those of another species. It is even probable, that the processes in different plants are not the same in kind; for it is not reasonable to suppose, that the phenomena of vegetation in an agaric or a boletus are precisely the same as those which take place in trees and in larger vegetables, on which alone experiments have hitherto been made.

To attempt any general account of the ingredients of the peculiar juice of plants, is at present impossible. We may conclude, however, from the experimenss of Chaptal, that it contains the vegetable fibre of wood, either ready formed, or very nearly so; just as the blood in animals contains a substance which bears a strong resemblance to the muscular fibres.

When oxy-muriatic acid was poured into the peculiar juice of the euphorbia, which in all the species of that singular genus is of a milky colour and consistency, a very copious white precipitate fell down. This powder, when washed and dried, had the appearance of fine starch, and was not altered by keeping. It was neither affected by water nor alkalies. Alcohol, assisted by heat, dissolved two-thirds of it; which were again precipitated by water, and had all the properties of resin. The remaining third part possessed the properties of the woody fibre. Mr. Chaptal tried the same experiment on the juices of a great number of other plants, and he constantly found that oxymuriatic acid precipitated from them woody fibre. The seeds of plants exhibited exactly the same phenomenon; and a greater quan tity of woody fibre was obtained from them than from an equal portion of the juices of plants. These experiments are sufficient to shew that the proper juices of plants contain their nourishment ready prepared, nearly in the state in which it exists in the seed for the use of the young embryo.

The peculiar juices of plants, then, contain more carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, and less water, and probably lime also, than the sap. They are conveyed to every part of the plant; and all the substances which we find in plants, and even the organs teemselves, by which they perform their functions, are formed from them But the thickest veil covers the whole of these processes; and so far have philosophers hitherto been from removing this veil, that they have not even been able to approach it. All these operations, indeed, are evidently chemical decompositions and combinations; but we neither know what these decompositions and combinations are, nor the instruments in which they take place, nor the agents by which they are regulated.' Vol. iv P. 299.

We may add to this part of the work, that Vauquelin has lately found the prussic acid to exist completely formed in the bitter kernels of fruit. The juice of the papaw tree appears also to resemble, in every respect, the albumen of the bood

The last part is on animal substances; and the collection of

analyses of the different parts of animal bodies appears to be complete. The animal functions, so far as they are understood, or connected with chemistry, are also explained with the author's usual clearness and precision.

After this account of the work, and the many different parts which we have distinguished, as executed with ability, we need scarcely add any summary character. It is unnecessary to bestow general praise on what we have found so unexceptionable in almost every part.

ART. VIII.-Pinkerton's Modern Geography, &c.

nued from Vol. XXXVII, p. 265.)

(Conti

NO apology will perhaps be required for resting so long on a work which marks a new æra in the science, and which, from the numerous discoveries of later navigators and travelers, chiefly of our own nation, is enriched in a degree which, in the early part of the last century, could not have been expected by its most sanguine cultivators. We shall, however, hasten somewhat more rapidly over countries where local interest and peculiar attachments do not offer any powerful attractions, and in which our newly-acquired knowledge has formed a part of this journal, within a limited period, and consequently within the recollection and reach of our readers.

Germany next offers itself to our view, a country divided into small states, so much intermixed, as to require a minute detail, which, however, would here be useless. The rod of Aaron devours the smaller serpents; and, at no great distance of time, perhaps, Germany may become Austria, Prussia, or France. After a very comprehensive and satisfactory general account, Mr. Pinkerton describes the German states to the north and to the south of the Mayn. Of the former, he only particularises Saxony, Hanover, Mecklenburg, and Brunswick, adding a short catalogue of the smaller states, and the ecclesiastical powers; of the latter, Bavaria and the Palatinate, Wurtemberg, Anspach, and Salzburg, with a catalogue of a few of the smaller and the ecclesiastic states. The account is, indeed, short, compared with the minute labour and extensive list of Busching: but it is fully sufficient, either for the geographer, or the scien tific inquirer: the statist and the politician must have recourse to Busching or Hoeck.

Of the Italian states, the account is also short. Their political system is annihilated; and there remain only those striking features of nature, which from time may lose their sharpness, but which time itself cannot wholly destroy. The account is therefore more strictly geographical; and what authors have described is detailed in a masterly, comprehensive manner.

In this geographical view, Italy is divided into three parts-the southern or volcanic region, the middle or the Tiberine, and the northern or the Paduan.

The volume concludes with an Appendix, comprising the treaty of Campo Formio and Luneville; the treaty of Amiens; with some remarks on the Russian and Spanish pronunciation. The two first numbers are essential additions, as they have introduced very considerable changes in the political geography.

The second volume commences with Asia; and the general description is comprehensive and satisfactory. We see little to correct, and nothing to add. If any thing be less exact, it is perhaps not describing with sufficient precision the high ground in the centre, extending some degrees both of latitude and longitude, from which rivers of the greatest magnitude and importance arise, that fall into the Northern and the Indian Ocean, the Euxine and the Caspian seas. We mean not to say that this is omitted: but it is not placed in a view sufficiently striking; and it in part arises from the mountains being delineated after the rivers, an inadvertence formerly noticed. Had this fact been placed in a sufficiently prominent light, combined with the little we know of the nature of these mountains, it would have been at once seen, that, in such a quarter alone, could we with propriety look for the original situation of mankind. This must have been the first spot to have emerged from the water; and here only could we find those commanding rivers described in holy writ, as flowing from the garden of Eden. Mr. Pinkerton very properly agrees with Gosselin, in confining the geographical knowledge of the ancients on the east to the south-eastern promontory of Pegu, and limiting the eastern longitude of the Thine. To this point he afterwards recurs more at length, and very satisfactorily.

In arranging the extensive states of Asia, according to their population and relative consequence, the first and chief rank, beyond all comparison, must be assigned to the Chinese empire. But that prodigious domination being estranged from Europe, and having in no age exerted the smallest influence on its destinies, it seems preferable, in this instance, first to consider two powerful states, intimately blended with European policy. The Turkish empire in Asia constitutes a natural and easy transition from the description of Europe; and the Russian empire, though in population far inferior, yet in military and political force transcends that of China.

From the Russian empire in Asia the transition is easy to that of China, a bordering state; after which shall be described Japan, and a new great power, the Birman empire. Hindostan and Persia being now divided into several distinct sovereignties, and Arabia containing many independent states, the scale of political importance becomes transitive and indistinct; and may justly yield in such cases to mere geographical arrangement. Hence the smaller states of India beyond the Ganges, or between Hindostan and China, will follow the Birman