66

cut off from general sympathy, but one connected before them a life of labor and trouble, but they dewith the classes below them in personal interest, termined to meet them resolutely, and found repose social intercouse, benevolent exertion, and an hon- in the consoling idea of fulfilling a sacred duty. est downright desire to promote the welfare and They prepared to suffer with that readiness and joy happiness of the great and universal human family. which religion alone can give, because it alone can Such men need not wince at the historical records teach the heart of man that suffering is a blessing. of a by-gone system whose baseness and atrocity The men of that age, stained as it was with blood, can return no more. Meanwhile, should here and and darkened by crime, were free from the guilt there one still be found, who abuses his high sta- of believing in nothing except gold and the pleastion, or his local influence, or his commanding ures it can purchase. Their loves and their hatreds wealth, for the purposes of oppression or debase- were indeed furious and excessive, but it was for ment, it is good that he should know, not only the this very reason, that they believed there were signs of the times," but the lessons of a purer things which deserved either one or the other. and nobler truth than he dreams of in his philoso- The poisonous breath of indifference, of doubt, adphy; and learn that, while he is exposed to the mitted as a principle, had not congealed their watchful eyes of men whom the glare and glitter hearts. They could throb in freedom and security. of external station have ceased to deceive, he is They were taught, by the faith which they had amenable to a tribunal compared with which the embraced, to sacrifice everything for its sake, to eyes of an assembled universe would be as nothing. follow it and make it triumph. They could say But it is not so much in their political, as in their with uplifted brow, "We believe that there are in religious bearing, that the novels of D'Azeglio ad- the world things higher, more worthy, more estidress themselves to our deepest sympathies. The mable, than riches, pleasures, self-interest;" and lesson which they teach is that of self-sacrifice. In they did not fear that their words would be anan age which, in spite of its great and manifold im-swered with irony, that their noble sacrifice would provements, is an age of egotism, they show us be received with the smile of scorn or compassion. that there is something superior to our personal They did not think that life is a journey without an well-being. They prove to us that high, and what end, virtue a dream, the practice of it a labor withmay be called by many abstract principles, are not out compensation. They did not see in human a delusion; that the external is inferior to the in- beings a pack of knaves or fools, in death the end ternal man; that the accidents of worldly position of suffering, and after death-nothing. The time are but for a time, while the essentials, connected was yet far distant when poetry and literature with the perfection of the human character, are for would call him brave and magnanimous who gives eternity. In fact, D'Azèglio's aim is embodied in way to his passions—him weak and contemptible the description of his own Lamberto, and the high- who has learned to subdue them. minded men of his age and country. They saw

66

purpose depends of course entirely on his condition, and usually varies from 30s. to 37. 10s.—Bush Life in Australia.

"BOILING DOWN" IN AUSTRALIA.-In addition | to the demand for colonial consumption, and for salting, a new market for the surplus stock has been found within the last few years, by the discovery of SAVING OF FUEL IN GAS-WORKS.-At the last the process of boiling down," or converting the meeting of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts, Mr. whole carcass into tallow. He who first put this W. Kemp stated that he had made a valuable displan into operation deserved the thanks of all the covery in economizing fuel at Galashiels gas-works. colonists; for had not this method, or some equiv- Where coal-tar is burned, it has an injurious effect on alent to it, been invented, cattle and sheep must the furnace bars and retorts, the greatest annoyance soon have become almost unsalable, as the supply arising from the rapid clinkering up of the furnace had so greatly exceeded the demand, whereas now, bars, to remove which the firemen had frequently to though the colonial market should be overstocked, throw water into the furnace, which caused the the animal, whether sheep or ox, is at least worth rapid destruction of the bars. To prevent this, the its hide and tallow for exportation. "Boiling down" idea occurred to Mr. Kemp of using the exhausted is a very simple and rapid process. The whole car- tan-bark of the tan-works, which had the desired cass, having been cut to pieces, and thrown into effect. The force-pump for injecting the tar into large cast-iron pans, each capable of containing the furnace was next thrown aside, as it was found several bullocks, is boiled to rags, during which that the dry bark absorbed tar equal to its producoperation the fat is skimmed off, until no more rises tion at the works. His method is as follows:to the surface. The boiled meat is then taken out The bark is dried, and mixed with the coke of the of the pans, and after having been squeezed in a gas-coal, bulk for bulk; a pailful of tar is thrown wooden press, which forces out the remaining par- upon it, not quite so much as it will absorb, and it ticles of tallow, it is either thrown away or used as is then turned over. The mixture burns with a fine food for pigs, vast numbers of which are sometimes clear flame, attended with less smoke than formerkept in this manner in the neighborhood of a boiling | ly; the furnace bars, by remaining unclinkered, establishment. The proprietor of these places will admit the oxygen freely for the combustion of the either boil down the settler's sheep and cattle at so fuel. Where tan-bark cannot be had, peat moss, much per head, or purchase them wholly from him loose and dry, makes a good substitute. Mr. Kemp in the first instance, and conyert them into tallow at stated that in one year 1267. was saved in furnace their own risk. The value of an animal for this coal.-Pharmaceutical Times.

by pandering to Irish disaffection. In fact, the greater part of the work still remains to be done.

We have not for one moment forgotten all this when we declare the doom of open rebellion. But on the other hand it must not be forgotten that we have had a great stroke of fortune. It devolves on us to make the best of it. Mr. Inspector Blake setting to work at midnight, as soon as he had seen the proclamation, made a good beginning, which ought to be followed up. Go along with Sub-Inspector Trant on this memorable expedition, and then let any stout and loyal-hearted man say whether nothing more can be done. Watch that gallant band marching quick and far across a hostile country. See them as they suddenly encounter at least twenty times their number in arms. One angry glance is exchanged. In a moment they change their course, and make for the house which instinct told them was their only refuge. An up-hill race ensues, which Trant and his men just win by a neck. But it is a race between fifty and a thousand men; and by the time the fifty have turned in their castle they are surrounded by a thousand. Within an hour or two those thousand men are carrying off their wounded, their chief is disgraced, the army is scattered, and the country occupied by her majesty's forces. Is it possible to suppose that we cannot make anything of such a result? When the game is in our hands must we throw it away? Fortune," the proverb says, "fawors the brave." Is it reserved to us to illustrate the corollary that

1. Elements of Chemistry. By the late EDWARD TURNER, M.D. F.R S. Eighth Edition.Edited by Baron Liebig and Professor Gregory. London. 1847.

From the Quarterly Review. ue inainly determined by the lateness of the edition; and follow with difficulty the rapid and incessant progress of research, and the changes in doctrine, as well as data, which they have to record.

2. Elements of Chemistry. By THOMAS GRAHAM, F.R.S.L. and E. Second Edition. Part I. The present condition of Chemistry wears a still London. 1847. more marvellous aspect, if we regard it in relation In giving the titles of these two systematic to all ancient knowledge on the subject. The works on Chemistry, we must not be understood to physical philosophers of antiquity hardly reached intend an analysis of their contents, or even a criti- its borders, and never fairly crossed the threshold cal comparison of their merits. Chemical science of the science, or recognized the great principle of has become far too vast and complex a subject to inquiry which it involves. Experiment in their be dealt with by any summary in the pages of a hands was accidental and insulated, seldom adopted Review. It stands apart from and beyond the as a deliberate means of extending knowledge or margin of critical literature. Yet, as we have attaining truth. Various explanations, more or less been accustomed, from time to time, to place be- plausible, have been offered of this singular fact; fore our readers those works which more eminently chiefly founded on the methods of philosophy in illustrate the progress and revolutions of physical Greece, and the peculiarities of mental constitution knowledge, we would now use the volumes be- in this remarkable race. Such explanations do fore us as the foundation of a brief sketch of some of the great changes which Chemistry has undergone within the last fifty years, and notably within the latter half of this period; such summary coming in extension of the views we have given in former articles of the researches of Liebig, the most recent of these great advancements in chemical knowledge.

but give another form to the difficulty. We still must wonder how a people so acute in their intelligence, and so prone to reason and observe in certain points of philosophy, should have failed, save in a few eminent instances, to discover the great principle and method of experimental inquiry. The fact remains, among others of like kind, a curious and perplexing anomaly in the history of man.

If the acute perception, the τους κυκλος οἱ Greece, failed of apprehending the principle of experiment, as applied to the objects which form the science of Chemistry, we have little reason to look for such discovery among the Romans, or during the ages following the disruption of their empire. We do not attach the value some have done to the studies of the Arabian chemists, or the partial and ill-directed pursuits of the alchemists; who, though bequeathing a certain number of terms to us, can scarcely be said to have used experiment as a deliberate principle of research, and left little that has been finally incorporated into the Chemistry of the present age. Had our countryman Roger Bacon lived at a more propitious period, seeing his spirit and methods of inquiry, we may believe that he would have held high rank among the discoverers in the science. It would be idle to repeat what has been so often said of his great successor in the lapse of time, Lord Bacon--the first who fully indicated experiment and exact observation as the only road to physical truth, and gave a definite classification

Even this limited outline is not without its difficulties, seeing the magnitude and variety of the changes in question, and their intimate and increasing relation to the state and progress collaterally of the other physical sciences. They are revolutions depending not solely on the accession of new facts, but involving also new principles and methods of research a larger scope and more profound objects of inquiry, and modes of experiment infinitely more subtle and exact wherewith to attain them-and with all this, an altered nomenclature and new symbolical language, needful to meet the exigencies thus created. A chemist of forty years ago, well versed in the subject as it then stood, would be utterly lost in the labyrinth of new names, new facts, and new combinations, which appear in the works before us. This is true, even as to the elementary parts of the subject, and what is called Inorganic Chemistry; yet more true as regards the wide domain of Organic Chemistry, a land newly opened, rich in products, and cultivated with such zeal and success, that any one stationary in knowledge, even for half the time we have named, would enter it as a stranger to all he saw around. We might give passages without number, taken almost of its objects, eminently tending to the right order at random from the descriptive parts of organic and direction of pursuit. It is an error, however, chemistry, which would come upon the eye of a to imagine that the path disclosed by this extraorreader of the old chemical school with the same dinary man was at once recognized and followed obscurity as a page of "Saunders on Uses" or by others. As respects Chemistry in particular, Sugden on Powers" on the mind of the young we find that it assumed its true and complete charstudent of law first opening these mystical volumes. acter, as an experimental science, at a later period, In attestation of the same fact we find that the and from causes which would have existed had chemical writings of greatest reputation thirty Bacon's writings never appeared. We refer to years ago the original works of Fourcroy, Ber- them rather as a marvellous anticipation of the thollet, Thomson, Murray, Henry, &c.-are now methods of experimental inquiry, than as having utterly out of date and useless. Even those which given origin to those great results of modern disreplace them to the modern student have their val- covery which are now multiplying around us.

66

This slight allusion to what has been called the | and brought to it an ability and zeal capable of early history of Chemistry will show that we do attaining the highest results. The merit of his not attach other value to it than as a record of the work is attested by Liebig's name in association insulated progress of man in various arts, useful with it; a conjunction which was planned before or useless, which have chemical processes for his death. The rapid progress of the science has their basis. The workers in metals from Tubal rendered needful various changes in the two ediCain downwards, and those engaged in the cook-tions which have since appeared; though, in the ery of human food in every age and country, have history of the imponderable elements and of inordealt with chemical powers and instruments, ganic Chemistry, not such in amount as to affect though not recognized as such. But it would be the character which Dr. Turner himself stamped as reasonable to call the bee a philosophical on this part of the work. The second part, dechemist, as so to designate those who have simply voted to organic Chemistry and collaborated by invented means to satisfy the needs or minister to Liebig, has only lately appeared. It embodies the the luxury of man. Chemistry illustrates these vast materials, collected from his labors and those familiar phenomena but does not depend on them. of other chemists, in a methodized form, and ranks Nor can it be affirmed that any of the greater dis- probably as the most complete existing treatise on coveries which mark its progress have had their this subject. origin in the wants of human society, though often directed and pressed forwards by this powerful incentive.

The Elements of Chemistry" of Dr. Graham is the work of an able and learned chemist-somewhat deficient perhaps in the preliminary views Without affecting exactitude, there can be little which are needful to a young student standing on error in stating that since a century only Chemistry the threshold of a new and difficult science; but has assumed its true character as a science, and showing that practical command of his subject that with a few exceptions, all the important parts which the author possesses, and which he has well of its early history are included within this period. testified in his researches on the constitution of The eminent names of Boyle, Hooke, Mayow, salts. A second edition is coming out in parts; Stahl and Hales, do indeed precede it; but not but hitherto so tardily as to justify the fear of inuntil the period between 1750 and 1790—a time equality in the several portions of a work, the subillustrated by the greater names of Black, Caven-jects of which are in a state of such incessant pro

gress and transition.

We have already named it as our object to present a short outline of the more important changes and steps of progress which mark the recent history of Chemistry; not limiting ourselves to strict chronological order; but seeking what may best illustrate the principles and present doctrines of the science, and those remarkable methods of research by which it has attained its actual condition. In doing this, we shall avoid, as far as pos

dish, Watt, Priestley, Bergman, Scheele, and Lavoisier; and by the discoveries of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbonic acid gas; of latent heat, elective affinity, the composition of water and atmospheric air, and the true nature of oxides and acids can we consider Chemistry to have acquired the foundation upon which it now rests. Allied to the other experimental sciences by similar methods of inquiry, yet vaster. and more various in its objects, it has undergone greater changes and expansion than any besides; absorb-sible, all technicalities of language, and take such ing into itself some of these collateral branches; and assuming such close relation to others as to indicate a future time when they also will merge in a more general system of physical truths-the object and end of all scientific inquiry. Whatever be the way of approaching such amalgamation, we may affirm that Chemistry must form a principal basis of it; as will be better seen when we proceed further to define the science, and to point out some of the more remarkable changes it has undergone in approaching our own times.

First, however, we must say a few words respecting the two works before us, as being those in England which best expound the actual state of chemical knowledge. The first in order of time is that of Dr. Turner, now in its eighth edition, edited conjointly by Dr. Gregory of Edinburgh, and Professor Liebig, in consequence of the premature death of the excellent chemist whose name it bears. Dr. Turner was lost to science when young in years; but not before he had established a merited reputation and won the affections of all who knew him in private life. He had studied Chemistry in the best schools at home and abroad,

illustrations only as may be most easily understood. A few general remarks, however, are necessary in preface to those more particular points on which we shall have afterwards to dwell.

In a recent article of this Review, we mentioned what we find cause to consider the two most striking characteristics of modern physical science, viz., the more profound nature of the objects, principles, and relations with which it now familiarly deals, and the wider generalizations and knowledge of causes thence obtained; and, 2ndly, the greater refinement and exactness, both of observation and experiment, with which these objects are practically pursued.

Chemistry affords some of the most remarkable instances we could select; and the more closely we examine its present state, and growing connection with other branches of physical science, the more striking will those illustrations appear. In truth, it can hardly be defined or described so as not to include its great purposes and powers; and, together with these, that exactness of methods upon which its progress mainly depends.

All great truths, whether of morals or physics, are marked by their simplicity. Although not an