Page images
PDF
EPUB

1851.

Confidence in Human Nature.

253

much qualification, the claims which are put forward on behalf of Penn to the devout observance of posterity. As the champion of religious freedom, he was prominent in a great cause; but it must be remembered that it was also the winning cause. Notwithstanding partial checks, it was a cause rapidly advancing, even in his time. The days of the old system of intolerance were evidently numbered. And on the whole it may be doubted whether the efforts of Penn and his friends contributed so much to its success as the extravagances of the sect did to retard it. In our view, the great interest attached to Penn's memory is of a wider, but at the same time of a more questionable, kind. It arises out of those general conceptions of the earthly destiny of men, and the mode of adapting them for its fulfilment, of which the particular tenet of religious freedom, though most present to Penn's mind, formed a portion only. To make the first spring of common as well as individual action love, not fear; -to regard men rather as glorious than as fallen creatures; as all in their degree influenced by that inward light, to quench or deny which is practical anarchy, as well as blasphemy; - these were visions so bold, and so new to the religious spirit of the time, that it is scarcely to be wondered at, if the Friends themselves failed to appreciate and express clearly the principle which they involved, and if the world altogether failed to understand it. Yet that principle fought its way onward, with what vast extension of influence the whole system of modern legislation and policy bears witness. Its progress has been diversified with strange exaggerations and fatal errors. It has raised men's minds from servile abasement to freedom and light: but it has also exalted them to a pinnacle of self-worship, from which they have speedily plunged again into grovelling degradation. It has founded great republics, and overthrown flourishing States, abolished racks, thrown open prisons, and erected guillotines. Often thrust into the background by violent reaction towards the opposite doctrine-often distorted and abused by its own partisans it still continues to make way; and its course is more and more clearly descried in fancy, both by the enthusiastic and the timid, as tending to the dissolution and reconstruction of human society.

ART. X.-1. Handbuch der Chemie. Von LEOPOLD GMELIN. Vierte umgearbeitete und vermehrte Auflage. V. Band, 8vo. Heidelberg: 1850.

2. Handwörterbuch der reinen und angewandten Chemie. Redigirt von Dr. HERMANN KOLBE. Vierten Bandes, Siebente

Lieferung, 8vo. Braunschweig: 1850.

3. Ausführliches Handbuch der Analytischen Chemie. Von HEINRICH ROSE. 2 Bänden, 8vo. Braunschweig: 1851.

4. Cours de Chimie Générale. Par J. PELOUZE et E. FREMY. 3 tomes, grand 8vo. Paris: 1850.

5. Traité de Chimie Organique. Par JUSTUS LIEBIG. 3 tomes, 8vo. Paris: 1840-1844.

6. Chemie der Organischen Verbindungen. Von CARL LÖWIG. Gr. 8vo. Braunschweig: 1850.

including the Applications of the By T. GRAHAM, F.R.S.L. and E. London: 1850.

7. Elements of Chemistry,
Science in the Arts.
Second Edition. 8vo.
8. An Introduction to the

Atomic Theory.

BENY, M.D., F.R.S. Oxford: 1850.

By CHARLES DAU-
Post 8vo. Pp. 502.

9. Geschichte der Chemie. Von Dr. HERMANN KOPP. 4 Bänden, gr. 8vo. Braunschweig: 1843-1847.

10. Lehrbuch der Pharmaceutischen Technik. Von Dr. FRIEDRICK MOHR. Gr. 8vo. Braunschweig: 1851.

11. Handbuch der technischen Chemie. Von ERNST LUDWIG SCHUBARTH. 3 Bänden, 8vo. Berlin: 1839.

12. Chemical Technology, or Chemistry applied to the Arts and to Manufactures. By F. KNAPP. 3 vols. 8vo. 1848

1850.

13. A Treatise on Poisons. By ROBERT CHRISTISON, M.D., F.R.S.E. Fourth Edition. 8vo. Edinburgh: 1845. 14. The Chemistry of Vegetable and Animal Physiology. By Dr. G. J. MULDER. Translated from the Dutch by Dr. FROMBERG; with an Introduction and Notes, by JAMES F. W. JOHNSTON, F.R.S. 8vo. Edinburgh and London: 1849.

15. Lehrbuch der Physiologischen Chemie. Von Prof. Dr. C. G. LEHMANN. Zweiter Band, 8vo. Leipzig: 1850. 16. Lehrbuch der Chemischen und Physikalischen Geologie. Von Dr. GUSTAV. BISCHOF. Zweiten Bandes, Vierte Abtheilung. 8vo. Bonn: 1850.

1851.

Extent of Chemical Literature.

255

17. Årsberättelser om Framstegen i Physik och Kemie. Af J. J. BERZELIUS. 27 digra band. Stockholm: 1821 till

1848.

18. Minne, af J. J. BERZELIUS. Af M. af PONTIN. Stockholm: 1849.

AMONG the modern sciences which, in their nature and pro

gress, partake most of the character of the advancing material civilisation of the nineteenth century, Chemistry holds the first rank. Of that advancing civilisation it may even be said to form a main part or element. One of its special duties is to discover hidden and unknown properties and uses in things -to lay open the unsuspected riches of kingdoms. It suggests also, or presides over, all those new and growing arts-not purely mechanical-by which wealth and power are conferred upon the countries that foster them, or by which future dominion and rapid pre-eminence are promised.

No branch of positive knowledge can boast a history so full of interest and romance as this, or one which presents a more tempting field for a literary excursion, either to a writer or to a reader. The more recent progress of the science, however, and its actual position, are our present object; and we must refer those readers, who desire to study the history in detail, to the well known History of Chemistry,' by Dr. Thomson, or to the more elaborate German work of Dr. Kopp, the title of which will be found among the books at the head of the present article.

There are several extemporaneous or off-hand ways, in which the progress of modern chemistry, in extent and importance, may be judged of, by persons who either have never been familiar with its principles, or who have ceased for a time to follow its ad

Among these may be mentioned, as one of the easiest, a brief consideration of the existing literature of the science. Respecting this point, several things are deserving of notice; and first stands the number of new books, which are yearly issuing from the press in the various countries of Europe and America, devoted purely to the illustration of its principles. We have quoted the names of only a few of the most recent. The bare titles of the most trustworthy treatises, published even within the last five years, would have filled several pages. In addition to that of Graham, mentioned in our list, we haveall of nearly equal authority-in our own language, those of Thomson, Brande, Turner, Kane, Fownes, and Gregory; while some of the continental tongues are far more rich in systematic chemistry. Meantime, the latest and most complete of these publications, on the pure science, exhibit a striking evidence of

progress in this particular, whereas some twenty years ago three or four octavo volumes, as in the systems of Murray and Thomson, sufficed to contain a full record of all known principles and facts of importance, mixed up with at least their own bulk of theoretical disquisitions and speculations. Six or more octavos, as in the work of Gmelin, now scarcely afford space enough to record the principles and facts alone. Speculations and theoretical disquisitions are far more abundant than ever; but they find their appropriate place in the many periodical journals and in the multiplied transactions of learned bodies which regularly appear in almost every European language.

Again, in relation to the actual extent of the science, and the positive effects produced by its progress, much may be gathered from the size of the body of literature which is now devoted to the explanation of its various applied branches. Not only has the range of pure chemistry, as a whole, become so vast that scarcely any one mind can grasp it, or, in a fair measure, master its details; while, by way of simplification, separate divisions have successively been made into mineral and organic, and the latter again into animal and vegetable chemistry; but so many new arts have arisen from the application of its principles to useful and ornamental purposes, and so many new books are devoted to each of these arts exclusively, that a really large body of applied chemical literature has gradually accumulated on the shelves of our libraries. To the present article we have prefixed the titles of only two works those of Schubart and Knapp which profess to treat generally of the applications of the science to all the, so-called, useful arts of life. It would fill a bookseller's catalogue to name only the latest published and best books which relate to all the separate or special branches. We possess voluminous treatises, not only on large subjects, such as Medical Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Forensic Chemistry, Agricultural Chemistry, Chemical Geology, Chemical Mineralogy, &c.; but on more limited topics, such as the manufacture of iron, of porcelain, of glass, of soda, soap, vinegar, white lead, the chloride of lime, the sulphates of iron and of copper, the mineral acids, and the thousand other compounds which the chemical arts and chemical pharmacy daily demand, and of which our Great Exhibition while we write is displaying to its millions of visitors such magnificent specimens. The extraction of metals from their ores- the assaying of ores and metals the special extraction of gold and silver- the arts of enameling on iron, of gilding and silvering, of photography, of pyrotechny, of bleaching, dyeing, and printing, of malting and distilling, of preserving timber, of making mortars and cements,

1851.

Rate of its Progress.

257

of obtaining gas from coal and other combustible materials, of preparing mixed metals, and the many other non-mechanical arts, with which a visit to the workshops of our great manufacturing towns would probably make many of our readers for the first time acquainted, all these possess, consult, and are more or less guided by their own chemical books, many of them by periodical journals, written specially to elucidate and explain their own processes.

Then, as a symptom of progress, the rise of the science in general estimation is most significant. It must have been remarked by every body whose attention has been drawn to the subject, that in our own island chemistry has assumed an entirely new position within the last five-and-twenty years. Five-andtwenty years ago, only three or four men held open schools for teaching its most difficult departments. Scarcely any young persons studied it as a branch of education but such as were destined for the medical profession; and these, for the most part, only very superficially. Now, at least thirty professors, scattered over the island, teach it systematically, aud at least as many more instructed chemists obtain a living by superintending or giving advice on its numerous practical applications. And besides medical students, to whom all educated druggists must be added, thousands of other young men are attending annual and systematic courses; while all who study it are both better and deeper taught than formerly, and their knowledge more severely tested in public and private examinations.

It is true that our old universities and the newer colleges, which tread reverently in their footsteps, give as yet but little public instruction in this science and pay it little honour, counting their non-medical students of it by threes and fives,- but the middle classes and the masses extensively learn it in other schools of less pretension both at home and abroad; and it is thus gradually leavening the people. While the old universities have delayed to supply the general wants, or to keep pace with the demands of our progressive material civilisation, numerous new colleges and schools have sprung up, partly general and partly special in their objects, to meet the views and wishes of the less stationary part of our population. In most of these new schools, chemistry occupies a prominent place as a branch of study; while, both in connexion with them and in many separate localities, laboratories have been erected in which the science is taught experimentally and analytically, and researches are undertaken into previously unexplored departments of

nature.

Of the rate at which the science is now making way, a popular

VOL. XCIV. NO. CXCI.

S

« PreviousContinue »