and repaired himself to the scene of action with all the pomp of an eaftern Sultan;-ready to return to France, in the very probable event of a defeat of which, by this means, he would avoid the difgrace, or, else, in case of a victory, to embellish his own brows with the laurels which had been reaped by another. "The Battle of Marengo, not lefs extraordinary in its detail, than in its confequences, exhibits a new trait in the character of Bonaparte. That memorable day, difputed with obftinacy, was on the point of being terminated entirely in favour of the Auftrians. Berthier had given orders to found the retreat; and despair was the only refource that was left to the Corfican Hero, when General Deffaix, animated by one of those movements of military inspiration which even an enemy muft admire, perceived an opening in one of the Auftrian columns, by which he penetrated with only 250 horfe, and thus making the column give way, afforded, by his generous devotion to which he fell a victim, time for the French army to rally, and decided that victory the honour of which Bonaparte does not bluth to arrogate to himself; and for which this man, as hypocritical as he is impious, dared affect to thank the Most High in the Cathedral Church of Milan. "May this fhort and impartial expofition of the military and political life of a man who is indebted to Fortune for every thing he poffeffes, open the eyes of his enthufiaftic admirers! Sir SYDNEY SMITH has convinced him that he is not invincible; and when we attentively analize the greatness and exaltation of Bonaparte, "Where is the Englishman fo unjuft, and the Frenchman so ungrateful for the kindness which he has experienced in a foreign land as not joyfully to apply these verses? * * "It appears that the most faithful ally of GEORGE THE THIRD may be as eafily recognized in the following lines. "L'effort d'une vertu commune Syfteme Syflême des Connoiffances chimiques, et de leurs applications aux phenomenes de la nature et de l'art, &c. i. e. A Syftem of Chemical Knowledge, and its Application to the Phenomena of Nature and Art. By Cit. Fourcroy, Member of the National Institute, Councillor of State, &c. 10 vols. 8vo. Price 50 francs; or the fame in 5 vols. 4to. Price 72 francs. Baudouin. Paris. De Boffe, Dulau, and Co. London. HE learned author of this voluminous work is too well known The the to the fcientific world to require any eulogium from us. His indefatigable exertions in that branch to which he has devoted himfelf from an early period of his life have procured him the esteem of learned men in every part of Europe. But even were he far lefs celebrated, the laborious task he has juft completed would alone be fufficient to establish his fane. It differs effentially from all his former productions; and indeed we know of no work which contains fo many facts collected with fuch attention, and difpofed in fuch a fyftematic order. Thofe who devote themselves to the ftudy of chemistry are well aware that they are indebted to Fourcroy for an exact and metho cal plan for facilitating the knowledge of that fcience. To fuch individuals his previous works are too well known to need a repetition in this place. But notwithstanding the progress made in this fcience of late years, there ftill remained a number of scattered facts, which it was neceffary to arrange, in order that, when united together in a methodical manner, and dependent upon each other, they might be of more general utility, by facilitating the ftudy of the fcience the obstacles however to fuch an arrangement must of course have been numerous and difficult: how far these have been overcome by the application and knowledge of the author, we will leave our readers to form an opinion. : The preliminary difcourfe presents at great length the whole plan, and it is rendered itill more interefting by a collection of all the late. difcoveries which have been communicated to the Inftitute, or publifhed while this work was in the prefs. Thus a chafm is filled, which, in productions of fuch an extent, is generally inevitable. There is another important advantage in this collection of facts, namely, that the bafes of the pneumatic doctrine are stated with that clearness and precifion which could only be done by a perfon well verfed in the didactic art. It should not therefore be confidered as a mere compilation; for befides the facts known even to the prefent time, it contains many discoveries of the author which have never yet been defcribed. The work is divided into eight sections, of which we shall give a brief account, that our readers may be enabled to form an idea of its utility and importance. L12 Sect. Sect. I, which is a kind of introduction to the reft, contains preliminary obfervations on chemistry, and the first principles for the ftudy of that fcience: it is divided into twelve articles. The first of thefe confifts of a definition of chemistry, its various appellations, its relative connection with, and difference from, the other fciences. Art. 2. On the "Divifions and Branches of Chemistry," explains the different kinds of chemical science; these he denominates general, or philofophical chemistry, meteorological chemistry, mineral chemistry, vegetable chemistry, animal chemistry, medicinal chemistry, economical or manufacturing chemistry, and domeftic chemistry. " Art. 3, contains a rapid fketch of the hiftory of this fcience, the great revolutions in which are claffed by the author under fix periods; he alfo gives the names of thofe learned men who exifted in different ages, and whofe important difcoveries have tended in a great degree to the advancement of its progrefs. Art. 4, treats on the chemical nature of bodies, on their component principles as admitted by chemists of different ages, the opinions of the ancient philofophers on this fubject; the notions of Paracelfus, Beccher, Stahl, and others; the more accurate ideas, acquired in modern times, of the different kinds of compounds, &c. Art. 5, relates to the analysis or feparation of the elements of bodies by chemical proceffes. Art. 6, contains obfervations on fynthefis, or combination. In Art. 7, the fubject begins to be more complicated than in any of the former, which confift merely of fimple obfervations on the nature and object of the fcience. But here the author enters more deeply into his task, when treating of what he calls the attraction of aggregation. In Art. 8, M. Fourcroy examines the most general and remarkable facts relative to the attraction of compofition; and in order to render these facts more ftriking and methodical, he has arranged them as conftant and invariable phenomena, as laws impofed by nature, in the union and feparation of the conftituent particles of compounds. Art. 9, tends to exhibit the existence of chemical phenomena in the productions of nature and art. Art. 10, contains a clear definition of the principal operations of chemistry. In Art. 11, the author gives the chemical claffification of bodies in a more didactic and precife manner than in the difcourfe prefixed to Ithe work: this may be confidered as an useful, and indeed indispenfable portion of the fyftem. 1 Art. 12, concludes with an account of the principal bafes of the 7 methodical Nomenclature, as well as of the new figns or characters fubftituted for the hieroglyphics of the ancients. The author here takes an opportunity to thew the exact coincidence of the prefent enames with the facts they are intended to exprefs, and how greatly they they tend to facilitate and fimplify the ftudy of the fcience, by their clearness and precision. Sect II. Contains the hiftory of fimple bodies, or those which cannot be decompofed; like the preceding fection, it is divided into twelve articles. Art. 1, confifts of general obfervations on thofe bodies, together with their number and claffification. The eleven fucceeding articles are devoted to the chemical investigation of the eleven genera of fimple bodies, viz light, caloric, oxigen and air, azote, hydrogen, carbon, phosphorus, fulphur, the diamond, and the metals. The hiftory of each of these bodies is treated with that minutenefs which their importance requires. The phyfical properties, the various ftates in which they are afforded by nature, their combinations, uses, and even the influence which their relative difcovery has had upon the profperity of mankind, also form a part of the particular hiftory of fimple compounds. The manner in which each of them may be burned, the different degrees of their combustion, oxidation or acidi-' fication, the various phenomena of flame, heat and motion, which attend combuftion, the temperatures in which it takes place; the. different refults it affords, are all carefully attended to and claffed among the properties of thefe bodies, on account of the intereft they excite in the prefent ftate of chemistry. With respect to the metals, which form an article in the fecond fection, they appear to be placed here only for the purpose of con-` necting them with the clafs of fimple and combuftible bodies, and to prove, by expofing the combuftibility, that they cannot properly be placed in any other clafs. Their particular hiftory however is given with the neceffary exactnefs in Sect. VI. The third fection, with which the fecond volume commences, is entitled "On burned, oxided, or acid bodies," and is divided into fixteen articles.. The first article is devoted to the examination of combustion, or of those phenomena which tend to produce this effect, whether natural or artificial. Art. 2, contains a chemical inquiry into the nature of water, or the oxide of hydrogen. The author confiders it in its various natural ftates, and its principal phyfical properties; its fpecific gravity, its limpidity, level, cryftallifation, its characters in a state of congelation, its fufibility, the formation and condenfation of it in fteam, &c.; he afterwards combines it with light and caloric, when he examines its fufion, ebullition, dilatation, and gafification. We are next prefented with the combination of water with oxigen, common air, and gafeous hydrogen; its action upon carbon, phofphorus, upon metals, in hot and cold temperatures, and concludes with the history of its decompofition. In Art. 3, the various fpecies of metallic oxides are confidered, together with thofe which are not metallic; they are here, however, only confidered in a fuperficial manner, as their particular hiftory L13 belongs belongs either to the fection on metals, or to that on organic vege. table and animal compounds. Art. 4, relates to the general claffification of acids, and affords obfervations and refults upon acidification which now forms one of the most important bafes of chemical theory. The definition of these · bodies, their acidity derived from oxigen, the particular distinction of thofe, the radicles of which confift of fimple combustibles, their frequent double ftate of acidity, the terms of the nomenclature intended to exprefs the nature and ftate of them individually; the generic characters of thefe burned compounds; in fhort, the various methods of claffing them, either according to their greater or less capability of decompofition, with refpect to their gafeous, liquid, or folid ftates, to their relative energy, or by the different degrees of attraction for oxigen poffeffed by their radicals; all these fubjects are contained in the article before us. Art. 5, 6, and 7, give an elaborate hiftory of the carbonic, phofphoric, and phosphorous acids. The eighth and ninth contain an account of the fulphuric and fulphurous acids. The nitric acid being moft generally employed, the tenth article is occupied with its defcription; in fact this acid may be confidered as one of the moft ufeful re-agents in chemistry. The nitrous acid next forms the fubject of the author's inveftigation, in Art. 11; and the reader, by attentively comparing these two articles with what has been heretofore written on the nitric acid, will perceive the utility of this fcience in regard to the pneumatic doctrine. Art. 12, contains a table of the general properties of the metallic acids; the hiftory of which is given in the fection upon metals. Of twenty-one metals known to chemifts, there are only four which are capable of acidification. Thefe which are analogous to the feven fpecies above-mentioned, by their compofition, are affo compared with them in their properties. They are diftinguished from the others by their pulverulent ftate, their rough and inetallic tafte, the facility with which they may be decompofed, their difficulty of folution, their speedy return to the ftate of oxide, which ftate conftantly precedes their acidity. The thirteenth article treats on another series of acids, connected with the preceding by moft of their properties, though differing from them in their nature. With refpect to the muriatic acid, the author follows the fame. plan as he adopted when treating of thofe beforementioned. He ftates the method of extracting it from the muriates, the philofophical and chemical properties of its gas and its folution in water, its action upon feveral oxides, &c. This account is fucceeded by that of the oxigenated muriatic acid, which is examined by the author with the fame accuracy as the former; he reprefents it as decompofable by light, acting upon most combuftible bodies as a powerful oxigenant, |
