LITERARY SELECTIONS AND RETROSPECT. BIOGRAPHICAL ANECDOTES AND CHARACTERS. Garden Theatre Memoirs of the Life of Mr. George Frederic Cooke, of Covent Memoirs of Gustavus IV. of Sweden, and the Swedish Revolution MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF NATIONS, Description of Christiania, the Capital of Norway [95] Lapland Valleys and Villages [109] Description of Gottenburg [116] Art of Tattooing, and other Customs, in the South Sea Islands Present State and Prospects of Owhyhee. [133] Representation of the Russian Ambassador at the Court of Ochallo, in Classical View of the Bay of Misenus and its Environs [204] On Italian Literature [215] On the Swedish Language [230] Temple and Mythology of Elephanta [233] Picturesque Survey of Water, Wood, and Mountain Scenery [240] [257] ARTS, ARTS, SCIENCES, AND NATURAL HISTORY. Method of taking Iron-moulds out of Cotton On the Changes of Colour produced on the Surface of Steel New Properties of Light On the Formation of Sulphur in India Process for Artificial Stone Chimney-Pieces On Mortars and Cements On the Art of Making Coffee in the highest Perfection reviving it; and a Notice of indelible Ink On the Sense of Smell in Fishes On the Process employed for defacing Writing on Paper, for detecting and Experiments of the comparative Strength of Men and Horses, applicable to the Movement of Machines On Transition Formations [280] Intemperance Inscription for a Monument intended to be erected in the Church at Hafod [ibid.] Love Song ibid. [333] On a Pair of Lean Lovers DOMESTIC LITERATURE. CHAP. I. BIBLICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. Comprising Biblical Criticism; Theological Criticism; Sucred Morals; Sermons and Discourses; Single Sermons; Controversial Divinity Comprising Medicine, Surgery, Anatomy, Physiology, Optics, Astronomy, [394] [353] СНАР CHAP. III. MORAL AND POLITICAL. Containing History, Voyages, Travels, Commerce, Military Systems, Political CHAP. IV. LITERATURE AND POLITE Letters. Containing Transactions of Literary Societies, Biography, Classics, Criticism, [369] [391] FOREIGN LITERATURE. CHAP. I. BIBLICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. Containing Notices or Analyses of various Publications of Germany, Hungary, CHAP. II. PHYSICAL AND MATHEMATICAL. - [437] Containing Notices or Analyses of various Publications of France, Germany, [442] CHAP. III. MORAL AND POLITICAL, Containing Notices or Analyses of various Publications of France, Germany, CHAP. IV. LITERATURE AND POLITE Arts. Containing Notices or Analyses of various Publications of Italy, Malta, France, Germany, and Russia [449] [433] THE THE HISTORY KNOWLEDGE, LITERATURE, TASTE, AND SCIENCE, IN GREAT BRITAIN, DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. T HE introductory part of the present and next volumes will be devoted to the improvements and discoveries in chemistry during the long, and, in many respects, auspicious reign of his present majesty. In order to give a connected view of this interesting and highly important science, we must briefly narrate what had been known and done previously to the period that more immediately claims our attention. In surveying the progress of chemistry, the earlier part of its history is involved in obscurity and fable. From very remote antiquity some traces of the practice of certain arts may be discovered, the principles of which are chemical, though depending more upon accident than upon any acquired scientific knowledge. They were, in truth, the result of casual observation, or of experiments dictated by necessity, and were long taught and practised without any knowledge of the principles on which they were founded. Of these arts, metallurgy, or the art of extracting metals from their ores, of purifying, casting, and forging them, was 1813. b probably probably of the earliest invention, since some knowledge of it must have been indispensable in that period of society in which the others would be cultivated. Gold, silver, and copper, which are often found native, and which are easily worked, appear to have been first applied to use. Iron was of later introduction. The properties and uses of these, as well as of lead and tin, were, however, known at a very early period, so early indeed as to have left no traces of the time of their discovery. Other chemical arts, as that of brickmaking; the manufacture of earthenware; the arts of dyeing, bleaching, fermentation, &c., though of later origin, were practised in the early ages: and it is a curious but very well ascertained fact, that there is scarcely a savage nation that has not found out the method of producing, from some substance or other, a fermented, exhilarating, and spirituous liquor. In Egypt the various chemical arts made considerable progress, and that country has been regarded as the parent of chemistry. It made no part of the Grecian philosophy; though a number of observations respecting the chemical properties of bodies may be found in the writings of Theophrastus, Aristotle, and others. The delusions of alchemy gave rise to the experimental method of investigation, and thus laid the foundation of chemical science, and at the same time, perhaps, contributed more than any other circumstance to the superiority of the modern over the ancient mode of philosophizing. To alchemy, chemistry unquestionably owes its origin. It had no existence, as a distinct branch of knowledge, prior to the pursuits of the alchemists. By their experiments several of the properties of bodies were investigated: an apparatus was invented rules were at length delivered for conducting chemical processes; and many of the principal agents of chemistry were discovered, arranged under classes, and characterized by their most striking properties. It has been found difficult to fix with precision the date of the origin of alchemy; and we know nothing of the circum stances |