CURRENT LITERATURE.
A History of Chemical Theory. By A. Wurtz. Translated and edited by H. Watts, F.R.S. (Macmillan.)—This is an admirable and philo- sophical review of the growth of chemical theory. We cannot help regretting that it should begin with such a sentence as "Chemistry is a French science. It was founded by Livoisier, of immortal memory."
A chemist takes up the book, and, meeting with these words, feels inclined, unless indeed he happen to be a French chemist, to read no further. Yet the book is well worthy of study, nor does it fail to give some share of the credit of constructing our present chemical edifice to chemists who did not happen to be Frenchmen. But the author, laying immense stress on Lavoisier's discovery of the nature of combustion, relegates to a subordinate rank the numerous advances both in theo- retical and experimental chemistry made by other chemists immediately before and after the time of Lavoisier. This volume was originally published as a "Dim:lours Prdliminaire " to Wurtz's "Dietionnaire de Chimie Pare et Appliqués," a work of which several parts have now appeared, and which is likely to prove a very valuable book of reference. Mr. Watts has not only performed his task of translation very well, but has added in an appendix some necessary notes and corrections.
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