None of our iron masters yet know the value of the charcoal of pit or stone coal, the universal fuel in the furnaces of Great Britain.

Still less have they thought of trying the carbonic smokeless stone coal of Rhode island, or north-western Pennsylvania.

In no iron works of this country is the bloomery so managed as to procure a bar of uniform perfect iron, unless occasionally and by accident. It is either not sufficiently carbonized or decarbonized, or not sufficiently hammered, or not hammered sufficiently hot to produce an uniform mass of pure malleable metal. No where that I know among our iron works, have iron cylinder rollers been substituted for the tilt hammer, although in Great Britain, from motives of economy in point of power, the tilt hammer has been greatly superseded by rollers.

Neither does it appear to me that the theory or the practice of roasting iron ores in the first instance is well understood among us.

From the defect of bar iron, no good steel can be regularly and permanently made among us. Nor is any good sheet iron yet made in America, so far as I know.

With all these disadvantages our iron masters even under imperfect management, accumulate fortunes. But when competition becomes more common, and capitals more abundant also, then will science come into play, and he who best understands the chemical principles of this important manufacture, will make the most money by it, and serves his country's interest exactly in proportion as he serves his own. That day is not far distant, for every article of iron from the bar to the watch-spring, can now be imported with great profit.

Without chemistry we can hardly be said in modern days to possess either physic or physicians. The modern materia medica comprehends no doubt among the class of deleterious plants, some few galenicals that are worth retaining, such as opium, hops, cinchona, digitalis, squills, jalap, aloes, gamboge, ipecacuanha, and a very few more. In my opinion a lecturer in materia medica would be as well employed in secerning the powerful from the inert, as in adding any new articles to the already encumbered list. Even of these galenical drugs, modern chemistry has taught us, by spirituous and watery extracts and tinctures to concentrate the virtues of the medicine-to render it more easily taken by the patient, and more easily conveyed to distant parts, without any diminution of efficacy.

But the most numerous, the most powerful, the most useful class of medicines are chemical preparations. Without these a physician cannot stir. Without chemical knowledge he cannot venture to prescribe them either with safety to the patient, or satisfaction to himself. How many deplorable instances have I seen of compound prescriptions, where each

item answering to the indications, their combination destroyed the effect of each other, and the result became either dangerous or inert! So frequently does this occur, that a medical education, of which chemical knowledge shall not form the basis, will tend in no slight degree to justify the poet's satirical exclamation, "Nay, some have outlived the doctor's pill!"

But it is not merely the knowledge, preparation, and prescription of medicines, that calls for accurate knowledge of chemistry in the physician; he cannot well ascertain the state of health, or the state of disease without frequent recourse to this most necessary branch of study. The constitution of the atmosphere, the state of the blood, and of all the secretions are subject to and are affected by chemical agencies. The phenomena of respiration, of arterial and of venous blood, the stimulating qualities of this fluid, the secretions of the stomach, intestines, and kidneys, frequently call aloud for chemical reflection. Indeed, as all the fluids of the body are chemical compounds, and alterable by the chemical action of appropriate medicines-as all the solids are formed by secretion from the fluids, and renewed and repaired by the particles which the fluids supply for this purpose, some more attention will be necessary to the humoral pathology than the followers of Hoffman and Cullen have chosen to afford it. Dr. Pearson and Dr. Bostock have lately shown how usefully chemical knowledge can be applied in some branches of surgical pathology.

It will be seen by this time, how intimately and extensively the science of chemistry intermingles with every important manufacture of the old and of the new world, with our domestic comforts and pleasures, with our conditions of health and of illness, and with almost every thing that interests us. It will be useless after the enumeration that has already taken place, to show how it furnishes the basis for almost every other manufacture: for printing, for the type foundery, for the ink manufactory, for the bleaching of rags for the paper maker, for the manufacture of soap, of candles, for the purification of oil, for the extrication of carburetted hydrogen, for the making of charcoal, of gunpowder, of starch, of sugar, for every manufacture of which metals are the material, for the extrication of alum, of salt, of green vitriol, for the making of white lead, and sugar of lead, and red lead, and what is of more consequence than any, for the invention and improvement of that permanent source of mechanical power, the steam engine, the lectures of Dr. Black having given birth to the improvements of Mr. Watt. I say it is unnecessary for me to go into an individual detail of these objects of chemical knowledge. The bare enumeration suffices to show their dependence on chemistry, and their prodigious importance even in a national point of view. I shall, therefore,

close this lecture with one or two remarks of a general nature, which seem to arise out of the view of the subject that I have thought fit to pre sent to you.

First: It is evident, that when a gentleman has paid due attention to the principles of the study now recommended to your notice, he can travel no where, at home or abroad, without finding at every resting place some object to excite his attention, and keep alive his inquiries: something to induce him, either to gain knowledge which he did not possess, or to do good by communicating his information to others.

The state of agriculture, the state of arts, the state of manufactures, whatever that may be, whether of infancy or of advancement, will perpetually suggest remarks and reflections, and lead him to apply the knowledge he has acquired to the facts he has observed. Indeed, with chemistry, with mineralogy, and with botany, no travelling is irksome, no road is tedious, no place barren of interest, no day without its satisfaction, no journey so fatigueing but knowledge may be gained or improvement communicated. Is not this a state of mind and of feeling highly desirable? Is it nothing to have acquired objects of pursuit and of interest in whatever quarter of the world you may be thrown? I do not say that a man is to be inquisitive by profession wherever he travels, but with the attainments I mention, his attention will be excited without any effort of his own, and the tedium of travelling will fly from such companions.

Again. Consider the quantum of knowledge that manufactures, particularly chemical manufactures, imply. Reflect for a moment that all knowledge has a family connexion with every other branch, and that knowledge of all kinds is in its effects, Power. Consider further, which are the nations wherein is the greatest wealth, the greatest national strength, and the greatest number of sources of comfort and of pleasure on the globe; would you not name Great Britain, France, Germany? Are not all these preeminently manufacturing nations, requiring, pursuing, and encouraging every kind of knowledge connected with manufacture, as a national object of great interest? Consider again, whether a mere agricultural country can possibly possess the same quantity of knowledge with a manufacturing nation, seeing that there is not the same temptation to acquire it, or the same means of applying it when acquired.

I do not know whether as an object of political economy, whether as a source of national wealth, it be worth while to encourage manufactures; this would be a suggestion palpably out of place: but this I know, and by this time you also will be inclined to allow, that one great means of propagating and encouraging scientific knowledge of every description, is to propagate and encourage manufactures of every description, for

they rest upon it. As a general proposition this seems to me undeniable: to what extent the practice should be carried, must be determined by the statesman and not by the chemist.

At the close of this introductory lecture it may be proper to state briefly the outline of the course I mean to pursue.

The chief use of a chemical lecture is to enable a student to read with advantage the books that treat on the subject; to show those experiments to the eye that would be unintelligible from mere description on paper. It will be impossible to exclude oral instruction, but I shall dwell briefly on what the book will tell you, and more amply on those applications of chemical knowledge which the books usually met with do not supply.

I propose to give the natural history of the substances which are the objects of chemical investigation: then their artificial history; how to procure them: then their chemical properties when procured; and lastly their uses in medicine, in the arts, or in manufactures.

I propose to perform the experiments by means of the apparatus usually described in the common books. But my chemical knowledge has been acquired in situations where my domestic utensils have constituted my apparatus, because my local situation and the state of my finances compelled me to economy and substitution. I shall endeavour therefore to show as often as I can, in what way the most material properties of chemical substances can be demonstrated by means of apparatus, every where to be found, and within the compass of moderate income.

In so doing, I believe I shall best serve the interests of the science I profess to teach, and present nothing that can deter the student from the future pursuit of the knowledge he is anxious to retain, as well as to acquire.

To speak a thing under the rose; and under the rose be it spoken; are phrases of some difficulty, though the sense of them be well enough understood: they mean secretly; but the query is, how they came to imply that. The clergyman wears a rose in his hat; and in confession what is spoke in his ear, is in effect under the rose, and is to be kept secret, as being under the seal of confession.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE.

CORYAT'S CRUDITIES hastily gobled up in five Moneths Tarvels in France, Sauoy, Italy, Rhetia, commonly called the Grisons Country, Heluetia, alias Switzerland, some parts of High Germany, and the Netherlands; newly digested in the hungry aire of Odcombe, in the county of Somerset, and now dispersed to the nourishment of the trauelling Members of this Kingdome. London. Printed by W. S. 1611. Pp. 665. From the Critical Review.

PERHAPS there never was a book of travels that in its time excited more attention than that before us, and a review of, and some extracts from it, will not be uninteresting, while the present expatriating mania reigns. The town has been saturated with minute details of recent expeditions to various parts of the continent, and it will now have an opportunity of learning something, from a writer at least as curious in his researches, of the appearance and condition of the same places, and of the manners and customs of the same people, more than two hundred years ago.

The author, the book, and the manner in which it was ushered into the world, are all singular. Thomas Coryat, or Coryate, was born at Odcombe, in Somersetshire, in 1577, and after having been at Winchester School until he was 19 years old, he was entered a commoner of Glocester Hall, Oxford, where it is said he became a proficient in Greek and Latin, having a great facility in learning languages. He however does not appear to have taken any degree, for in about three years he came to London, and was received into the household of the liberal and amiable prince Henry, who allowed him a pension: some writers assert that he was in a menial capacity, and others that he filled the office of fool then a usual appendage to the establishments of the nobility. Fuller (Worthies: Somersetshire, p. 31) says, that "he was the courtier's anvil to try their wits upon, and sometimes this anvil returned the hammers as hard knocks as it received, his bluntness repaying their abusiness;" and Wood follows this authority, calling him the whetstone of the wits of the day. He seems to have been exceedingly fond of making speeches, and before he commenced his travels in 1608, we find him pronouncing several orations at Odcombe, his native place, once having collected above two thousand auditors. In 1608 he set out upon his expedition, and having passed through the countries named in the title, including 45 cities, and traversed, according to a computation inserted on the last page of his work, 1,975 miles, he returned to England in five months. In 1611 he published his Crudities, having previously had some difficulty, in consequence of the sudden death of the Abp. of Canterbury, in procuring a license, as we find by a MS. letter, printed for the first time in the Biographia Britannica, and afterwards in the Censura Literaria: here he solicits sir Michael Hixes, Knt. to use his influence for the purpose, observing, "by his incessant industry and Herculean toil, he wrote