PREFACE

The design of the present work is briefly, but not completely expressed in

its title-page. Independently of a reliable and comprehensive collection

of formulæ and processes in nearly all the industrial and useful arts, it

contains a description of the leading properties and applications of the

substances referred to, together with ample directions, hints, data, and

allied information, calculated to facilitate the development of the

practical value of the book in the shop, the laboratory, the factory, and

the household. Notices of the substances embraced in the Materia Medica of

our national pharmacop[oe]ias, in addition to the whole of their

preparations, and numerous other animal and vegetable substances employed

in medicine, as well as most of those used for food, clothing, and fuel,

with their economic applications, have been included in the work. The

synonymes and references are other additions which will prove invaluable

to the reader. Lastly, there have been appended to all the principal

articles referred to brief, but clear, directions for determining their

purity and commercial value, and for detecting their presence and

proportions in compounds.

The sources from which I have derived the vast mass of materials forming

this volume are such as to render it deserving the utmost confidence. I

have invariably resorted to the best and latest authorities, and have

consulted almost innumerable volumes, both British and foreign, during its

compilation. Secondary channels of information have been scarcely ever

relied on when original authorities were within my reach. A large portion

of the work has been derived from my personal experience and observations

in the departments of applied chemistry and hygiene, and from the

processes of various laboratories and manufactories, many of which I can

the more confidently recommend from having either inspected or witnessed

their employment on an extensive scale. The indiscriminate adoption of

matter, without examination, has been uniformly avoided, and in no

instance has any formula or process been admitted into this work, unless

it rested on some well-known fact of science, had been sanctioned by

usage, or come recommended by some respectable authority. The settlement

of doubtful or disputed points has often occupied me a greater number of

hours, and not unfrequently a greater number of days, than that of the

lines of letter-press which convey the results to the public. In all cases

precedence has been given to the standard formulæ of our national

pharmacop[oe]ias, and to those processes which long experience, or

well-conducted experiments, have shown to be the most successful,

profitable, and trustworthy. In general, the sources of information have

been indicated, for the purpose of enabling the reader to form a better

estimation of their value. Whenever this is not the case, in reference to

borrowed formulæ and data, the omission has arisen from the impossibility

of determining to whom the merit is justly due.

I have endeavoured as much as possible, in the present work, to avoid

confusion of the medical weights with those commonly used in trade and

commerce--an attempt which, so far as I am aware, has not been

successfully carried out in any other quarter. For this purpose I

determined to entirely abandon the usual arbitrary signs or characters

employed to represent the divisions of the apothecaries' pound, and to

distinguish the two weights from each other, by simply printing, in

different type, the plain English names and abbreviations representing

their several denominations. The medical signs for the imperial gallon and

its subdivisions have also been abandoned for their common English names.

It would have afforded me pleasure to have reduced all the quantities to

one uniform standard, had it been practicable, or, in all cases,

advisable.

Under the names of most of the leading diseases that could be profitably

noticed in the present work, such explanations and directions have been

given as accord with the prevailing opinions and practice of the faculty

at the present day. These, when judiciously applied, will prove invaluable

to emigrants, travellers, voyagers, and other parties beyond the reach of

legitimate medical assistance; and, under opposite circumstances, will, in

general, enable those who have the care of the sick the better to second

and carry out the instructions and efforts of the physician for the

benefit of their charge. Here, however, it may be useful to repeat the

cautions given in other parts of this volume, as to the impropriety of

unnecessarily meddling with the healing art, or neglecting a prompt

application to a duly qualified practitioner, in all cases demanding

either medical or surgical aid. It is an indubitable fact that the best

efforts of the inexperienced and uninitiated in the mysteries of medical

science must be always enormously behind those of parties whose whole

lives and study have been devoted to the subject.

The nature of a condensed alphabetical arrangement not permitting

numerous articles to come under distinct heads, or to be referred to under

all their synonymes, the casual reader may often be led to suppose that

this book is most deficient where in reality it is the most copious. In

general I have attempted, as much as possible, to bring together subjects

of a closely allied character, and compounds which are analogous to each

other, either in constitution or the mode of their preparation. Thus, most

of the formulæ for Mixtures, Ointments, Pills, &c., follow in alphabetical

order the general articles under these heads; whilst those for the Oxides,

Salts, &c., follow the names of their respective bases. In like manner, a

notice of a number of preparations will be found included in that of their

principal ingredients. The names under which the leading substances appear

are generally those which are most familiar to well-informed practical

men, and which have commonly reference to either their acknowledged

chemical constitution, or to some long-known and easily recognised

quality. The following extract conveys an important lesson on this

subject, with which I perfectly agree:--"We have been unwilling to make

any unnecessary changes in the nomenclature of substances whose names are

sanctioned by the usage of the present day; for these names have been, for

the most part, rightly assigned by our predecessors, or confirmed by lapse

of time. We are indeed aware that every improvement in the knowledge of

things ought to be embodied in their names; but we must be careful, in

selecting or forming these names, not to make those points appear certain

and established which are as yet doubtful, for it is safer to be in the

rear than advance of natural history."[1]

[Footnote 1: Preface to the Ph. L., 1851.]

I have exerted myself to the utmost to ensure the accuracy and

completeness of this volume, but I feel conscious that, after all my

efforts for this purpose, some errors have crept into it, that many

subjects which deserve insertion in it have been omitted, and that many

others have been either imperfectly or too briefly noticed. "Yet these

failures, however frequent, may," I trust, "admit of extenuation and

apology. To have attempted much is always laudable, even where the

enterprise is above the strength that undertakes it. To rest below his aim

is incident to every one whose fancy is active, and whose views are

comprehensive; nor is any man satisfied with himself because he has done

much, but because he conceives little." When I commenced this work I

resolved to leave nothing within its legitimate limits unexamined or

unelucidated; and I flattered myself with a prospect of the hours which I

should thus "revel away" in a pursuit so congenial to my desires--"the

treasures with which I expected every search into those neglected mines to

reward my labour--and the triumph with which I should display my

acquisitions to mankind." But these were the dreams of a poet, doomed at

last to wake a "Cyclopædist". The long task which I had undertaken soon

exhibited its truly onerous character, and daily grew in urgency, until

that which promised to be a pleasure had been transformed into an

exhausting and continuous labour. At first, a sacrifice of the hours of

leisure only seemed necessary to the undertaking--next, those assigned to

professional and business avocations were demanded, and absorbed; but, ere

long, one by one, the hours usually devoted to repose were sucked into the

insatiable vortex, until the bright beams of the rising sun not

unfrequently illumined the lamp-lit study or the gloomy laboratory, and

surprised the author, no longer an enthusiast, at his still-enduring task.

But long ere this I had learned that to carry out my original resolutions

in all their completeness and entirety was impossible, and "that to pursue

perfection was, like the first inhabitants of Arcadia, to chase the sun,

which, when they had reached the hill where he had seemed to rest, was

still at the same distance from them."[2] All I can further say in

reference to this point is simply to assure the reader that three of the

elements usually deemed essential to give value to a technological

work--viz. zeal, industry, and capital--have not been wanting in the

production of the present one;--the first two depending on the author, and

the other chiefly on the liberality and enterprise of the publisher.

[Footnote 2: Dr Samuel Johnson's Preface to his English Dictionary.]

As heretofore, I beg to solicit my readers to apprise me of any

inaccuracies or omissions in this volume which may come beneath their

notice. I shall also thankfully receive any hints or suggestions tending

to the improvement of future editions of this work. Such communications,

to be useful, must, however be written on only one side of the paper.

Parties who may thus kindly afford me assistance will, in due course, have

their services publicly acknowledged; and their names and addresses,

unless when otherwise requested, will be published in full.

I have endeavoured to render the present volume as self-explanatory as

possible, and, in general, have appended ample directions to the several

formulæ and processes that seemed to me likely to cause embarrassment to

those inexpert in chemical manipulation; but should any party find it

otherwise, I shall be happy to reply, gratuitously, to any reasonable

questions tending to elucidate the difficulty.

In conclusion, I may add that, having now for nearly a quarter of a

century devoted my attention to the applications of chemistry in most of

the useful arts and manufactures, both British and foreign, and in

sanitation, I am in possession of many valuable processes and formulæ,

hitherto wholly unknown, or but partially developed, with various

improved plans of factories, laboratories, ventilation, &c., which the

limits of this work will not permit me to describe in its pages, but on

which I should be happy to communicate with parties interested in the

same. Persons desirous of establishing any new branch of manufacture, or

of improving an existing one, or of determining the purity or value of

articles of food, wines, liqueurs, medicines, &c., or of obtaining formulæ

or processes which are not contained in this work, may, in like manner,

have their wishes complied with, by enclosing to me samples, or the

requisite information.