Guy's pocket cyclopaedia

Front matter

GUY’S

POCKET CYCLOPAEDIA^

OR

Preface

The utility of works like the present has been abundantly confirmed by their frequency in almost every language. Young gentlemen and ladies, after receiving what is termed a liberal or genteel education, are often found ignorant of the nature and quality of numerous objects with which they have been surrounded. To remedy this defect, and to furnish them, before they leave school or at their first entrance on the busy theatre of life, with a comprehensive and regular course of digested and connected information, is the design of this Work ; in drawing up which the capacities of young persons between the ages of twelve and twenty have been kept in view. A youth of twelve may, possibly, escape censure, should he be ignorant of its contents; but a gentleman or lady, at or approaching their majority, would be inexcusable without some knowledge of the subjects which occur in every conversation and in every newspaper, and which have more or less connexion with almost every object that presents itself in life. Intelligent parents, indeed, begin with the very dawn of reason, to inform their children respecting the objects with which they are surrounded, teaching them a knowledge of things and facts with the first knowledge of words: to such it is presumed this Work will be particularly acceptable.

And although persons of deep scientific acquirement will scarcely have recourse to these pages for information, yet as a refresher to their memories and as a compendious index to more copious sources of knowledge, this Volume will, we doubt not, be found useful.

It is presumed, therefore, that this manual will supply many of the purposes of a Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, particularly that of occasional consultation. Those conversant with small dictionaries find the definition of words and things too short and insufficient to afford satisfactory information, or even, in numerous instances, to convey clear ideas. Some of the

X

PREFACE.

words in a dictionary they may, indeed, never have occasion to know; and for others a short explanation is sufficient: but there are, notwithstanding, many which require more satisfactory illustration. These then, the reader will perceive, constitute many of the subjects of the present Volume : they obtrude hourly on our notice, and are either objects of utility or of laudable curiosity. Care has been taken to introduce nothing that may offend delicacy; nor any thing which may tend to warp the political or religious principles in which the young Reader may be brought up : for the design of such a Work should be not to bias, but inform ; not to serve the narrow views of party, but the more enlarged purposes of general knowledge.

Of the general execution of the present Edition of the Work, it does not become the Author to speak ; yet, he may be permitted to observe that the Reader will readily perceive uniformity and correct design throughout ; and that more originality, combined with conciseness, will be found in many articles, than is generally met with in works of a similar nature. An acquaintance too with what may be called viva voce modern science, the science of the Lecture Room , and of Literary Societies, *has imparted a feature to the Work which will not be mistaken : nothing has been stated which has not been well examined, revised, considered, and discussed.

London, April 1832.

PART I. Man

His Structure — Brain — Phrenology — Mind, and its Faculties — Passions — Education — Pursuits — Exercises — Amusements — Aliments — — Water — Bread, &c. — Fruits — Wines, Liquors — Fish — Birds — Medicines from Vegetables — Oil, Alkalies; from Animals; from Earths and Minerals — Of Bathing — Mineral Waters — The Gases — Electricity —

Galvanism — Poisons — Hydrophobia — Scalds and Burns — Drowning * Page 2

PART II. Articles of Commerce

Metals — Fixed Alkalies — Tartar — Mixed Earths or Clays — Coal and other Bituminous and Inflammable Substances — Gems and Precious Stones — Stones, Marble, &c. — Colours and Paints — Curious Woods — Curious Trees and other Vegetable Productions — Timber Trees and some of their Products — Polypus — Coral, Sponge — Woollen, Silk, Cotton, and Flax Manufactures — Skins, Leather, Parchment — Hats, Felting, &c — Gold Ores and Manufactures — Plumbery — Tin — Foundry, Iron, &c. — Printing — Varnish, Japanning, &c.— Bricks — Pipes — Pottery — Glass — Pins — Needles — Bleaching — Dyeing — Soap — Candles— Paper. 153

PART III. Civil Polity

Heraldry — Titles and Distinctions — Great Officers of State, Parliament, &c. — Society — Government — Law — Lawyers — Judge— Jury — Crimes and Punishments — Tithes— Freehold — Magna Charta, &c. — Commercial Affairs — Company — Bank — Military Affairs — The Navy — Ships, Vessels, &c. — Fire Arms and Implements of War 301

PART IV. Arts, Sciences, Literature, Religion, &c

Language — Grammar — Architecture— Agriculture — Natural History - — Botany — Zoology — Mineralogy — Geology — Chemistry — Anatomy xii

CONTENTS.

— Medicine, &c. — Philosophy — Physiology — Mental Philosophy — Geography— Astronomy, &c. — Chronology, History, Biography, &c.— Mathematics, Algebra, Geometry, Optics, Mechanics, &c. — The Manage and Veterinary Science — Politics, Political Economy and Statistics — Fine Arts — Drawing — Painting — Sculpture — Engraving — Instruments, Machines, &c. — Music and Musical Instruments — Poetry and Poetical Terms — Mythology — The Muses — Taste — Belles Lettres — Literary Terms — Rhetoric, &c. — Philosophy and Philosophers — Wonders of Nature and Art — Schools — Academies, Literary Institutions — Colleges — Universities — Learned Societies — Theology — Religion — Religious Officers and Distinctions, Religious Societies, Religious Sects and Denominations— Ancient People and Countries — Division of Time, Calendar,

Year, Months, Days — Weights and Measures 411

Conclusion. 626

Index 627

Although we have occasionally alluded to several Publications when treating of the various subjects in our Volume, the Student will, we trust, find the following

List of Useful Works to which reference may be made in a Cyclopedic Study,

of considerable assistance to him in his researches. Notwithstanding the authors mentioned have, doubtless, various degrees of merit and utility, none has been named from which either information or amusement might not be obtained. The list could be, it is true, very considerably increased ; but to name all useful writers and books would not suit our limits ; we content ourselves, therefore, with noticing those which we conceive to be of most importance.

If there should be any one still incredulous as to the utility and pleasures of Knowledge, we refer him to a little tract intitled, The Objects , Advantages, and Pleasures of Science, published under the superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. We may also mention here, that the Society has caused to be published, at a cheap price, a variety of Treatises on the Sciences, Biography, History , &c. &c. under the title of Library of Useful Knowledge, which are extremely valuable, and ought to be consulted by those who desire to obtain the latest and most correct information on the subjects to which they respectively relate.

It should be mentioned too, to avoid repetitions in regard to Dictionaries, Lexicons, and Cyclopaedias, that those not exclusively devoted to one particular science are frst named j the rest of the list is according to the older adopted in our work.

LIST OF USEFUL WORKS.

Xlll

Dictionaries, Lexicons, Cyclopaedias, &c. — Cr abb's Historical Dictionary. Cr abb's Technological Dictionary. Cr abb's Dictionary of Synonyms. Todd's Johnson's Dictionary , and Chalmers's Abridgement of the same. Walker's and Enfield's Pronouncing Dictionaries. Miller's Gardener's Dictionary. Jennings's Family Cyclopaedia. Encyclopaedia Metropolitana. Mylius's School Dictionary. Guy's New British Expositor. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Bees's Cyclopaedia. Pantologia. Brewster's Cyclopaedia. Walker s Key to the Pronunciation of Greek , Latin , and Scripture Names. Salmon's Stemmata Latinitatis. Ainsworth's Latin and English Dictionary, by Carey. Facciolati and For cellinis Universal Latin Lexicon, by Bailey. Schrevelius's Greek and English Lexicon. Robertson's Dictionary of Latin Phrases. Povah's Vocabulary of the Greek Roots. Levizac's French and English Dictionary , by Gros. Nares's Glossary. Moore's Suffolk Words. Brocket's North Country W ords. Jennings on the West of England Dialects. Junius. Skinner. Lye. Bayle's Dictionary. Hooper's Medical Dictionary. Jamieson's Dictionary of the Scottish Dialect. Dodsley's Annual Register.

Most of the Cyclopaedias above named should be consulted for the articles mentioned in the subsequent list. Consult also the Philosophical Transactions for various subjects named below, and also the Journal of the Royal Institution; Somner and Spelman's Glossaries; and this Work

GENERALLY.

Natural History of Man, Anatomy, &c, — Linnaeus. Gmelin. Cuvier. Blumenbach. Haller. Cheselden. The Bells. Bichat. Fyfe, Hunter. Monro. Sir Everard Home. Gall and Spurzheim. Spallanzani.

The Mind and Passions. — Watts, Locke, Hartley. Reid. Beattie on Truth. Dugald Stewart. Dr. Brown. Dr. Haslam's Lectures. Jennings on the Nature and Operations of the Mind. Paley. Spurzheim. Ci'ook's Manual of Phrenology. Cogan. Grove. Adam Smith.

Education, &c. — Dr. Knox. St. Pierre. Locke on the Conduct of the Understanding. Miss Edgeworth. Paley's Works. Bingley's Useful Knowledge. Analecta Latina Major a. Frey's Hebrew Grammar , by Downes. Tate's Greek Metres. Webb's Elements of Greek Prosody and Metre. Whitehead's Grammar of the Spanish Language. Rowbotham's German Grammar. Rowbotham's and fffanostrocht's French Grammar. Wallis's, Lowth's, Priestley's, and Murray's English Grammars. Guy's English School Grammar. Ellis's English Exercises. Blair's Lectures on Rhetoric, the Belles Lettres, <fyc. Bosworth's Anglo-Saxon Grammar.

Amusements, &c. — Miss Baillie's Plays. Shakspeare. Some of Sir Walter Scott's Novels and Romances. Swiss Family Robinson. Isaac Waltori's Angling. Aikin's Evenings at Home. Miss Edgeworth's Tales and Novels. Mrs. Opie's. Mackenzie' s Man of Feeling. Lord Byron's Childe Harold .

XIV

LIST OF USEFUL WORKS.

Aliments : Water, Bread, Sugar, Salt, Tea, &c. — Letlsom. Willich on Diet and Regimen. Edlin's Bread Making. Fruits. — Phillips's History of Cultivated Vegetables. Transactions of the Plorticultural Societies. Horticultural Register. Knight on the Apple. Brookshaw.

Wines, Liquors, &c. — Dr. Henderson on Wines. Young Brewer's Monitor. Combrune on Brewing. Distiller's Guide.

Fish, Birds. — Shaiv’s Zoology. Pennant's. Bloch's Ichthyology. Best's and Walton's Angling. Bewick's Birds. Latham s General History of Birds. Vigors, in Linncean Transactions. Montagu's Ornithological Dictionary. Temminck's Ornithology. Illustrations of Ornithology, by Sir W. Jardine and Mr. Selby. Jennings's Ornithologia. New Edition, of Three Hundred Animals. Waterton's Wanderings in South America. Wilson's American Ornithology. White's Selborne.

Medicines. — Rennie's New Supplement to the Pharmacopoeias. Pharmacopoeia Londinensis and its Translations. Cullen's and Lewis's Materia Medica. Todd Thomson's, and Duncan's Dispensatories. Woodville's Medical Botany. Sir Arthur Clarke on Bathing. Prout. See Hooper's Dictionary, and Todd Thomson and Brande on Mineral Waters. Black's Orfla on Poisons, and Jennings's Family Cyclopaedia. Stow's Toxicological Chart. Royal Humane Society's Directions for Treatment of the Drowned. Bostock's History of Galvanism. Comoro on a Sober Life.

Metals, Fixed Alkalies, &c. — Henry's Chemistry. Thomson's System of Chemistry, and First Principles of Chemistry. Berzelius on the Blow- Pipe by Children. Berzelius's Mineralogy. Journal of the Royal Institution. Faraday. Arago, Barlow, and Lecount on Magnetism.

Bituminous Substances, Gems, and other Stones. — Kiru'am Hatchett. Asiatic Researches. Muwe on Diamonds. Sowerby's British Minerals. Transactions of the Geological Society. Winklemann sur l' Art.

Colours and Paints. — Berlhollet on Dyeing. Bancroft on Permanent Colours. Curious Wood, Trees, &c. — Cabinet-maker's Guide. Handmaid to the Arts. Evelyn's Sylva. Aikin's Woodland Companion. Tredgold's Carpentry. Ponley's Planter. Tingry's Painter's and Colourman's Guide.

Woollen, Silk, Cotton and Flax Manufactures. — Parry on Wool. Bath Society's Transactions. Book of Trades. Aikin's Arts of Life and Evenings at Home. Wissett on Hemp.

Skins, Leather, &c. — Transactions of the Society of Arts. Segur on Tanning. Hats, &c. — The Cyclopaedias.

Gold Ores, &c. Chaptal, Chimie appliquee aux Artes. Lewis's Philosophical Commerce of the Arts. Plumbery, Tin, Foundry, Iron, &c. — Chaptal. Lewis on the Arts. Parkes, in the Journal of the Royal Institution.

LIST OF USEFUL WORKS.

XV

Printing. — Hansard's Typographia. Slower s History of Printing. Tilloch on Stereotype, in Phil. Magazine.

Varnish, Japanning, &c. — Imison's Elements of Art. Cabinet of Arts. Handmaid to the Arts.

Bricks, Pipes, Pottery, Glass — Shaw's Staffordshire. Ailcins Manchester. Wedgwood, in Phil. Transac. Brogniart sur la Porcelaine.

Pins, Needles.— Rudge's Gloucestershire.

Packer's Dyer's Guide.

Soap, Candles. — Jennings on Spermaceti, in Monthly Magazine. The Cyclopaedias. Paper. — Pliny. Maffei. Cabinet of Arts.

Heraldry, Titles, and Distinctions. — Dallaway. Brysdon's Heraldry. Selden's Titles of Honour. Madox's Baronia. Heylin's Help to English History. — Consult also Peerages and Baronetages.

Great Officers of State, Parliament. — De Lolme on the British Constitution. Origin , Constitution, and Practice of Parliament. Hansard's History and Debates of the same. Acherly on Parliament. Parliamentary Reports.

Society and Government. — Montesquieu. Grotius. Puffendorf.

Vattel. Ferguson's View of Society. Paley. Gisborne's Duties of Merc.

Law, Lawyers, Judge, Jury, Crimes, Punishments. — Blackstone's Commentaries. Law Dictionaries. Crabb's History of English Law. Williams's, and Burn's Justice. Dickinson's Quarter Sessions. Petersdorff's Digest of the Law Reports. The Statutes at Large. Paley' s Moral Philosophy. Tidd Pratt's Collection of Statutes on the Criminal Laws passed in 1826 and 1827. Crown Circuit Companion. Gilbert's Law of Evidence. Salmon and Howell's State Trials. Benlham on Legislation. Beccaria on Crimes and Punishments. Coke upon Littleton. Ward's Law of Nations. Colquhoun on the Police of the Metropolis. Reports of Criminal Trials.

Tithes, Freehold, Magna Charta, Old Terms, &c. — The Law Dictionaries. Verstegan and Brand on Antiquities, by Ellis. Nicholas's Notitia Historica. Fosbrooke's Cyclopaedia of Antiquities.

Commercial Affairs, Company, Bank, &c. — Anderson's and Mortimer's Commercial Dictionary. Kelly's Universal Cambist. Kelly's Book-Keeping. Sheppard's Commercial Guide and Continental Negotiator. Goodacre's Book-keeping. Pope's Laws of the Customs. Beawes's Lex Mercatoria. Reeves on the Navigation Laws.

Military Affairs, the Navy, Ships, Fire-arms, &c. — Campbell's Military Dictionary. James's Military Dictionary and Regimental Companion. Essays on the Art of War. Robins and Hutton on Fire Arms. James's Naval History. Falconer's Manne Dictionary. Le Blond and Carnot on Fortification. Le Comte Sciences Mililaires. Whitmore's System of British Tactics. Derrick's Royal Navy. Campbell's Admirals.

xvi

LIST OF USEFUL WORKS.

Charnock's Marine Architecture. Sutherland's Ship Builder's Assistant. Moore on Rochets. Thompson on Gunpowder, $c. Heathcote on Staysails.

Language, Grammar. — As the Books which relate to these subjects have been already mentioned under the preceding heads of Dictionaries, &c., and Education, the reader is referred to those heads for the information required; we may however add to those mentioned, Horne Tooke's Diversions of Burley. Nares's Elements of Orthoepy , and Synonymes Franqois by Girard , <$-c. Some books, intimately connected with these subjects, are mentioned under Mythology, the Belles Lettres, &c.

Architecture. — Vitruvius. Vignola. Ware. Elmes's Lectures. Repton. Palladio. Archceologia. Britton's Cathedrals. Perrault. Life of Sir Christopher Wren, Lib. of Useful Knowledge. Stuart and Revett's Antiquities of Athens. Chambers' s Civil Architecture. Art. Architecture , Encyclopaedia Metropolitana. Pugin's Gothic Specimens, and Gothic Examples. Robinson's Antiquities of Greece.

Agriculture. — The Farmer's Series of the Library of Useful Knowledge. Davy's Elements of Agricultural Chemistry. Sinclair's Code of Agriculture. Dickson s Agriculture. Complete Grazier. Bath Society's Transactions. See the next Head.

Natural History, Botany, Zoology. — To the works mentioned under preceding heads we add the following : — Aikin's Natural History of the Year. Aikin's Woodland Companion. Linncei Species Plantarum , by Willdenow. Linncei Systema Natures, by Gmelin. Bingley's Introduction to Botany. Bingley's Useful Knowledge. Loudon's Encyclo - pcedia of Gardening. Transactions of the Linncean and Horticultural Societies. Zoological Journal. Smith's Introduction. Withering. Curtis. Sweet. Sowerby. Winch. Ibbetson. Koenig. Ray. Jennings's Pleasures of Ornithology. Cuvier's Natural History of the Animal Kingdom. White's Natural History of Selborne. Bevan, Huish, and Huber on Bees. Mac Leay's Horce Entomologicce. Samouelle on Insects. Haworth. Kirby and Spence. Sweet's British Warblers. Daines Barrington on Singing Birds in Phil. Transact. Description of more than 300 Animals. The Zoological Gardens and Museum ought also to be visited. Pliny.

Mineralogy, Geology, Chemistry, Pharmacy. — To the Articles under Medicines and Metals, we add the following : Werner. Mohs. Ure. Davy. Brande. Faraday. Murray. Fourcroy. Lavoisier. Berzelius. Henry. Thomson. Joyce's Dialogues on Chemistry. Thomson's Annals of Philosophy. Paris's Pharmacologia. Priestley on Air. Kirwan on Phlogiston. Transactions of Geological Society.

Medicine, Surgery, &c. — To the Articles under Anatomy, &c. we add : Hippocrates. Celsus. Hooper's Medical Dictionary. Cooper's Dictionary of Surgery. Cullen's First Lines. Brown's Elements of Medicine, by Beddoes. Hunter. Cullen's Nosology. Sauvages. Linnaeus.

LIST OP USEFUL WORKS. Xvii

Philosophy, Physiology. — Bacon. Newton. Bostock's Physiology. Joyce's Letters on Natural and Experimental Philosophy. Joyce's Scientific Dialogues. Nisbet. Darwin. Smith. Knight. Ray. Vic d'Azyr. Richerand.

Mental Philosophy. — In addition to the authors mentioned under mind, we add — Aristotle. Edwards on the Will. Dr. Priestley. Berkeley. Crombie. Epictetus. Condillac. Harris. Mill.

Geography, Astronomy, &c. — Miers's Travels in Chili. Humboldt's Travels. Ostell's New General Atlas. Maps by the Society for Useful Knowledge. Holland’s Ancient and Modern Geography. Bruce's Introduction to Geography. Brookes' s Gazetteer. Guy's School Geography. Pinkerton's and Myer's Geography. Kell's Introduction to Spherics and Nautical Astronomy. Vince. Gregory. Bonnycastle. Ferguson. Biot. Lalande. Herschell. Guy's Astronomy. Kerrigan's Nautical Astronomy. Riddle's Navigation.

Meteorology, Electricity, Galvanism, &c — Kirwan. Howard. Dalton. Forster. Franklin. Davy. Volta. Brande. Ure.

Chronology, History, Biography. — Blair and Newton's Chronology. Picquot's Comparative Chronology. Bruce's Historical and Biographical Atlas. Bruce's Summary of Ancient History and Biography. Priestley's Chart of History and Biography. Elton's History of the Roman Emperors. Hill's Essays on the Institutions of Greece. Library of Useful Knowledge. History of Greece, Rome. Outlines of History. History of the Church, fyc. Beloe's Herodotus. Sketches of the Domestic Manners and Customs of the Romans. Plutarch's Lives. Johnson's Lives of the Poets. Watkins's Biographical Dictionary. Voltaire's Charles XII. Hume's, Smollet's, Rapin' s, Henry's, Andrew's, and Lingard's History of England. Godwin's Chaucer and Commonwealth. Universal History. Rollin's Ancient History. Robertson's History of Charles V. Dodsley's Annual Register. Turner's Anglo Saxons. Warrington's History of Wales. Nicholas's Notilia Historica. Crabb's Historical Dictionary. Baldwin's History of England, Rome, and Greece. Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Moore's History of France. Camden's Britannia.

Philology. — See Mythology and Belles Lettres, &c. ; and also Dictionaries, Lexicons, and Cyclopedias, and Language and Grammar above.

Mathematics, Algebra, Geometry, &c. — Hutton and Barlow's Mathematical Dictionaries. Gregory's Mathematics. Nicholson's Algebra. Gregory's Elements of Trigonometry. Euclid's Elements of Geometry, The Library of Useful Knowledge, Geometry, Arithmetic, and Algebra. Study of Mathematics, Navigation , <%c. Riddle and Ker-

LIST OF USEFUL WORKS.

rigan on Navigation. Guys Arithmetic. Hutton's and Goodacre's Arithmetic. Napier. Newton. Leibnitz. Dr. II. Clarke. Gutteridge's Universal Gauger.

Optics, Perspective, Acoustics, Mechanics. — Newton. Brown's Principles of Practical Perspective. Library of Useful Knowledge , Newton s Optics , Optical Instruments , §c. Joyce's Dialogues on the MU croscope. 0. Gregory. Adams. Ferguson. Millington. Partington. Brewster. Webster.

Manage and Veterinary Science. — Clater's Farrier. Clater's Cattle Doctor. White's Farriery. The History and Treatment of the Horse, in the Library of Useful Knowledge. Coleman. Lawrence on the Horse.

Politics, Political Economy, &c. — In addition to the writers named under the head Society, &c.we add — Malthus, and Godwin , on Population , <£c. Thompson on the Distribution of Wealth. Parliamentary Reports of the Population. Smith's Wealth of Nations. Arthur Young. Sir John Sinclair. Sir W. Petty. Mill's Political Economy.

Fine Arts, Drawing, Painting, &c. — Craig's Lectures. Sir Joshua Reynolds. Barry. Opie. Fuseli. Landseer. Perkins. Senefelder. Clive's Short Hand. The Roman and Grecian Antiquities at the British Museum.

Instruments, Machines, &c. Air Pump. — Boyle. Hooke. Smeaton. Blow Pipe. — Berzelius , by Children. Newman. Gurney. Galvanic Apparatus. — Sir H. Davy. Gasometer. — Peckston on Gas Lights. Safety Lamp. — Sir H. Davy. Dillon. Microscope. — Joyce's Dialogues. Brewster. Kaleidoscope. — Brewster. Bradley. Pneumatic Apparatus. — Chemical Works. Pyrometer. — Daniell. Wedgwood. Smeaton. Steam Engine. — Partington. Watt. Webster. Telescope. — Herschell. Ramage. Martin. Adams. Cuthbertson. Wollaston. Troughlon. — Thermometer. — Leslie. Brande, and other excellent Treatises on these subjects, published under the superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.

Music and Musical Instruments. — Burney's History of Music. Child's Introduction to Thorough Bass. Busby's Dictionary of Music. Crotch's Lectures.

Poetry and Poetical Terms. — The Scriptures. Homer. Anacreon. Theocritus. Pindar. Virgil. Horace. Lucan. Tibullus. Ovid. Juvenal. Terence, fyc. Chaucer. Spenser. Shakspeare. Milton. Dry den. Pope. Akenside. Ossian. Burns. Byron, ^c. Klopstock. Gesner. Lessing. Wieland. Dante. Petrarch. Ariosto. Tasso. Voltaire. De Lille. Racine. Boileau. Lope de Vega. Camoens. Blairs and Campbell's Lectures. Sheridan on Reading. Warton's History of English Poetry. This Work : some of the names of our most eminent Living Poets are mentioned at page 520.

LIST OF USEFUL WORKS.

XIX

Mythology, the Belles Lettres, &e. — Several Boohs belonging to this head are mentioned under Dictionaries, <£c. Education, and Language arid Grammar, as well as in the last Article ; and indeed under several other heads . Baldwin's Pantheon . Lempriere's Classical Dictionary. Blair's Lectures. Campbell on Eloquence, <$-c. Kaime's Elements of Criticism. Alison on Taste. Burke on the Sublime and Beautiful. Rollin on the Belles Lettres. The Edinburgh, Quarterly, Westminster, and Monthly Reviews. Retrospective Review. Monthly Magazines. Literary Gazette, fyc. Shendan on Reading.

Philosophy and Philosophers. — See under many of the preceding heads.

Wonders of Nature and Art. — Wonders of the World. Humboldt's Travels. Miers's Travels. Wright's Guide to the Giant's Causeway, Killarney, $c. Newell's Scenery of Wales. Greig's World Displayed. Buckingham's Travels. Belzoni's Egyptian Antiquities. Seely's Account of Elora. Robinson's Antiquities of Greece. The British Museum. Numerous Travels in various Regions of the World. Holland's Ancient and Modern Geography.

Schools, Universities, Institutions, &c. — Wood's History of the University of Oxford. Dyer's History of the University of Cambridge. Wood's Athence Oxonienses. Jennings on Literary Institutions. Carlisle's History of Grammar Schools. History of the Royal Society.

Theology, Religious Officers, Sects. — The Scriptures. Paley on Christianity. Watson on the Bible. Warburton's Divine Legation of Moses. Paley' s Natural Theology. Ray on the Creation. Evans's Sketch of all Religions. Evans's Golden Centenary. Mrs. Cornwallis's Observations on the Scriptures. Benson's Evidences of Christianity. Benson's Scripture Difficulties. Benson's Chronology of our Saviour's Life. Waite's Sermons on the Thirty -nine Articles. Penrose on Scripture Miracles. Josephus's History of the Jews. Hind's History of Christianity. Carwilhen's History of the English Church. Sale's Koran.

Ancient People and Countries. — Adelung. The Early Volumes of Lingard's England. Whitaker. Pinkerton. Camden.

Division of Time, Calendar, &c. — The British Almanac. Companion to the same. Englishman's Almanac. Nelson's Fasts and Festivals. Forster's Perennial Calendar. Time's Telescope.

Weights and Measures.— Acts of Parliament. The Cyclopaedias,

A

POCKET CYCLOPAEDIA ;

OR,

MISCELLANY OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE.

INTRODUCTION.

In a survey of the productions of the natural world, the globe which we inhabit, of which this work is designed to be a compendious epitome, it has been usual to consider them first as composed of original Elements , and then to trace the combination of those elements through an infinity of forms and bodies as dispersed throughout the animal , vegetable , and mineral kingdoms. For ages, the knowledge of mankind in regard to those elements, consisted in the most vague and childish opinions or guesses concerning them. Long indeed w'as it, after the inductive philosophy of Bacon appeared, before the true path to the knowledge of natural bodies, although pointed out by that great luminary, was successfully pursued. The Eighteenth century, however, and particularly the latter part of it, will for ever be an illustrious era in regard to our knowledge of the composition of numerous substances previously deemed simple, but which are now indubitably known to be compound ones. Such was the discovery of the composition of water ; — the real cause of the increase of weight in what was called the calcination of metals, — the absorption of oxygen; — and the analysis of atmospheric air. Previously to this period, the elements or simple bodies in nature were commonly considered as four; namely, earth , air, water , and fire. Now, such has been the activity of research, and so widely has real knowledge extended, the merest school-boy smiles at the apparently silly arrangement. So far, therefore, are the ultimate components of natural bodies l t (

B guy’s pocket cyclopaedia: PART I.

from being only four, we now find, according to the most accurate analysis, nearly sixty different substances to which the term element may be applied, such substances not being capable of decomposition by any means with which we are at present acquainted. The chief of those bodies are the following : oxygen , chlorine, iodine, hydrogen , nitrogen , sulphur, phosphorus , carbon, boron , all the metals, commonly so called, and other substances now known to possess metallic properties, such are potassium, sodium, barium, calcium, strontium, magnesium , silicum, aluminum, yttrium, and glucium.

It is an old and just observation, that the first and most important knowledge, which should claim the attention of man, is the knowledge of himself. Hence, before the young reader is led into an acquaintance with the various objects both of nature and art, which constantly present themselves in an intercourse with the world, it may be proper to open the subject with an inquiry into his own nature. The mind, indeed, before it has attained some degree of maturity, cannot be supposed to enter into a full investigation of self-knowledge; but the injunction, “ Know thyself” may, in one sense, be applied even to those, for whom these pages are compiled. They may be informed what are the various parts which compose the human body, animated by a mind which distinguishes man as an animal of a superior nature, and entitles him to be considered as te the lord of the creation.” We shall therefore consider the divers branches of human knowledge, as, 1st. Man, his Structure, Mind, Passions, Education, Pursuits, Exercises, Amusements, Aliments, Medicines, Poisons, Drowning, &c. 2d. Manufactures, derived from the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms ; 3d. Civil Polity ; and 4th. Arts, Sciences, and Literature.