ABSTRACT
Necessity, rather than choice, obliges me to issue the present edition of Chemical Recreations in detachments. I intended to have published the whole at once, but the limited time which my commercial avocations permit me to devote to science, prohibits any approach to a speedy execution of the amendments which I had planned upon the preceding edition of this work, and incautiously attempted to effect. A comparison of the present publication with the corresponding portion of the seventh edition of Chemical Recreations, will satisfy the reader that the amendments introduced are to such an extent, and of such a character, as, in fact, to constitute a new work. The alterations which I intend to make upon other portions, though not perhaps so revolutionary as those which I have made upon this portion, are, nevertheless, such as can only be effected by an expenditure of time so considerable, that I find myself under the necessity, either of delaying the publication of the whole work for an indefinite period, or of publishing apart the portion which is now finished, and which comprehends a complete and important subject. In this dilemma, I adopt the latter alternative, and publish this essay on Manipulation, with an engagement to finish the residue of the work at the earliest opportunity.
