the subject, and to his desire of appearing decently before the judgment
of the world.
He has earnestly endeavoured to give the meaning of the Author with the
most scrupulous fidelity, having paid infinitely greater attention to
accuracy of translation than to elegance of stile. This last indeed, had
he even, by proper labour, been capable of attaining, he has been
obliged, for very obvious reasons, to neglect, far more than accorded
with his wishes. The French copy did not reach his hands before the
middle of September; and it was judged necessary by the Publisher that
the Translation should be ready by the commencement of the University
Session at the end of October.
He at first intended to have changed all the weights and measures used
by Mr Lavoisier into their correspondent English denominations, but,
upon trial, the task was found infinitely too great for the time
allowed; and to have executed this part of the work inaccurately, must
have been both useless and misleading to the reader. All that has been
attempted in this way is adding, between brackets ( ), the degrees of
Fahrenheit's scale corresponding with those of Reaumeur's thermometer,
which is used by the Author. Rules are added, however, in the Appendix,
for converting the French weights and measures into English, by which
means the reader may at any time calculate such quantities as occur,
when desirous of comparing Mr Lavoisier's experiments with those of
British authors.
By an oversight, the first part of the translation went to press without
any distinction being preserved between charcoal and its simple
elementary part, which enters into chemical combinations, especially
with oxygen or the acidifying principle, forming carbonic acid. This
pure element, which exists in great plenty in well made charcoal, is
named by Mr Lavoisier _carbone_, and ought to have been so in the
translation; but the attentive reader can very easily rectify the
mistake. There is an error in Plate XI. which the engraver copied
strictly from the original, and which was not discovered until the plate
was worked off at press, when that part of the Elements which treats of
the apparatus there represented came to be translated. The two tubes 21.
and 24. by which the gas is conveyed into the bottles of alkaline
solution 22. 25. should have been made to dip into the liquor, while the
other tubes 23. and 26. which carry off the gas, ought to have been cut
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