To insist on the utility of the present Manual is, assuredly, superfluous. The favourable reception of the first edition, sometime since out of print, has stimulated the author to revise the work throughout, and to render it more deserving the public approbation. The Appendix to the first edition now forms a part of the Introductory Chapter, to which it naturally belongs; to the whole have been added such improvements as the present advanced state of knowledge, and particularly chemical knowledge, has rendered absolutely necessary; and which the practical dyer will find of considerable importance and much utility.

The following letter from the late Sir Humphry Davy, the first chemist of the age, appeared in the Preface to the first edition; it is here again reprinted as some proof of the sufficiency of that learned man's judgment, at least concerning the chemical theory of the art of dyeing.