Details
INGEN-HOUSZ, Jan (1730-1799). Experiments upon Vegetables, discovering their great Power of purifying the common Air in the Sun-shine, and of injuring it in the Shade and at Night. London: for P. Elmsly and H. Payne, 1779.
8o (210 x 122 mm). Engraved folding plate, additional engraved folding portrait. Contemporary sprinkled calf gilt (lacks lettering piece on spine). Provenance: L.H.S. Duroure (signature on title dated 1787); James Brodie of Brodie (engraved armorial bookplate).
FIRST EDITION. Ingen-Housz's work on photosynthesis is thought to have been stimulated by Priestley's investigations. In the above publication he "advanced the understanding of the subject considerably. He established that only the green parts of a plant can 'restore' the air, that they do this only when illuminated by sunlight, and that the active part of the sun's radiation is in the visible light and not in the heat radiation. In addition he found that plants, like animals, exhibit respiration, that respiration continues day and night, and that all parts of the plant - green as well as nongreen, flowers and fruits as well as roots - take part in the process" (DSB). Dibner Heralds of Science 29; Henrey 866; Garrison-Morton 103; Grolier/Horblit 55; Wellcome III, p. 329; Norman 1141.
[With:] INGEN-HOUSZ. Expriences sur les Vgtaux... Paris: Thophile Barrois the younger, 1787-89. 2 volumes. 8o (195 x 126 mm.) Engraved folding plate. Contemporary mottled calf, spines gilt. Third enlarged edition in French. Norman 1142. (3)
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FIRST EDITION. Ingen-Housz's work on photosynthesis is thought to have been stimulated by Priestley's investigations. In the above publication he "advanced the understanding of the subject considerably. He established that only the green parts of a plant can 'restore' the air, that they do this only when illuminated by sunlight, and that the active part of the sun's radiation is in the visible light and not in the heat radiation. In addition he found that plants, like animals, exhibit respiration, that respiration continues day and night, and that all parts of the plant - green as well as nongreen, flowers and fruits as well as roots - take part in the process" (DSB). Dibner Heralds of Science 29; Henrey 866; Garrison-Morton 103; Grolier/Horblit 55; Wellcome III, p. 329; Norman 1141.
[With:] INGEN-HOUSZ. Expriences sur les Vgtaux... Paris: Thophile Barrois the younger, 1787-89. 2 volumes. 8