Details
BERZELIUS, Jöns Jacob (1779-1848). Essai sur la théorie des proportions chimiques et sur l'influence chimique de l'électricité, traduit du suèdois sous les yeux de l'auteur. Paris: Méquignon-Marvis, 1819.
8o (215 x 135 mm). Half-title. (Foxing throughout). Contemporary quarter calf, marbled boards (front inner hinge cracked), UNTRIMMED.
First edition in French of an important treatise by one of the founders of modern chemistry. Berzelius, a member of an old Swedish family whose knowledge of chemistry was almost entirely self-taught, developed a dualistic theory of chemistry in which he tried to explain affinity by classifying chemical components as either electronegative or electropositive; this was an ancestor of modern electron theories. He made important contributions to mineralogy, including the first classification of minerals according to their chemical composition; he reformed chemical symbolism by introducing numerical subscripts to indicate proportions; and he invented pieces of scientific apparatus that became standard. His enormous influence on the chemists of his time owed much to the wide dissemination of his voluminous writings, which were translated into all the major European languages and frequently reprinted. Wellcome, p. 126.
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First edition in French of an important treatise by one of the founders of modern chemistry. Berzelius, a member of an old Swedish family whose knowledge of chemistry was almost entirely self-taught, developed a dualistic theory of chemistry in which he tried to explain affinity by classifying chemical components as either electronegative or electropositive; this was an ancestor of modern electron theories. He made important contributions to mineralogy, including the first classification of minerals according to their chemical composition; he reformed chemical symbolism by introducing numerical subscripts to indicate proportions; and he invented pieces of scientific apparatus that became standard. His enormous influence on the chemists of his time owed much to the wide dissemination of his voluminous writings, which were translated into all the major European languages and frequently reprinted. Wellcome, p. 126.