INGEN-HOUSZ, Jan (1730-99). 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. To which is joined, a new method of examining the accurate degree, London: for P. Elmsly and H. Payne, 1779, 8°, FIRST EDITION, folding engraved plate (B8v soiled at lower margin, U2 with short tear to outer margin, light stain to U3), contemporary speckled calf (rebacked). [Dibner Heralds 29; GM 103: "proved that animal life is dependent ultimately on plant life, a discovery of fundamental importance in the economy of the world of living things"; Henrey 866; Horblit 55: "description of photosynthesis, the formation of compounds in plants exposed to light"; Norman 1141]

細節

INGEN-HOUSZ, Jan (1730-99). 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. To which is joined, a new method of examining the accurate degree, London: for P. Elmsly and H. Payne, 1779, 8°, FIRST EDITION, folding engraved plate (B8v soiled at lower margin, U2 with short tear to outer margin, light stain to U3), contemporary speckled calf (rebacked). [Dibner Heralds 29; GM 103: "proved that animal life is dependent ultimately on plant life, a discovery of fundamental importance in the economy of the world of living things"; Henrey 866; Horblit 55: "description of photosynthesis, the formation of compounds in plants exposed to light"; Norman 1141]

來源

"From the Revd. Mr. Tindall to Mary Wells 1797," inscription to front blank; Mary Wells, ownership insciption to title; "H. H. Williams 1800 The gift of Miss Wells afterwards Mrs Williams," inscription to front free endpaper.

拍品專文

Ingen-Housz's work on photosynthesis is thought to have been stimulated by Priestley's investigations. In this publication of his own, 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 fruit as well as roots -- take part in the process" (DSB).