A HISTORY OF THE SCIENCES
HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY
BY Sir EDWARD THORPE, C.B., LL.D., F.R.S. AUTHOR OF “ESSAYS IN HISTORICAL CHEMISTRY,” “HUMPHRY DAVY: POET AND PHILOSOPHER,” “JOSEPH PRIESTLEY,” ETC., ETC.
TWO VOLUMES
I.
From the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Nineteenth Century
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS NEW YORK AND LONDON The Knickerbocker Press
1909
Copyright, 1909, by G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
This series is published in London by The Rationalist Press Association, Limited
PUBLISHERS’ NOTE
A History of the Sciences has been planned to present for the information of the general public a historic record of the great divisions of science. Each volume is the work of a writer who is accepted as an authority on his own subject-matter. The books are not to be considered as primers, but present thoroughly digested information on the relations borne by each great division of science to the changes in human ideas and to the intellectual development of mankind. The monographs explain how the principal scientific discoveries have been arrived at and the names of the workers to whom such discoveries are due.
The books will comprise each about 200 pages. Each volume will contain from 12 to 16 illustrations, including portraits of the discoverers and explanatory views and diagrams. Each volume contains also a concise but comprehensive bibliography of the subject-matter. The following volumes will be issued during the course of the autumn of 1909.
The History of Astronomy.
By George Forbes, M.A., F.R.S., M. Inst. C.E.; author of The Transit of Venus, etc.
The History of Chemistry: Vol. I. circa 2000 B.C. to 1850 A.D. Vol. II. 1850 A.D. to date.
By Sir Edward Thorpe, C.B., LL.D., F.R.S., Director of the Government Laboratories, London; Professor-elect and Director of the Chemical Laboratories of the Imperial College of Science and Technology; author of A Dictionary of Applied Chemistry.
To be followed by:
The History of Geography.
By Dr. John Scott Keltie, F.R.G.S., F.S.S., F.S.A., Hon. Mem. Geographical Societies of Paris, Berlin, Rome, Brussels, Amsterdam, Geneva, etc.; author of Report on Geographical Education, Applied Geography.
The History of Geology.
By Horace B. Woodward, F.R.S., F.G.S., Assistant-Director of Geological Survey of England and Wales; author of The Geology of England and Wales, etc.
The History of Anthropology.
By A. C. Haddon, M.A., Sc.D., F.R.S., Lecturer in Ethnology, Cambridge and London; author of Study of Man, Magic and Fetishism, etc.
The History of Old Testament Criticism.
By Archibald Duff, Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament Theology in the United College, Bradford; author of Theology and Ethics of the Hebrews, Modern Old Testament Theology, etc.
The History of New Testament Criticism.
By F. C. Conybeare, M.A., late Fellow and Praelector of Univ. Coll., Oxford; Fellow of the British Academy; Doctor of Theology, honoris causa, of Giessen; Officer d’ Academie; author of Old Armenian Texts of Revelation, etc.
Further volumes are in plan on the following subjects:
