Six folding engraved plates. cc, 448 pp.; 560 pp.; 726 pp.; 607 pp. Four vols. 8vo, orig. blue wrappers (a little worn, dampstain on first few leaves & in fore-edge margin of last few leaves of Vol. III), uncut. Paris: Chaignieau, 1803.

First edition of the first chemical dictionary to be published after the discoveries of Lavoisier. “As a scientist Cadet is noteworthy for his part in the diffusion and popularization of the new Chemistry rather than for any specific discovery. His most important work, the four-volume Dictionnaire de Chimie, published in 1803 and dedicated to Fourcroy, replaced the old... More

viii, 584 pp. Large 4to, fine antique mottled calf (first three leaves a little foxed), spine gilt, red morocco lettering piece on spine. Paris: Cailleau, 1785.

First edition of the earliest bibliography on mineral waters and still the most important bibliography on the subject. The book contains upwards of 1000 extensively annotated descriptions of books of all periods and in various languages on balneology, geology, chemistry, etc.

Carrère (1740-1802), a member of a distinguished family of physicians at Perpignan, took his medical degree at Montpellier and became professor of anatomy at his native city. He was also director of the... More

Large engraved vignette on title. Title in red & black. 8 p.l., 626, [69] pp. Folio, cont. blind-stamped pigskin over wooden boards, arms on covers effaced. Lyon: J. & P. Prost, 1636.

First edition, Schuh’s issue B (no stated priority) with the dedication to Charles de Neufville. “Very scarce. Compendium of all the author ever discovered or read about the subject of mineralogy. It was published posthumously from notes he left by his Order at Lyon six years after his death. Printed in a double column format in a relatively small type-size, the work is a vast storehouse of all... More

Two vols. Text vol.: two folding printed tables. xv, 735 pp., one leaf of errata. 8vo, attractive antique calf-backed marbled boards (several signatures foxed), flat spine gilt. [with]: Atlas vol.: 40 plates, most of them colored & folded, many of them signed by the author, and nine printed sheets, each of a different color, and two printed leaves of text (including title). Large 4to, binding as above. Paris: Pitois-Levrault, 1839.

First edition of this classic work — one of the most influential treatises on color of the 19th century — by the great French chemist Chevreul (1786-1889).

“Chevreul made an... More

2 p.l., [vii]-xx, 385, [1] pp. 8vo, cont. sheep-backed boards (joints cracked but strong, head of spine worn), flat spine gilt with red & green morocco labels. Paris: Cuchet, 1788.

First edition. At the behest of the Faculty of Medicine, and “with the collaboration of Delaporte (of the Royal Society of Medicine) Fourcroy made very detailed analyses of the waters of Enghien, in the valley of Montmorency, and a large quantity was brought to Paris for further study. A full account of these waters was read by Fourcroy at ten successive meetings of the society and subsequently published in the... More

Ten folding printed tables. Five vols. 8vo, cont. mottled sheep (occasional minor foxing), flat spines gilt with green morocco lettering pieces. Paris: Cuchet, 1793.

Fifth and final edition, revised, of this celebrated textbook; it is Fourcroy’s first major publication (1st ed.: 1782). A résumé of the course of seventy lectures he gave each winter in his laboratory, it contains a comprehensive account of all parts of chemistry, including recent work on gases. Fourcroy also included sections concerned with the analysis of animal fluids and solids and their application to medicine. By the time of this edition Fourcroy had adopted Lavoisier’s... More

Six large folding engraved plates of apparatus. 88 pp. 4to, orig. blue wrappers, uncut & largely unopened. Paris: l’Imprimerie Royale, 1832.

First edition. With this work Gay-Lussac made a major contribution to chemical analysis. It contains a detailed description of his precipitation titration method for the quantitative determination of silver, which completely displaced the centuries old method of cupellation.

Very good copy.

❧ Cole 509. Neville I, p. 504–“One of the most important books published by Gay-Lussac.” Darmstaedter, Handbuch, p. 386. More

Ten folding engraved plates. xviii, [8], 408 pp., one leaf of privilege. Large 4to, cont. mottled calf (tiny chip to foot of spine, minor browning), spine gilt, red morocco lettering piece on spine. Paris: Debure l’aîné, 1735.

First edition in French (1st ed.: 1727) of Hales’s classic demonstration of the respiration of plants, and that plants quantitatively absorb material from the air. This translation was one of the earliest publications of the great naturalist Buffon, “an influential…trans. which has the famous ‘Préface du traducteur,’ in which Buffon praises the experimental method, and includes Hales’s appendix of 1733.”–D.S.B., VI, p. 47... More

Engraved frontis. port. of Harris, 14 engraved plates (some folding, one with a short tear without loss) & numerous woodcut illus. in the text. Title in red & black. [463] leaves; [386] leaves. Two vols. Folio, cont. panelled calf (extremities a little worn, some browning as is usual with this book), red morocco lettering pieces on spines (Vol. I label recent & sympathetically done). London: 1704-10.

First edition of the first technical encyclopedia in any language and a landmark in the history of technology. “This was the first general scientific encyclopedia, and for it Harris drew upon some of the... More

Two engraved plates & four folding printed tables (each printed on both sides). 2 p.l., 258 pp. 8vo, cont. black boards (minor foxing), pale blue lettering piece on spine. Braunschweig: F. Vieweg, 1799.

First edition of an important work on eudiometry, containing valuable data on the composition of air and different gases (oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and sulphur dioxide) and on the oxidation of phosphorus. At the end (pp. 255-58) is a letter by Humboldt to the brother of A.J. Garnerin, the first man to descend by parachute from a balloon (1797), on the analysis of air gathered by the... More

Two folding engraved plates. xi, [5], 390 pp. Small 8vo, cont. red morocco, with the arms in gilt of either the Comtesse de Provence or the Comtesse d’Artois (see below), triple gilt fillet round sides, spine nicely gilt, a.e.g. Paris: J.B. Coignard, 1745.

First edition and a lovely copy in contemporary red morocco with arms (see below). “La Garaye (1675-1755), a Breton nobleman and philanthropist, was a diligent chemist who devised a novel method of preparing medicines from minerals by long maceration with neutral salt solutions. He also extracted a number of principles from plants as from Peruvian bark, the... More

One engraved plate & one folding printed table. xvi, 375 pp.; 2 p.l., 412 pp. Two vols. 8vo, cont. cat’s paw calf (light foxing & minor stains). Paris: Maradan, Seconde Année de la République [1794].

First edition. Lamarck (1744-1829), the noted biologist and evolutionist, had pronounced chemical theories and they were an important part of his ideas about nature and evolution. He was an adversary of Lavoisier’s anti-phlogistic theory and proposed the four-element theory (earth, air, water, and fire). Lamarck believed that these four elements “have no attraction for one another but tend to separate unless constrained by force…He proposed... More