FOURCROY, [Antoine François] de.

A Paris: Chez Cuchet, rue & hôtel Serpente. .1784

8vo, pp. xvi, 447, (1), 3 engraved plates. Contemporary mottled sheep, spine gilt in compartments with red morocco label, red edges, marbled endpapers (ends of spine and tips of corners worn). Contemporary repair to blank upper corner of B8 and C8, some mild foxing. Signature of D. Plonquet on title.

FIRST EDITION. A collection of 27 chemical memoirs, including many which were read to the Académie Royale des Sciences but not previously published. They begin with an interesting essay on the art of performing chemical research, which, according to Smeaton, could be read with profit by anyone starting chemical research today. The other memoirs include reports on the action of alkalis on iron salts, two papers on the analysis of marsh gas, accounts of the detonation of various substances with nitre, the preparation of pure alkalis, a new blowpipe using oxygen, and several compounds of antimony and arsenic. There are also discussions of various chemical theories, including combustion and calcination, the cause of deliquescence and efflorescence, and the representation of chemical affinity by numbers. Cole 468. Duveen p. 225. Partington III, p. 537.II. Smeaton, Fourcroy, pp. 31–33; bibliography no. 20, with a full list of the memoirs. This was the only French edition.

Unsure of some of these terms? Click here to download a copy of Carter & Barker, ABC for Book Collectors (2006), which has full explanations.