FOURCROY, [Antoine François] de.

A Paris: Chez Cuchet… .1793

5 volumes, 8vo, with the half-titles and final errata leaf in vol. 5, and 10 folding letterpress tables (numbered 1–9 and one unnumbered at p. 201), some printed on thick paper and one on blue paper. Some foxing but mostly quite minor. Contemporary mottled sheep, flat spines gilt with two green morocco labels. Heads of two spines worn, but a nice set.

Fifth edition of Fourcroy’s first major publication. It is a résumé of the course of seventy lectures that he gave each winter in his laboratory and 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 theories completely — in the preliminary discourse to the second edition of 1786 he had renounced the phlogiston theory. Neville I, p. 467 (Smeaton’s B issue). Partington III, p. 537.I. Smeaton, Fourcroy, pp. 8, 96–98 and 177–180; bibliography no. 6A. This issue has preliminary pages numbered to xxxii in vol. 1, with the correct catchword at the end.

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