NICHOLSON, William.

London: Printed for G.G.J. and J. Robinson, Paternoster-Row. .1790

8vo, pp. xxvii, 532, (5), 1 folding engraved plate of apparatus. Without the final blank leaf. Contemporary half calf, green morocco label on spine (a few small scuff marks, lower joint cracked at head), a very good copy.

FIRST EDITION. Nicholson (1753–1815), translator of Fourcroy and Chaptal, and editor of the first general scientific periodical in England published independently of the academies, was one of the important British figures in the new chemical movement. In his voluminous textbook on chemistry, dedicated to Cavendish, he explained both the phlogistic and antiphlogistic theories, as he considered them equally probable. “The text is divided into two books, I. General Chemistry includes heat, construction of thermometers, combustion, methods of making experiments with gases, an account of balances and elective attractions; II includes general principles of bodies, acids, metals, mineral combustibles, vegetable and animal products. The useful treatment in I. of thermometers and balances is not found in many texts” (Cole). Cole 976. Duveen 431 (without mention of the plate). Neville II, p. 228. Partington III, p. 490 and IV, p. 19.

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