Chemical Physics

Abstract

THE preface to this work bears the date Feb. 1, 1860; no explanation is given of the issue in 1886 of a fourth edition in the form before us. According to the dictionary, an edition is “the whole number of copies of a work published at once.” We are forced to assume that such a definition would be accepted as sufficient by Prof. Cooke; but in the case of educational works dealing with a branch of science which is daily enriched by new discoveries, the reading public are in the habit of supposing that a new edition is not a mere reprint of the former edition: it is rightly expected that it shall take notice of, at all events, the more important of recent discoveries, and failure to recognise this elementary truth is unpardonable.

Elements of Chemical Physics.

By Josiah P. Cooke Jr., Erving Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy in Harvard University. Fourth Edition. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1886.)