A History of Chemical Theory and Laws

Abstract

THIS book, as the author remarks in several places, is not intended as a history of chemistry, but as an account of the development of chemical theory, an account of attempts “to describe, to set in due order, and to connect the changes of composition and the changes of properties which occur simultaneously in systems of homogeneous substances, and the conditions under which these changes proceed.” Or, as the author again expresses his intention, it is “to trace the forms which the two fundamental inquiries of chemistry have presented at different periods, to describe some of the methods which have been used to find answers to these inquiries, and to set forth the general results of the application of these methods.” The two fundamental inquiries relate to the questions, “What is a chemically distinct substance?” and “What happens when chemically distinct substances interact?”

A History of Chemical Theory and Laws.

By M. M. Pattison Muir. Pp. xx + 555. (New York: John Wiley and Sons; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1907.) Price 17s. net.