Abstract
THIS handsome volume, which is a worthy memorial to the late Prof. Edgar F. Smith, Well known for his publications in the field of the history of chemistry, contains fourteen articles covering various aspects of the subject. All but one are in English. After a foreword, the essays take up the subjects of Frederick Accum, C. A. Browne, an English alchemical poem, Thomas Thomson, French chemists about 1840, Mendele‘eff, potassium chlorate in pyrotechny, the early history of calomel, the concepts of substance and element, the water controversy, Scottish alchemy, the Karlsruhe Congress, and Dulong. There are several plates, and the text is unusually Well printed, which, with the attractive binding, makes it a pleasure to read the volume. It is proposed to issue a volume annually, and if further volumes are as good as the first, the editor-in-chief, Prof. Tenney L. Davis, whose own historical publications set a very high standard, may Well feel satisfied. All concerned in the production deserve the thanks of chemists who are interested in the history of their subject. The series should be acquired by all chemical libraries, and is a notable contribution to scientific literature.
Chymia Annual Studies in the History of Chemistry.
Tenney L. Davis, Editor-in-Chief. Vol. 1. (Edgar F. Smith Memorial Collection, University of Pennsylvania.) Pp. xiv + 190 + 16 plates. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1948.) 3.50 dollars.
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Chymia Annual Studies in the History of Chemistry . Nature 162, 278 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/162278a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/162278a0