BERZELIUS, JÖNS JACOB. - ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTENT WORKS IN THE HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY - THE FRENCH VERSION.

Essais sur les proportions déterminées dans lesquelles se trouvent réunis les élémens de la nature inorganiques. (+) Suite des experiences sur les proportions déterminées, d'après lesquelles les élémens de la nature inorganique s'unissent... (In all 12 Suites) + Exposition générale des résultats de mes experiences sur les proportions déterminées de la naturwe inorganique. Traduit du suédois.

Paris, Chez J. Klostermann fils, 1811-12. Bound in 6 contemp. hcalf. Gilt spines, slightly rubbed. Wear to top of spines. In: "Annales de Chimie, ou Recueil de Mémoires concernant la Chemie" Tome 78, 79, 80, 81, 82 and 83. (Entire volumes offered). The 14 parts: (Tome 78:) pp. 5-37, 105-132, 217-242. - (Tome 79:) pp. 113-142, 233-264. - (Tome 80:) pp. 5-37, 225-258. - (Tome 81:) pp. 5-36, 278-303. - (Tome 82:) pp. 5-33, 113-125, 225-72. (Tome 83:) pp. 5-35 a. pp. 117-127. With in all 3 engraved plates. Some scattered brownspots.

The papers represents one of the first announcements of Berzelius' discovery of the fixed chemical proportions, determining the weights and valencies of the various constituent elements in inorganic compounds. The papers were published at the same time in Swedish, German (both here in Annalen and in Schweiger's Journal), and in French. By running many hundreds of analysis of chemical compounds he gave so many examples of the law of definite proportions that the world of chemistry could no longer doubt its validity, and in so doing he gave experimental evidence to the atomic theory. He hereby laid a solid fundation for the further development of chemistry. A reprint is found in Ostwald's Klassiker der exakten Wissenschaften, No. 35.

According to Söderbaum (Jac. Berzelius, 2, p.12) "It was a giant work, one of the most importent in the history of chemistry, which was here presented. One is even more impressed when one remembers that it was a pioneer undertaking in every sense of the term. Analytic and synthetic methods existed before Berzelius' time, to be sure, but there were no precise methods of the sort which he required. They all had to be elaborated at the cost of time and labour."(J. Erik Jorpes "Jac. Berzelius", p.45).

"In general Berzelius's efforts were directed toward the consolidation and extension of the atomic theory. He improved chemical analysis and determined the composition of a large number of compounds, thus verifying the laws of constant and multiple proportions and furnishing the most accurate equivalent weights then available. By ingenious methods he arrived at the correct atomic composition of most common substances, and thus was enabled to draw up (in 1826) a table of atomic weights very nearly identical with the modern one."(Leicester & Klicktein "A Source Book in Chemistry", p. 258).

Parkinson "Breakthroughs", 1810-20 C.

Order-nr.: 46030