MENDELEJEFF, (MENDELÉEV, MENDELEYEV, MENDELÉEFF), DIMITRY IVANOVICH. - A CLASSIC IN CHEMISTRY.

Die periodische Gesetzmässigkeit der chemischen Elemente; (Aus dem Russischen von Felix Wreden). (On the periodical law of the chemical elements).

Leipzig und Heidelberg, C.F. Winter'sche Verlagshandlung, (1871) 1872.

Recent marbled marbled boards. Spine gilt and with titlelabel in leather with gilt lettering: "Annalen der Pharmacie VIII Suppl. Band. In "Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie. Hrsg. und Redigiert von Friedrich Wöhler, Justus Liebig und Hermann Kopp", VIII. Supplementband. Pp. (4),392 pp. (entire volume offered). 2 small stamps on title-page. Mendelejeff's paper pp. 133-229, 2 (periodic) tables on p. 149 a. 151. Internally fine and clean.

First printing of the first German translation of this milestone paper, ONE OF THE GREAT CLASSICS OF CHEMISTRY, in which Mendelejeff first coined the word "periodic", and in which he, for the first time, presented his great discovery of the periodicity of the elements in its full and complete form. At the same time the paper is the first to present his discoveries in a western language. In the paper he described and predicted the properties of a number of undiscovered elements - three of them were discovered in his lifetime. His periodic table was more complete than any of the preceding ones, and more thoroughly founded on experiment. The periodicity of the elements he himself formulated as "Elements placed according to the value of their atomic weights present a clear periodicity of properties."
The offered paper is the German translation of his paper which was issued in "Journal of the Russian Chemical Society", vol. 3, pp. 25-56, the same journal in which he first announced his discovery (vol. 1, pp.66-77 (1869) ).

"In March 1871, two years after his discovery of the law, Mendeleev first named it "periodic". That summer he published in Justus Liebigs Annalen der Chemie his article "Die periodische Gesetzmässigkeit der chemischen Elemente." - the paper offered - which he later characterized as "the best summary of my views and ideas on the periodicity of the elements and the original after which so much was written later about this system. This was the main reason for my scientific fame, because much was confirmed - much later.""(DSB IX, p. 289-90)

"Lothar Meyer and Dimitri Mendeleev independently discovered the periodic system, but "Meyer did not publish this work until after the appearance of Mendeleev's first paper on the subject in 1869. His table was very similar to that of Mendeleev, but it contained some improvements and was, perhaps, influential in causing some of the revisions made by Mendeleev in the second version of his table, published in 1870. In general, Meyer was more impressed by the periodicity of the physical properties of the elements, while Medeleev saw more clearly the chemical consequences of the periodic law."(Source Book in Chemistry, p. 434).

Horblitt, "100 Books famous in Science" (the Russian paper 1869) No 74. - Dibner, "Heralds of Science" No 48 (only the later book of 1891) - Partington IV: pp. 891-897. - Source Book in Chemistry pp. 442 ff. - PMM: 407 (under Moseley). - Neville "Historical Chemical Library" II: p. 162 (only the French edition from 1879).

Order-nr.: 50071