LIEBIG, JUSTUS. - FOUNDING THE METHODS OF ORGANIC CHEMICAL ANALYSIS

Ueber einem neuen Apparat zur Analyse organischer Körper, und über die Zusammensetzung einiger organischen Substanzen.

Leipzig, Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1831. Contemp. hcalf, raised bands, gilt spine with gilt lettering. A few scratches to binding. In "Annalen der Physik und Chemie. Hrsg.von Poggendorff", Bd. 21. VIII,630,22 pp. and 6 engraved plates. (The entire volume offered). Small stamps to verso of titlepage and plates. Liebig's paper: pp. 1-42. Internally fine and clean.

First printing of Liebig's milestone work describing the methods for analyzing organic compounds by the "combustion method for determining carbon and hydrogen in organic compounds, a method still in use. The paper was first published in "Annalen" in 1831 (the paper offered). His insistence that chemistry could be applied to agriculture marks the beginning of the practical applications of chemistry which dominated his life."(Dibner "Heralds of Science" No 46). - He notably introduced a method for determining the amount of urea in a solution. This substance is found in blood and urine of mammalss, and was the first organic compound to be sunthetized, that is to be built up from inorganic substances.

The work is more often referred to under the title "Anleitung zur Analyse organischer Körper", published 6 years later in 1837, this is the case for both Dibner and Horblit. Horblit in "Milestones of Science" No. 67, adds that it "Appeared earlier in "Annalen der Physik und Chemie, vol. 31..(the paper offered) He calls it "Importent publication of the constitution of organic compounds, with descriptions in detail of the modern method of chemical analysis".

"Organic compounds generally had molecules of far more complicated structure than those of inorganic ones, and methods for analyzing the former quantiiavily lagged. Gay-Lussac and Thénard had worked out a way of burning organic compounds and measuring the quantity of carbon dioxide and water that was formed. By 1831 Liebig had taken this technique in hand and perfected it to a point where, from the figures on carbon dioxide and water formed, accurate measurements of the carbon and hydrogen in the original compound could be obtained."(Asimov).
Dibner No 46 - Horblitt No 67.

The volume contains other importent papers Sefström "Ueber das Vanadium..." (discovery of Vanadium), August von Strombeck, H. Hess, Humboldt, Sérullas, 2 more by Liebig, Liebig & Wöhler "vermischte Bemerkungen...", Gay-Lussac (transl. into German), A. Fresnel "Auszug aus einer Abhandlung über ...Doppelbrechung...", August von Seebeck, Hansteen, Rose, Brewster etc.

Order-nr.: 43326