Elementary Treatise on natural philosophy

London: Blackie & Son, 1872. FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH. Consecutive pagination with half-title, errata, 3 colored plates and a map, as well as hundreds of text illustrations. Contemporary half-calf over marbled boards; matching marbled endpapers and edges; covers lightly scuffed but generally an excellent copy from the library of George A[lexander] P[hilips] H[aldane] Duncan, Earl of Camperdown, avid book collector, with his bookplate containing his coat of arms and motto (Disce pati [learn to suffer]). First English edition, considered one of the best works on physics of the time. Detailed chapters on mechanics, heat, electricity, magnetism, acoustics, optics, and much more. Each subject includes a discussion of all the great scientists and their experiments, the methods they employed, any imperfections and variations by other scientists, and the solutions as far as the latest investigations known. Most of the subjects have been enlarged with extensive additions by the editor such as thermodynamics and electrical subjects by William Thomson and Michael Faraday, which had not as yet been established in France.

Privat-Deschanel (1821-1883) was a professor of physical sciences at Limoges, Lyon, Versailles and later at Lycee Louis-le-Grand, where he was headmaster. According to Everett’s preface, “this treatise is remarkable for the vigour of its style, which specially commends it as a book for private reading. But its leading excellence, as compared with the best works at present in use, is the thoroughly rational character of the information which it presents.”.