Élémens d'Histoire Naturelle et de Chimie. Cinquième Édition

Ten folding printed tables. Five vols. 8vo, cont. mottled sheep (occasional minor foxing), flat spines gilt with green morocco lettering pieces. Paris: Cuchet, 1793.

Fifth and final edition, revised, of this celebrated textbook; it is Fourcroy’s first major publication (1st ed.: 1782). A résumé of the course of seventy lectures he gave each winter in his laboratory, it contains a comprehensive account of all parts of chemistry, including recent work on gases. Fourcroy also included sections concerned with the analysis of animal fluids and solids (truncated) and their application to medicine. By the time of this edition Fourcroy had adopted Lavoisier’s theories completely; in the preliminary discourse to the second edition of 1786 he had renounced the phlogiston theory.

Head of two spines a little worn, but a fine set.

❧ Neville I, p. 467 (Smeaton’s B issue). Partington III, p. 537. Smeaton, Fourcroy, pp. 8, 96–98, & 177–180; bibliography no. 6A. This issue has preliminary pages numbered to xxxii in Vol. I, with the correct catchword at the end. (Inventory #: 2371)