J.8
Traité elémentaire de Chymie de Lavoisier
2. v.
8
vo.
1815 Catalogue, page 36. no. 18, as above.
LAVOISIER,
Antoine Laurent.
Traité élémentaire de chimie, présenté dans un ordre nouveau et d’après les découvertes modernes; avec figures: Par M. Lavoisier . . . Tome Premier [Second].
Paris: [De l’Imprimerie de
Chardon] chez
Cuchet, rue & hôtel Serpente.
M.DCC.LXXXIX. [1789.]
QD28 .L4
First Edition. 2 vol. 8vo. with continuous signatures. Vol. I, 183 leaves, folded table, 7 folded numbered plates; vol. II, 171
leaves, plates VIII-XIII; all the plates by Madame Paulze Lavoisier.
Old calf; initialled by Jefferson at sigs. I and T in vol. I and at Ii in vol. II. Vol. I scorched on the back. On the fly-leaves are the written initials:
M. de L. and on the half-title is written in ink:
M. de Moulogne de la part de l’auteur. With the Library of Congress 1815 bookplate.
Quérard IV, 642.
Poggendorff I, 1392.
Ferguson II, page 12.
Grimaux, page 350.
A copy of this work (in 3 vol. including the
Opuscules physiques et chimiques) was offered to Jefferson, by Roche, Philadelphia, on April 15, 1806, price $8.00,
reliés.
Jefferson wrote of Lavoisier to the Rev. James Madison, in the same letter quoted in Ingenhousz above: “
. . . speaking one day with Monsieur de Buffon on the present ardor of chemical enquiry, he affected to consider chemistry
but as cookery, and to place the toils of the laboratory on a footing with those of the kitchen. I think it on the contrary
among the most useful of sciences, and big with future discoveries for the utility & safety of the human race. it is yet indeed
a mere embroyon. it’s principles are contested. experiments seem contradictory: their subjects are so minute as to escape
our senses; and their result too fallacious to satisfy the mind. it is probably an age too soon to propose the establishment
of system. the attempt therefore of Lavoisier to reform the chemical nomenclature is premature. one single experiment may
destroy the whole filiation of his terms, and his string of Sulfates, Sulfites, and Sulfures may have served no other end
than to have retarded the progress of the science by a jargon from the confusion of which time will be requisite to extricate
us. accordingly it is not likely to be admitted generally . . .
”
Again on December 20 of the same year, 1788, in a letter to Dr. James Currie, at Richmond, Jefferson wrote: “
. . . you have heard of the new chemical nomenclature endeavoured to be introduced by Lavoisier, Fourcroy &c. other chemists
of this country, of equal note, reject it, and prove, in my opinion, that it is premature, insufficient, & false. these latter
are joined by the British chemists; and upon the whole I think the new Nomenclature will be rejected after doing more harm
than good. there are some good publications in it, which must be translated into the ordinary chemical language before they
will be useful . . .
”
Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, 1743-1794, French chemist whose name is associated with the overthrow of the phlogistic doctrine, was executed on May 8,
1794, as
La Republique n’a pas besoin de savants. The plates for this book were made by his wife, the former Mademoiselle Paulze, whose father was executed at the same time.
[830]
J.9
Elemens de Chymie de Chaptal.
3. v.
8
vo.
1815 Catalogue, page 35. no. 20, as above.
CHAPTAL,
Jean Antoine Claude, comte de Chanteloup.
Elémens de Chymie de J. A. Chaptal . . .
Troisième édition, revue et augmentée. Tome Premier [-Troisième.]
A
Paris: chez
Deterville, An
V. [1796 ère anc.]
QD27 .C47
