Transcriber’s Note: Italic text is indicated by _underscores_; boldface text is indicated by =equals signs=. There is an actual equals sign in the list on page 131. _A HISTORY OF THE SCIENCES_ HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY BY SIR EDWARD THORPE, C.B., LL.D., F.R.S. AUTHOR OF “ESSAYS IN HISTORICAL CHEMISTRY,” “HUMPHRY DAVY: POET AND PHILOSOPHER,” “JOSEPH PRIESTLEY,” ETC., ETC. TWO VOLUMES I. From the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Nineteenth Century _WITH ILLUSTRATIONS_ G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS NEW YORK AND LONDON The Knickerbocker Press 1909 COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS This series is published in London by THE RATIONALIST PRESS ASSOCIATION, LIMITED PUBLISHERS’ NOTE A HISTORY OF THE SCIENCES has been planned to present for the information of the general public a historic record of the great divisions of science. Each volume is the work of a writer who is accepted as an authority on his own subject-matter. The books are not to be considered as primers, but present thoroughly digested information on the relations borne by each great division of science to the changes in human ideas and to the intellectual development of mankind. The monographs explain how the principal scientific discoveries have been arrived at and the names of the workers to whom such discoveries are due. The books will comprise each about 200 pages. Each volume will contain from 12 to 16 illustrations, including portraits of the discoverers and explanatory views and diagrams. Each volume contains also a concise but comprehensive bibliography of the subject-matter. The following volumes will be issued during the course of the autumn of 1909. =The History of Astronomy.= By GEORGE FORBES, M.A., F.R.S., M. Inst. C.E.; author of _The Transit of Venus_, etc. =The History of Chemistry: Vol. I. circa 2000 B.C. to 1850 A.D. Vol. II. 1850 A.D. to date.= By SIR EDWARD THORPE, C.B., LL.D., F.R.S., Director of the Government Laboratories, London; Professor-elect and Director of the Chemical Laboratories of the Imperial College of Science and Technology; author of _A Dictionary of Applied Chemistry_. _To be followed by_: =The History of Geography.= By Dr. JOHN SCOTT KELTIE, F.R.G.S., F.S.S., F.S.A., Hon. Mem. Geographical Societies of Paris, Berlin, Rome, Brussels, Amsterdam, Geneva, etc.; author of _Report on Geographical Education_, _Applied Geography_. =The History of Geology.= By HORACE B. WOODWARD, F.R.S., F.G.S., Assistant-Director of Geological Survey of England and Wales; author of _The Geology of England and Wales_, etc. =The History of Anthropology.= By A. C. HADDON, M.A., Sc.D., F.R.S., Lecturer in Ethnology, Cambridge and London; author of _Study of Man_, _Magic and Fetishism_, etc. =The History of Old Testament Criticism.=