edition of my work has been translated into English[4] and German[5] and is being translated into French.[6] Deeply touched by the favourable opinions expressed by English men of science upon my book, I ascribe them chiefly to the periodic law placed at the basis of my treatise and especially of the second part of the book, which contains a large amount of data having a special and sometimes quite unexpected, bearing from the point of view of this law. As the entire scheme of this work is subordinated to the law of periodicity, which may be illustrated in a tabular form by placing the elements in series, groups, and periods, two such tables are given at the end of this preface. [2] I recommend those who are commencing the study of chemistry with my book _to first read only what is printed in the large type_, because in that part I have endeavoured to concentrate all the fundamental, indispensable knowledge required for that study. In the footnotes, printed in small type (which should be read only after the large text has been mastered), certain details are discussed; they are either further examples, or debatable questions on existing ideas which I thought useful to lay before those entering into the sphere of science, or certain historical and technical details which might be withdrawn from the fundamental portion of the book. Without intending to attain in my treatise to the completeness of a work of reference, I have still endeavoured to express the principal developments of science as they concern the chemical elements viewed in that aspect in which they appeared to me after long continued study of the subject and participation in the contemporary advance of knowledge.