Milestones of Science Books

KIRWAN, Richard.

An Estimate of the Temperature of Different Latitudes. / An Essay on Phlogiston, and the Constitution of Acids.

London: J. Davis for P. Elmsly in the Strand, 1787.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine. Item #002476

I. An Estimate of the Temperature of Different Latitudes. London: printed by J. Davis, for P. Elmsly in the Strand, 1787. viii, 114 pp. [Bound with] II. An Essay on Phlogiston, and the Constitution of Acids. London: J. Davis for P. Elmsly in the Strand, 1787. [6], 146, [2] pp., including half-title, errata leaf and publisher's adverts leaf at end. 8vo (199 x 122 mm). Two works in one volume. Contemporary calf (upper hinge cracked but holding, corners bumped and worn. Internally crisp, clean and virtually unfoxed. Provenance: J. H. Streatfield (inscribed on front pastedown " West Green, Nov. 1902"); The library of Hugh Selbourne (small ink stamp to first title verso and p.51). ----

I. Sabin 38013; DSB VII, p.390. FIRST EDITION. An early work in comparative climatology. The study includes North America, West Indies, etc.
II. Duveen, p. 324; DSB VII, pp. 388-9; Partington III, pp. 660-665. - FIRST EDITION. One of Kirwan's most interesting books is his defense of the phlogiston theory. "First published in 1787, the Essay defended the phlogiston theory against the views then being promulgated in France by Lavoisier and his followers. Kirwan identified phlogiston with "inflammable air" (hydrogen), comparing it with "fixed air" (carbon dioxide) ... He did not deny the observations on which Lavoisier had based his rejection of phlogiston, but believed them to be explicable in terms of the older theory, which, on the whole, accorded best with known chemical facts ... Kirwan abandoned the phlogiston theory in 1791 because he failed to show conclusively the formation of fixed air from phlogiston and oxygen" (DSB).

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