"This volume is the outgrowth of a series of talks which the author had for several years given to his students at the…"

"[T]he person addressed is the more mature student of chemistry, though it is believed that few portions of the book w…"

"The aim has been to emphasize only those facts and influences which have contributed to make the science what it is t…"

"Little attention has been paid to questions of priority. A great discovery is usually preceded by a multitude of earl…"

"[A]s we study how man's knowledge of nature has broadened and deepened with the years, we acquire a better understand…"

"At no period has the development of chemistry been more rapid or more interesting than it is today, and the author in…"

"With Joseph Black (1728-1799) we come to the eminent group of distinguished chemists whose work contributed so largel…"

"Black was long professor in Glasgow, and made some important discoveries in physics, developing independently the ide…"

"He is best remembered... for his work on magnesia alba which he presented for the doctor's degree in 1754. In this in…"

"From II and III he concluded that the difference between magnesia alba and magnesia usta was the gas ("fixed air") li…"