Alembic Club Reprints—No. 1.
EXPERIMENTS
UPON
MAGNESIA ALBA,
QUICKLIME,
AND SOME OTHER
ALCALINE SUBSTANCES.
By JOSEPH BLACK, M.D.,
Professor of Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh, 1766-1797.
(1755.)
Edinburgh:
Published by THE ALEMBIC CLUB.
Edinburgh Agent:
WILLIAM F. CLAY, 18 Teviot Place.
London Agents:
SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, & CO. LTD.
1898.
PREFACE.
Black's Paper entitled "Experiments upon Magnesia Alba, Quicklime, andsome other Alcaline Substances" was read in June 1755, and was firstpublished in "Essays and Observations, Physical and Literary. Readbefore a Society in Edinburgh, and Published by them," Volume II.,Edinburgh, 1756; pp. 157-225. It was subsequently reprinted severaltimes during the life of the author, not only in later editions of theseEssays, but also in a separate form. Copies of the original Paper arenow very difficult to obtain, and the later reprints have also becomescarce.
The present reprint is a faithful copy of the Paper as it first appearedin 1756, the spelling, &c., of the original having been carefullyreproduced.
The Paper constitutes a highly important step in the laying of thefoundations of chemistry as an exact science, and furnishes a model ofcarefully planned experimental investigation, and of clear reasoningupon the results of experiment. It is neither so widely read by theyounger chemists nor is it so readily accessible as it ought to be, andthe object of the Alembic Club in issuing it as the first volume of aseries of Reprints of historically important contributions to Chemistry,is to place it within easy reach of every student of Chemistry and ofthe History of Chemistry.
The student's attention may be particularly called to Black's tacitadoption of the quantitative method in a large number of hisexperiments, and to the way in which he bases many of his conclusionsupon the results obtained in these experiments. Even yet it is veryfrequently stated that the introduction of the quantitative method intoChemistry (which did not by any means originate with Black) took placeat a considerably later date.
L. D.
EXPERIMENTS
UPON
MAGNESIA ALBA, QUICKLIME,
AND SOME OTHER
ALCALINE SUBSTANCES;
By JOSEPH BLACK, M.D.[1]
PART I.
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