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EXCEEDINGLY RARE SECOND RUSSIAN EDITION OF MENDELEEV'S SEMINAL WORK ON THE PERIODIC TABLE OF ELEMENTS. This book, understandably, went through many editions and translations. Mendeleev originally wrote the book to provide a text for his lectures. The book's chapters include discussions of the relation of atomic weights to the physical and chemical properties of elements. It was only shortly before publication of Osnovy Khimii that Mendeleev realized how to group the elements according to the principle of atomicity. This happened after Mendeleev had been appointed to the chair of chemistry in the University of St. Petersburg. Finding there was no book he could recommend to his students as a text for his lectures, he set out to write his own, deriving his basic plan from Gerhardt's theory of types, whereby elements were grouped by valence in relation to oxygen. However, in his early chapters on alkali metals and specific heat, Mendeleev organised the halogens and alkali metals according to their atomic weight in order to show that, in spite of their common valency, they had a contrary chemical relationship. In seeing there was a regular progression between the atomic weights of all the elements, he was led on remarkably quickly to the formulation of the periodic law. In this second edition of Osnovy Khimii, Mendeleev moved indium and uranium to the appropriate chapters because of the approved values of their atomic weights. He also changed the positions of the rare earths, which remained problematic throughout his life. As in the Girolami-Mainz copy iridium is assigned atomic weight 197 in Vol. I (198 in Vol. I, first ed). and 195 in Vol. II, with 198? (195 in Vol. II first ed). BOOK DETAILS: Second Russian Edition 8vo 2 Volumes Contemporary ½ brown leather over brown marbled boards, titles on spines, both volumes bound over original printed wrappers. Old paper labels on spines. I: 1 blank, [4] (½ title, title page); I-IV (p IV is the periodic table), pp 1-827 (1), 1 blank; II: 1 blank, 2 leaves (title page, ½ title), large folding periodic table, pp 1-931 (verso of p 931 is an alphabetical index listing of the elements with volume and page number. Leather bindings and boards, tips, edges very worn, front hinge of volume 1 separated but holding. Book blocks tight, pages generally bright and clean. Numerous wood engravings in Volume I and a few in Volume II. RARITY: We are aware of five copies of this edition: Cornell University copy; a Prague library copy, this copy, a recently rebound dealer copy and a copy in the Vera V. Mainz Collection of Rare Books in Science. Interestingly, the second edition appears scarcer than the first. RBH lists eleven auction copies of the first edition in the last century and one copy of the second edition (this copy). Similarly, OCLC lists a number of copies of the first edition but none of the second edition. PROVENANCE: From the Arthur C. Greenberg History of Chemistry Library. REFERENCES (FIRST ED): DSB IX, p. 288; Bolton p. 664; cf. Grolier Science 74; Dibner 48 (First German edition).
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