The Project Gutenberg EBook of Experiments upon magnesia alba, Quicklime,
and some other Alcaline Substances, by Joseph Black

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Title: Experiments upon magnesia alba, Quicklime, and some other Alcaline Substances

Author: Joseph Black

Release Date: February 13, 2008 [EBook #24591]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPERIMENTS UPON MAGNESIA ALBA ***

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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.

[Illustration: Insignia]

PREFACE.

Black's Paper entitled "Experiments upon Magnesia Alba, Quicklime, and
some other Alcaline Substances" was read in June 1755, and was first
published in "Essays and Observations, Physical and Literary. Read
before a Society in Edinburgh, and Published by them," Volume II.,
Edinburgh, 1756; pp. 157-225. It was subsequently reprinted several
times during the life of the author, not only in later editions of these
Essays, but also in a separate form. Copies of the original Paper are
now very difficult to obtain, and the later reprints have also become
scarce.

The present reprint is a faithful copy of the Paper as it first appeared
in 1756, the spelling, &c., of the original having been carefully
reproduced.

The Paper constitutes a highly important step in the laying of the
foundations of chemistry as an exact science, and furnishes a model of
carefully planned experimental investigation, and of clear reasoning
upon the results of experiment. It is neither so widely read by the
younger chemists nor is it so readily accessible as it ought to be, and
the object of the Alembic Club in issuing it as the first volume of a
series of Reprints of historically important contr