Chemical Lectures of H.T. Scheffer

Book excerpt: Torbern Bergman was one of the greatest chemists of the 18th century. He edited this collection of lectures in chemistry by H.T. Scheffer and published it in 1775. It was probably the first book designed to be used as a textbook for university classes in chemistry. Bergman presented the first of his successively improved Tables of Elective Attractions in this book, a table of the chemical elements which was one of the earliest attempts to present all the chemical elements and their properties in a single table. This table preceded the modern periodic table of the elements by nearly a century. It is of basis of this table that Bergman is considered to be the father of physical chemistry. One of the many discoveries described in this book is Scheffer's `Pelican Experiment'. which disproved the transmutation of elements, and preceded by two decades the identical experiment carried out by Antoine Lavoisier. This book will be of interest to historians of science and chemists in particular. Scientists in general and educators will also be interested to read this book. It can be used as additional reading in history courses.