Attempt at an Overview of Chemical Literature and its Branches

5
Preface.

and often lingers on trivialities. Manget is not useful as a handbook, because he only sought to rescue a few rare works from destruction and had them reprinted in a collection. This same thing applies to the Theatro chemico Chemical Theater, which was published in Strasbourg in 6 volumes *). And yet it is necessary for beginners in chemistry to have a handbook from which they can obtain a view of the history of all parts of chemistry, especially since they have little or no opportunity at academies to hear lectures on the subject.

More recently, the worthy Professor and Mountain Councilor a high-ranking administrative official in the mining industry Baumer in Gießen published a Chemical Library, but this too does not extend over all parts of chemistry. From the Mountain Councilor Crell's Chemical Journal, which is continued under the title of the latest Discoveries and now the Chemical Annals, and which is an important gift for all lovers of chemistry, one can only learn about the newer and most select works. But whoever wants to survey the history of chemistry in all its parts from its humble beginning to its present flourishing

*) This generally only contains reprints of those treatises which fall into the category of higher chemistry.