Mathematics & Physical Science

[BOUCHARLAT, JEAN LOUIS &] COURTENAY, EDWARD H.  An Elementary Treatise on mechanics. Translated from the French of M. Boucharlat. With Additions and Emendations, Designed to Adapt it to the Use of the Cadets of the U.S. Military Academy. New York: J. & J. Harper, 1833. First Edition in English, translated and edited by Courtenay. 9" x 5", 432 pp., 9 folding plates. Original brown calf, leather title label (rubbed but sound), light foxing to the text and plates, signed by two previous owners on the title page, a Good or better copy of a scarce book.  $100

West Point was a serious center for math and physics higher education in the 19th century. This calculus-based text was edited by Courtenay to better meet the needs of cadets and included additions dealing with other authors such as Poisson.

One of the previous owners was Cadet Robert T.P. Allen. According to Academy records, Allen (1813-1888) was born in Maryland and graduated 5th in a class of 36 in 1834. He served as Professor of Mathematics and Civil Engineering at Allegheny College, 1838-1841, then as Professor of Mathematics at Transylvania University in Lexington, KY, from 1841-1845. He was the Founder and Superintendent of the Kentucky Military Institute, later becoming Superintendent at Bastrop Military Institute in Texas, returning to serve again as Superintendent at KMI from 1866-1874. His death was by drowning in the Kissimmee River, Florida.

We have not been able to identify the subsequent owner, George Moss of Weston, OH.

A serious work on all aspects of mechanics as known in the early 19th century, with a fascinating provenance!

DAVY, HUMPHRY.  Respirability of the Gaseous Oxyde of Azote, "Extract of a letter from Mr. H. Davy, Dated Clifton, April 17, 1799. " Single leaf, extracted from Nicholson's Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, and the Arts, Vol. 3, 1799, p. 93. Slight soiling on one edge, edges uncut, Very Good.

Together with:

DAVY, HUMPHRY.  "Letter from Mr. Davy, Superintendant of the Pneumatic Institution, to Mr. Nicholson, on the Nitrous Oxide, or Gaseous Oxide of Azote, on certain facts relating to Heat and Light, and on the Discovery of the Decomposition of the Carbonate and Sulphate of Ammoniac. " Extracted from Nicholson's Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, and the Arts, Vol. 4, 1800, pp. 515-518. Edges uncut, Very Good. For the two:  $1750.

Davy's first book, Researches, Chemical and Philosophical; Chiefly concerning Nitrous Oxide (1800), has long been recognized as important in the history of science and medicine. At the time, Davy was assistant in Thomas Beddoes's Pneumatic Institution in Bristol. His inhalation experiments attracted wide attention, and began his strikingly fast rise to fame. Aside from his contribution to chemistry, Davy was the first to describe the results of inhalation of nitrous oxide ("laughing gas"), its analgesic properties, and its possible use in surgery. Although nitrous oxide was not exploited as an anesthetic until much later, Davy's book nonetheless is often regarded as a landmark of anesthesiology. These two letters constitute his first publications on the matter, preceding the book by months.

The first letter (which begins, "I have this day made a discovery") announces the respirability of nitrous oxide (Fullmer, 1799, #9) and the second provides details on the preparation of nitrous oxide and briefly outlines the forthcoming book (before turning to the other topics noted in the title). Davy notes that "A number of persons have breathed it." Oddly, the second paper is not recorded in Fullmer's otherwise very thorough bibliography. Together, these constitute a striking pair of papers, documenting the first steps of a brilliant discovery and a brilliant career!

HUDSON, HILDA P.  Cremona Transformations in Plane and Space. Cambridge: At the University Press, 1927. First Edition. Blue cloth (small nick top of front board), dust jacket (slightly chipped). Large octavo, xx + 454 pp. Near-Fine.  $75.

Hudson (1881-1965) is best known for this work, which develops Cremona transformations as a means of dealing with singularities of curves and surfaces. "The main bulk of her work on Cremona transformations … was notable for the reason that the methods she employed were basically elementary—largely analytical geometry—but her success in their use was the result of a powerful, almost uncanny, geometrical intuition which enabled her to extract correct answers in her own way to quite formidable problems" (J. Semple, 1969, in Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society, Vol. 1, p. 358).

KOYRÉ, ALEXANDRE. A Documentary History of the Problem of Fall from Kepler to Newton. De Motu Gravium Naturaliter Cadentium in Hypothesi Terrae Motae. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1955. "Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, N. S. Vol. 45, part 4." pp. 329-355, illustrated. Brown wraps, an ex-lib copy with the usual markings.  $30.

Koyré (1892-1964) is well-known for his history and philosophy of science, and as an important precursor of Thomas Kuhn. The "problem of fall," detailed in this monograph, involves the question of whether a mass released above the surface of the moving earth would strike the surface to the east or to the west of its release point, and the question of whether it would in fact reach that center, if allowed to fall straight through to the center of the earth. This problem's long history is here detailed in meticulous fashion.

LEYBOURN, THOMAS. The Mathematical Questions Proposed in the Ladies' Diary. And Their Original Answers, Together with Some New Solutions, From its Commencement in the Year 1704 to 1816. >London: J. Mawman, 1817. First Edition. Hardcover. Four Volumes. 9" x 5½". xi, 415pp. + [2] (errata leaf for Vols. 1-4); 415 pp.; 400 pp.; 460 pp. Each volume illustrated with numerous diagrams and tables. Publisher's red cloth (unevenly faded, and, except for Vol. 2 which is intact, the bindings worn, some covers loose, spines worn and torn, with loss, spines separating), handwritten labels. Text blocks solid. Vol. 3 with water stain affecting inner margin of endpapers and a few prelim leaves. Vol. 4 with three cancel leaves for Vol. 3 and one for Vol. 4 bound intermittently among the final index leaves. Each cancel leaf has a note instructing the binder to bind them in the appropriate places, but the instruction was not followed. Each volume has a bookplate ("Yale University Observatory, Bequest of Professor Elias Loomis, 1889" and with a very faint "Duplicate" stamp on each) and a cursive inscription ("Yale College Library, Presented by Prof. A.D. Stanley, 1851") which is partially erased or covered by the bookplate, except in Vol. 1. Stanley may be Anthony D. Stanley (1812-1853), Professor of Mathematics at Yale. Loomis (1811-1899) was Professor of Natural History at Yale and an important geologist.  $2500

The Ladies' Diary itself was begun in 1704 and published continuously until 1841. Initially, mathematical content was sparse, but this changed over the years. By the 1780s, while there were still many rebuses, enigmas, verse problems, and so on, mathematical problems had begun to be dominant. Readers would send in problems and solutions to published problems, frequently commented upon by the editor.

Oddly, women contributors were sparse even at the outset and became more so as the years wore on. As the problems became more sophisticated with time, so too did the contributions by distinguished mathematicians, including Emerson, Simpson, Hutton, and others. The history of the Ladies' Diary (and the role of women as contributors and readers) is well-covered by Teri Perl in an article in "Historia Mathematica," Volume 6 (1979), pp. 36-53. This set covers the entire range of mathematics, with many new solutions and notes, partly by the editor, up to 1816.

Scarce set; there are two sets on the internet -- at 8000 USD and 5100 Pounds Sterling. The very fragile original cover cloths on our set are coming apart as noted, but we have opted not to repair them, leaving the buyer the option to restore the bindings in the original format or rebind completely in, say, appropriate leather.

LIBES, ANTOINE.  Histoire Philosophique des Progrès de la Physique. 3 Volumes (of 4). Paris: l'Auteur et Courcier et Michaud, 1810-1812. First Editions. 9" x 5 ½", viii, 291 pp.; 303 pp.; 330 pp. + adverts. Publisher's green patterned paper wraps, paper spine labels (wraps worn and separating or loose, labels worn, front wrap of V. 3 missing), uncut, prelim leaves separating in a few cases. Library labels on spines, bookplates ("Classe d'Industrie et de Commerce" of Geneva) and stamps on title pages and half-titles, some browning and foxing of text. A Fair to Good set.  $75.

Libes (1752-1832) is best known for his work in electrostatics and wrote a number of physics texts. The unusual binding of this set includes leaves from other books, as stiffeners to the wraps and as guards. The text covers the history of physics from ancient times down to the time of Franklin and Coulomb at the end of the 18th century. According to Mottelay (Bibliographical History of Electricity and Magnetism), Libes dispelled the notion that frictional electricity was produced by pressure.

LUBBOCK, J.W.  An Elementary Treatise on the Tides. London: Charles Knight & Co., 1839. First Edition. Brown wrappers (spine and edges worn, slightly soiled), vii + 54 pp. + advert. leaf + 3 fold-out plates at end, partly unopened, a Good copy. Presentation copy: "Professor Christie from the Author." Very scarce.  $125.

John William Lubbock (1803-1865), a banker by profession, had an important career in London science, and was best known for his careful observational work on tides. This work centers on the mathematical theory of tidal prediction. "Professor Christie" is presumably Samuel Hunter Christie (1784-1865), professor of mathematics at the Royal Military Academy.

MAYER, J[ULIUS] R[OBERT].  Die Mechanik der Wärme in gesammelten Schriften. Zweite umgearbeitete und vermehrte Auflage. Stuttgart: Verlag der J.G. Cotta'schen Buchhandlung, 1874. Second Edition (First was 1867). Contemporary half-leather, brown cloth spine (board edges and corners rubbed and worn, spine faded from the original color which was, perhaps, purple), some very light pencil notes in the first part of the book, Berlin booksellers ticket on front end paper, library discard stamp on title page (no other library markings), viii + 396 pp., Very Good.  $275.

A collection of Mayer's important papers on the conservation of energy, greatly expanded from the 1867 first edition. Mayer (1814-1878) was the first to show the equivalence of mechanical work and heat, leading to Joule's experimental confirmation of the quantitative relation between the two.

[PROUT] Copeman, W.S.C., William Prout, M.D., F.R.S. Physician and Chemist (1785-1850. "Reprinted from Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 24, No. 2, April 1970." 10" x 6½", frontis. + [273 -] 280 pp. Stapled in stiff wrappers, author's initialed presentation and stamp of A.H.T. Ross-Smith on front wrapper, near Fine copy.  $10

Prout, a physician and chemist, is best remembered for "Prout's Hypothesis," that all atomic weights are integral multiples of the atomic weight of hydrogen or of half the atomic weight of hydrogen, differing because of the different numbers of hydrogens. While not strictly correct, it was an important idea that generated much controversy.

[TYTLER, JAMES]  "Chemistry," [Complete article from the Third Edition of C. Macfarquhar & G. Gleig, Eds., Encyclopædia Britannica; or, a Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Miscellaneous Literature; constructed on a plan, by which the different sciences and arts are digested into the form, of distinct treatises or systems, comprehending the history, theory, and practice, of each, according to the latest discoveries and improvements.] Edinburgh: printed for A. Bell and C. Macfarquhar, 1797]. 10 3/8" x 8 1/4", Quarto, Disbound, pp. [373-] 635 pp., 3 plates, large folding table (22" x 14"). Removed from a larger volume, still tightly gathered, slight foxing to a few leaves and the plates. Overall a Very Good copy of a rare item.  $200.

Tytler (1745-1804) edited the second edition of the Britannica (1777-1784) and was the first balloonist in Britain (1784). Convicted for his reformist politics, he left for America in 1795. The attribution of this article to Tytler is based on that given in David Wilson's recent "Seeking Nature's Logic: Natural Philosophy in the Scottish Enlightenment" (2009, p. 243 n.38). The 261 page article offered here is a comprehensive treatise on all aspects of chemistry, with special attention given to nomenclatural details, following the revolutionary changes advanced by Lavoisier. Disbound articles from the Britannica appear now and again, but this is the first copy of this article that we have seen offered for sale.