Essays on Scientific and Other Subjects Contributed to The Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews
London: Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts 1862. First Edition. [6], [iii]-v, [1-blank], [1-contents], [1-errata], [1]-499, [1-ads] pages. 8vo. Plain brown cloth (simple clean rebinding??) with gilt spine titles. A few penciled notations on endpapers. Very light occasional foxing. Touch of wear and bumped corners. A nice copy. Near Fine. Cloth. [28439]
"The Essays collected in this volume were written in great part during journeys or voyages which I have been accustomed to make in the autumn of every year. The greater number of the Essays, thus composed, will be seen to have relation to the progress and actual state of the physical sciences. Written with the view to such illustration, they will, I trust, be read under the same view; --that is, not as formal treatises on these several subjects, but as general outlines, denoting the new methods and spirit of modern research; the more recent and remarkable discoveries in each science; and these mutual connections of all, the knowledge of which is among the highest attainments of man in his study of the natural world around him" -- Preface
Essays include The progress and spirit of physical science -- Life and organisation -- Human longevity -- Roman history : Julius Caesar -- Physical geography of the sea : Atlantic Ocean -- The Mediterranean Sea -- Meteors and aerolites -- Humboldt's cosmos : sidereal astronomy -- Australia : coral reefs -- Life of Dalton : atomic theory -- Modern chemistry -- Natural history of man. Some of the essays (Meteors and aereolites for instance) have updates since they were originally published.
A second edition was published in the same year, revised, with a slightly different page count (xiii, 504 pages) and a publisher's catalogue in rear. The first edition [ as here] is less common in the trade.
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