Thomson A System of Chemistry

T. Thomson, A System of Chemistry, 4, 65, from 5th London edition, Abraham Small, Philadelphia (1818). 

H. Davy, Elements of Agricultural Chemistry, London, 241, 1813 J. Dalton, A New System of Chemical Philosophy, London, 2. 230, 1810 H. Mollier, Der Dampfdruck von wassrigen Ammoniaklosungen, Berlin, 1909 T. Thomson, A System of Chemistry, Edinburgh, 2. 7, 1810 ... 

Thomas Thomson, A System of Chemistry, third edition (Edinburgh printed for Bell c Bradfute and E. Balfour, 1807), volume 4, 4. 

Fourcroy, Elements of Chemistry (1796), 36-73 M. I. A. Chaptal,. lemens de chymie, third edition (Paris Deterville, 1796), 20-37 Thomas Thomson, A System of Chemistry (Edinburgh Bell Bradfute, 1810), volume 3, 414-432 Edward Turner, Elements of Chemistry, fourth American edition (Philadelphia Grigg Elliot, 1832), 109-121 L. J. Thenard, Traite de chimie elementaire, theorique et pratique, second edition (Paris Crochard, 1817), volume 1, 1-6. 

Prior to the publication of the New System of Chemical Philosophy in 1808, Daltons considerable reputation was based on his fundamental work on the behavior of gases. His atomic theory had received some publicity by Thomas Thomson in the third edition of his popular introductory text, A System of Chemistry, in 1807. Thomson gives what he calls a short sketch in a section devoted to the affinity of gases. Like Dalton, he presents the theory synthetically, using Daltons symbols to construct and represent the compound atoms. Probably because the theory is introduced in the context of gases, Thomson always refers to the density of the atoms rather than... 

Thomson, Thomas. A System of Chemistry. 2nd ed. 4 vols. Edinburgh, 1804. 

Thomson, T. (1807). A System of Chemistry, Edinburgh. See also Istoriya agrikul tury (1940). Izd. Akad. Nauk SSSR. 

Lehrbuch der Chemie (item 31 in Table IV). The book, by this very influential chemist of his day, went through five editions between 1808 and 1848, and was the standard chemical reference book during that period. Another book of great importance to the development of chemistry was Thomas Thomson s A System of Chemistry (28). In this book, he was the first to advocate, ardently, Dalton s atomic theory and thereby did much to make Dalton s ideas well known to other chemists (4). 

Thomas Thomson received his M.D. degree at Edinburgh in 1799, where he was inspired by Joseph Black. Starting in 1800 he lectured on chemistry at Edinburgh and published the first edition of his comprehensive A System of Chemistry in 1802. Thomson visited Dalton in 1804 and enthusiastically adopted his atomic theory. Interestingly, the first published statement of Dalton s theory appeared In the third edition (1807) of Thomson s five-volume chemical treatise. ... 

FIGURE 229. Although John Dalton developed a physical atomic theory in 1801 and extended it to chemistry in 1803, he did not publish his theory until 1808. However, Thomas Thomson at the University of Edinburgh was an early advocate of atomic theory and, with the Dalton s permission, published its first printed discussion in 1807 (see A System of Chemistry, 3rd ed., London, 1807). 

THOMSON T. 1807. A system of chemistry. Third edition, Edinburgh. 

The power of Dalton s theory was appreciated by Thomas Thomson, of the Edinburgh and then Glasgow medical schools, who highlighted it in the third edition (1807) of his famous textbook, A System of Chemistry and who then did experiments to confirm that combination really did take place in the simple ratios Dalton had predicted. He convinced William Hyde Wollaston, one of the most eminent analysts of his day (known as The Pope because he was believed infallible) whose analyses of the various oxalates, published with Thomson s in the Royal Society s Philosophical Transactions (1808), confirmed Dalton s laws of chemical composition. Meanwhile, Thomson s book was translated into French and finally, Dalton himself published his theory in his New System of Chemical Philosophy, part 1 of which appeared in Manchester in 1808. Most of the volume is concerned with heat and the atomic theory occupies only the last few pages. We might have been able to follow his thinking more closely if the Lit Phil had not been bombed in World War II, and most of its records destroyed. 

In his preface to the 1830 edition of the System of Chemistry, Thomas Thomson wrote that a new chair should be setup in every university for someone "to explain the principles of heat, light, electricity, and magnetism" so that "this important branch of science" would be adequately treated. In France, he commented, "physique" designated this branch of study.94 In France, Dumas told his students at the College de France that it is to "physics" that chemistry must leave the problem of particles and forces, while chemistry moves along its own different path.95... 

It is a pleasant irony of history that Berthollet was influential in making Daltons views known in France, through arranging for the translation of the third edition of Thomsons System of Chemistry in 1809, and the sixth edition of William Henry s Elements of Experimental Chemistry in 1812. 

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