I have endeavoured in this book to keep to the lines laid down for me by the Publication Committee of the Society, viz. "to exhibit, by selected biographies, the progress of chemistry from the beginning of the inductive method until the present time." The progress of chemistry has been made the central theme; around this I have tried to group short accounts of the lives of those who have most assisted this progress by their labours.
This method of treatment, if properly conducted, exhibits the advances made in science as intimately connected with the lives and characters of those who studied it, and also impresses on the reader the continuity of the progress of natural knowledge.
The lives of a few chemists have been written; of others there are, however, only scanty notices to be found. The materials for this book have been collected chiefly from the following works:—Kopp's "Geschichte der Chemie."
Thomson's "History of Chemistry."
Ladenburg's "Entwickelungsgeschichte der Chemie."
Wurtz's "History of the Atomic Theory."
Watts's "Dictionary of Chemistry."
Whewell's "History of the Inductive Sciences."
