Collation: 8vo, pp. [4] vi 396 [4]. Publishers advertisement on verso of half-title; final pages: [1–2] errata, [3] blank] [4] ‘Avis. Le Chalumeau et ses accessoires . . . chez Rochette jeune. . .’.
Plates: 4 folding engraved plates:numbered Pl. I–IV (bound at the end).
Condition: 198 x 124mm.
Binding: Contemporary sheep-backed marbled boards, vellum tips, gilt bands on spine, pink endpapers. Head of spine slightly worn but a nice copy.
Provenance: McKie.
References: Cole 137; Wellcome II, p. 157. Tore Frängsmyr ‘The geological ideas of J. J. Berzelius’ B.J. Hist. Sci. 9 (1976) 228–236.
Price: £400

First edition in French, a translation by Fulgence Fresnel (1795–1835) of Om Blåsrörets Användande I Kemien och Mineralogien (Stockholm, 1820). There are no cancels in this copy: Cole notes cancels for two leaves and for a further 6 leaves in DeU DLC and NIC copies.
¶ The classic work on the use of the blowpipe in chemical and mineralogical analysis. It was written at the urging of a number of French mineralogists whom he instructed in the use of the blowpipe when he was in Paris in 1819. The equipment described in the book could be purchased from Rochette, jeune, on the quai de l’Horloge (adverstisement leaf at the end of the volume). Though usually remembered as a chemist, Berzelius ‘was an empirical geologist of some stature’ (Porter Earth Sciences 432 citing Frängsmyr).
   A German translation was published in the same year, followed by translations into English (1822, see below), Italian (1822) and Russian (1831).