This is a working manual for the pharmacy bench: nine hundred pages of instructions for preparing and testing every substance a druggist of 1851 might be asked for. The surprise is at the back. Folded into the closing leaves is a large table of the old pharmaceutical and chemical signs, engraved in a fine copperplate hand: the crescent of silver, the sign of gold, Balneum Mariae for the water-bath the alchemists named after Maria the Jewess, the death's head for the caput mortuum left at the bottom of the retort. A century after chemistry had supposedly buried this alphabet, the pharmacists were still printing it. The table's own footnote explains, a little defensively, that although most of these signs have in recent times rightly gone out of use, “several still occur, and the pharmacist must have knowledge of them.”
Georg Christian Wittstein was a Munich pharmaceutical chemist. He earned his doctorate at the university there in 1840 and later headed his own private school of chemistry in the city. The book carries a preface by Dr. J. A. Buchner the elder, the grand old man of Munich pharmacy, lending his name to a younger colleague's handbook. Between them stands the whole working knowledge of the mid-century apothecary: reagents and preparations from acids to Zymon, a full alphabetical register, and two leaves of corrections at the end for the conscientious.
The copy has been dressed better than a bench manual strictly needed: contemporary dark green half leather with a blind-paneled spine lettered in gilt, cloth sides, and the text-block edges striped in pink. On the title page sits the blue oval stamp of a religious house, “Convent … M. G.” The folding table is complete, with the expected creases at its old folds; the paper is lightly toned, and an early pencil inscription sits on the endpaper.
Provenance: Blue oval library stamp of a religious house (“Convent … M. G.”) on the title page; early pencil inscription to an endpaper.
Anleitung zur Darstellung und Prüfung chemischer und pharmaceutischer Präparate. Second, improved and enlarged edition, Munich, 1851. With the large folding table of pharmaceutical and chemical symbols. Contemporary half leather, from the library of a religious house.
WITTSTEIN, Georg Christian (1810–1887). Anleitung zur Darstellung und Prüfung chemischer und pharmaceutischer Präparate. Ein auf eigene Erfahrungen gegründetes, insbesondere den Apothekern gewidmetes praktisches Hülfsbuch. With a preface by Dr. J. A. Buchner sen. Second, improved and enlarged edition. Munich: Joh. Palm's Hofbuchhandlung, 1851.
Physical Description: 8vo. 903 pp.: main text to p. 862; large folding engraved table of pharmaceutical and chemical signs (“Verzeichniß der vorzüglichsten, sowohl älterer als neuerer pharmaceutischer und chemischer Zeichen und Abbreviaturen”), paginated 863 and bound at its place; alphabetical register to p. 903. 2 leaves of Verbesserungen; final blank. Text-block edges decorated with pink striping.
Binding: Contemporary half leather, dark green, spine blind-paneled and lettered in gilt “Wittstein's Chemische Präparate,” ribbed cloth sides. Rubbed at extremities, corners bumped.
Condition: Paper lightly toned and foxed in places; the folding table complete, creased at the old folds. A sound, attractive copy.
This is a working manual for the pharmacy bench: nine hundred pages of instructions for preparing and testing every substance a druggist of 1851 might be asked for. The surprise is at the back. Folded into the closing leaves is a large table of the old pharmaceutical and chemical signs, engraved in a fine copperplate hand: the crescent of silver, the sign of gold, Balneum Mariae for the water-bath the alchemists named after Maria the Jewess, the death's head for the caput mortuum left at the bottom of the retort. A century after chemistry had supposedly buried this alphabet, the pharmacists were still printing it. The table's own footnote explains, a little defensively, that although most of these signs have in recent times rightly gone out of use, “several still occur, and the pharmacist must have knowledge of them.”
Georg Christian Wittstein was a Munich pharmaceutical chemist. He earned his doctorate at the university there in 1840 and later headed his own private school of chemistry in the city. The book carries a preface by Dr. J. A. Buchner the elder, the grand old man of Munich pharmacy, lending his name to a younger colleague's handbook. Between them stands the whole working knowledge of the mid-century apothecary: reagents and preparations from acids to Zymon, a full alphabetical register, and two leaves of corrections at the end for the conscientious.
The copy has been dressed better than a bench manual strictly needed: contemporary dark green half leather with a blind-paneled spine lettered in gilt, cloth sides, and the text-block edges striped in pink. On the title page sits the blue oval stamp of a religious house, “Convent … M. G.” The folding table is complete, with the expected creases at its old folds; the paper is lightly toned, and an early pencil inscription sits on the endpaper.
Provenance: Blue oval library stamp of a religious house (“Convent … M. G.”) on the title page; early pencil inscription to an endpaper.
Anleitung zur Darstellung und Prüfung chemischer und pharmaceutischer Präparate. Second, improved and enlarged edition, Munich, 1851. With the large folding table of pharmaceutical and chemical symbols. Contemporary half leather, from the library of a religious house.
WITTSTEIN, Georg Christian (1810–1887). Anleitung zur Darstellung und Prüfung chemischer und pharmaceutischer Präparate. Ein auf eigene Erfahrungen gegründetes, insbesondere den Apothekern gewidmetes praktisches Hülfsbuch. With a preface by Dr. J. A. Buchner sen. Second, improved and enlarged edition. Munich: Joh. Palm's Hofbuchhandlung, 1851.
Physical Description: 8vo. 903 pp.: main text to p. 862; large folding engraved table of pharmaceutical and chemical signs (“Verzeichniß der vorzüglichsten, sowohl älterer als neuerer pharmaceutischer und chemischer Zeichen und Abbreviaturen”), paginated 863 and bound at its place; alphabetical register to p. 903. 2 leaves of Verbesserungen; final blank. Text-block edges decorated with pink striping.
Binding: Contemporary half leather, dark green, spine blind-paneled and lettered in gilt “Wittstein's Chemische Präparate,” ribbed cloth sides. Rubbed at extremities, corners bumped.
Condition: Paper lightly toned and foxed in places; the folding table complete, creased at the old folds. A sound, attractive copy.
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