A short text-book of inorganic chemistry / by Hermann Kolbe ; translated and edited by T.S. Humpidge.
- Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe
- Date:
- 1884
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A short text-book of inorganic chemistry / by Hermann Kolbe ; translated and edited by T.S. Humpidge. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![And although teachers in law, history, and philosophy give the best they have in their lectures, experimental chemistry, us taught in the lecture theatre, must be elementar}-. To enume- ratc many Chemical facts loads the memory with ballast, and tends to learning by rote instead of clear perception and after- thought. The problem of the lecturer on chemistry is therefore to give his hearers an idea of Chemical processes and the most important Chemical theories without burdening their memories with a large number of mere facts, and thus to prepare them to acquire an accurate knowledge of chemistry by their own practical work. I have adhered to this general principle in vvriting this short Text-book. I have also endeavoured not simply to give a series of dry facts, but to blend them together into one continuous narrative. Of the students attending Chemical lectures, those making chemistry a special study are nearly always in a minority. A complete description of those parts of the Science {e.g. the rare elements, the ammoniacal compounds of cobalt and the platinum bases) which have only interest for thcse few and not for those studying medicine, pharmacy, agriculture, &c., is therefore out of ])lace both in lectures and in elementary books ; and all the more so as the special study of these subjects is better carried on in the laboratory. Such subjects are therefore briefly treated in this fext-book, while others of general interest, such](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28133870_0011.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
