Volume 1

Bibliographical notes on histories of inventions and books of secrets.

  • John Ferguson
Date:
1896-1915
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Bibliographical notes on histories of inventions and books of secrets. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    FROM TRANSACTIONS OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. NOTES ON SOME BOOKS OF RECEIPTS, OR SO-CALLED “SECRETS.” Part II. BY JOHN FERGUSON, M.A., Professor of Chemistry in the University of Glasgow. [Read at a Meeting of the Society held at Glasgow, January 18th, i88j.] To the notes communicated to the Society last session * I have made some additions, having in the interval met with several works not then referred to, besides other editions of certain of the receipt-books. As in the first part, the present notes are arranged under two heads: ist, con- cerning writers on the history of inventions; 2nd, concerning books of receipts or secrets. 1 st. The writers on the history of inventions are not so few as was formerly represented, and a considerable number have to be added to those already mentioned. In pursuing this enquiry I have once more encountered the difficulty of discovering a subject about which some person does not know much more than one’s self. When I first threw together a few notes on some receipt-books that had passed through my hands, I had no intention of compiling a bibliography either of such books, or of those on the history of invention, but once started, curiosity drew me on to see if many books of the kind existed. Then it was I found that, so long ago as 1792, Beckmann had not only anticipated the idea of a bibliography of the history of invention, but had actually realized it to an important extent.! Apart from his undoubtedly great genius for * See Transactions of the Archaological Society of Glasgow, vol. ii. p. 180.
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