Air and rain : the beginnings of a chemical climatology / by Robert Angus Smith.

  • Smith, Robert Angus, 1817-1884.
Date:
1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Air and rain : the beginnings of a chemical climatology / by Robert Angus Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The methods adopted have been the simplest, having been forced on me by degrees ; and, whilst the work is abundantly novel, it is certainly not so in the analytical methods employed, but chiefly in the number of expe- ments, the trust reposed in the mode of washing the air, and seeking in the solutions for the substances suspected to injure it. As to the modes of analysing the solutions, I have used such as were well-known for other purposes in nearly every case. Analytical methods of Liebig, Bunsen, ISFessler, and Messrs. Wanklyn, Chapman, and Smith have been freely employed to bring about the results; and one of the most useful portions arises from the ap¬ plication to the air of the modes, devised by the three last-named gentlemen, of decomposing certain organic substances : it is a great addition to the plan of Forcham- mer, of which it may be said to be a higher development. Most of the work, judging by the space occupied in the volume, lias been done whilst acting for the Boyal Mines Commission, or as Inspector under the Alkali Act. In the latter case it was undertaken voluntarily, but I preferred to publish it in the Annual Beports, so as to raise them out of the narrowness to which the words of the Act appeared to confine me, to the position to which those who took an interest in sanitary matters would gladly see them rise. The earlier part, forming the foundation of the whole, was done many years ago, when occasionally making enquiries for the Board of Health, or when stimulated by the ever-ready mind of Edwin Chadwick, C.B., who never loses an opportunity of in¬ creasing or causing others to increase our knowledge of matters connected with health.