Description et Usage d'un Cabinet de Physique Experimentale. Second edition revue, corrigee & augmentee par M. Rouland.

Paris:: Chez Gueffier, 1784., 1784. Two volumes. 8vo. 198x124 mm. [4], xvi, 396; [4], 474, [2] pp. Half-titles, title vignette, 53 folding engraved plates of laboratory apparatus, head and tail pieces. Contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt-stamped with calf gilt-stamped labels; occasional toning, scattered minor spotting. Very good. Second edition, revised and enlarged, by Urbain Francois Roulaud, professor of physics and demonstrator at the University of Paris, also the nephew of Sigaud de Lafond. This work on laboratory equipment and technique was originally issued in 1775. This new edition notably depicts two plates (volume I, plates IXbis and XIbis) illustrating a machine by George Atwood (1745-1807), FRS, a pump by Hesse and the hydraulic machine invented by Vera, whose purpose, clearly pedagogical, is to show experimentally and support Isaac Newton's laws of motion. / His numerous teaching experiments delved into many areas: electricity, chemistry, phosphorus, the recipe for toothpaste, medical uses, heat, distillation, precipitation, acoustics, air pressure, electricity, pumps, the inclined plane, the crane, centrifugal force, gravity, etc. / The plate XIII, for example, Tome 2: "in which a bird is placed under a bell jar and the air is evacuated with an air pump. This demonstrates the importance of air for breathing. The text describes how the bird first finds it difficult to breathe, then convulses, and finally perishes." [History of Science Museum, Oxford]. / Sigaud de la Fond, an obstetrician, studied under and succeeded the Abbe Nollet at the College Louis-le-Granc, taught courses of anatomy, physiology, and experimental physics. In 1795, he became a professor of physics and chemistry at the Ecole Centrale. REFERENCE: DSB, XII, p. 428.