The theory of the inhomogeneous electron gas had its origin in the Thomas Fermi statistical theory, which is discussed in the first chapter of this book. This already leads to significant physical results for the binding energies of atomic ions, though because it leaves out shell structure the results of such a theory cannot reflect the richness of the Periodic Table. Therefore, for a long time, the earlier method proposed by Hartree, in which each electron is assigned its own personal wave function and energy, dominated atomic theory. The extension of the Hartree theory by Fock, to include...