Tobern Bergman, considered one of the greatest chemists of the 18th century, edited this collection of lectures in chemistry by H.T. Scheffer and published it in 1775. It is thought to be the first book designed to be used as a textbook for university classes in chemistry. Bergman presented the first of his successively improved Tables of Elective Attractions in this book, a table of the chemical elements which was one of the earliest attempts to present all the chemical elements and their properties in a single table. This table preceded the modern periodic table of the elements by nearly a...

I carne upon this collection o lec tures in chemistry by Henric Theophil Scheffer delivered in about 1750, edited by Torbern Bergman and published in Swed ish in 1775, when I was spending a sab batical leave in Uppsala. Sweden. in 1977, gathering material for my biography o Bergman (Coronado Press, 1985). I have written a chapter about "Sche er's Lec tures" in my Bergman biography. I refer the reader to this biography for further discussion. Bergman says in his "Foreword" to "Sche er"s Lectures" that he designed this collection o use by "those like me who teach chemistry." So this is one o...