This volume is a collection of 10 essays (reproduced from the original sources with the original pagination preserved) by John Hedley Brooke, Professor of the History of Science at Lancaster University, Lancaster, England, and Editor of the British Journal for the History of Science, which appeared in six books and four journals during the period 1968-1993. In a three-page preface Brooke cogently argues that, although essays in the philosophy of science rarely take their examples from chemistry, the practice of our science has been associated with some of the most theoretical and philosophical issues. He selected the essays "in the hope that they may contribute to a fresh awareness of the intellectual depth and dignity of chemistry during its modern formation. . . . and to illustrate a variety of techniques that may be used in historical reconstruction."

The essays, which deal with some of the central problems in late l8th- and 19th-century chemistry, are: (1) "Chemists in their Contexts: Some Recent Trends in Historiography;" (2) " `A Sower Went Forth': Joseph Priestley and the Ministry of Reform;" (3) "Davy's Chemical Outlook: The Acid Test;" (4) "The Superiority of Nature's Art? Vitalism, Natural Theology and the Rise of Organic Chemistry" (the shortest essay, 11 pp); (5) "Wšhler's Urea, and Its Vital Force?²A Verdict from the Chemists;" (6) "Berzelius, the Dualistic Hypothesis, and the Rise of Organic Chemistry" (the longest essay, 42 pp); (7) "Laurent, Gerhardt, and the Philosophy of Chemistry;" (8) "Organic Synthesis and the Unification of Chemistry²A Reappraisal;" (9) "Avogadro's Hypothesis and Its Fate: A Case-Study in the Failure of Case-Studies;" and (10) "Doing Down the Frenchies: How Much Credit Should Kekule Have Given [for the benzene ring]?

A six-page index adds to the utility of this collection that brings together in one convenient volume a number of significant essays hitherto scattered in the literature. I recommend it to historians and philosophers of chemistry and of science and to chemists and chemical educators interested in the history of their discipline.