Histoire Naturelle de l'Air et des Meteores.

Paris:: Chez Saillant & Nyon, 1770, 1771., 1770. 10 volumes. 12mo. Original gilt-stamped mottled calf, leather spine labels, raised bands; spine ends worn. Eighteenth century book label. Very good. At the time of its publication, this was one of the most expansive treatments on the subject of meteorology available. Though Richard's ideas are not groundbreaking, his writing provides invaluable insight into the state of meteorology, physics, and other branches of natural science in 18th century France. Richard presents theories of the atmosphere, weather, air, various meteorological phenomena (rainbows, halos, etc.), and discusses at length the study of natural phenomena in antiquity. The text deals with much material of air & general theories relating to the atmosphere, action of heat & cold on the air, "Observations on the cause of color of negroes", causes of severe or extreme weather, state of air extremes in Africa, of Abyssinia, Egypt, the Nile region, the deserts of Africa, III: polar regions, glaciers, Spitzbergen, America's Hudson Bay, Siberia, Tartary, China, Japan, Armenia, Caucasus mountains, Georgia, Caspian Sea, Persia (vol. III, p. 292), Arabia, volcanoes, effects of the Moon on air temperature, IV: air in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Constantinople, France, Alps, Finland, Holland, V: rain, evaporation, fog, clouds, VI: winds, special types of hurricanes, tornadoes, water dragons, waterspouts, VII: rainbow height, double rainbows, first ideas on rainbows, halos of the sun and moon, three perpendicular suns and other phenomena of this type, first ideas on the formation of snow, VIII: ancient writers of natural history on meteors, first ideas on lightning, thunder, and ground-strikes, different types of thunder and lightning according to the ancients, ancient relics of electricity, other observations on the noise of thunder, and the propagation of sound, suite of observations on the effects of lightning strike, IX: origin of most igneous phenomena, other igneous phenomena of different forms, natural phosphors, the fluidity of fire, flame, and smoke, new researches and explications of the theory of fire, X: ordinary situation of the aurora borealis, action and reaction of materials that produce the aurora borealis and the causes of their various phenomena, aurora borealis observed in 1732 and 1770, different kinds of auroras. / "An encyclopedic treatise on air and atmospheric phenomena by Richard, who compiled this work as a sequel to Buffon's great Histoire Naturelle. The physical, chemical, and meteorological properties of the air are considered from every standpoint, with reference to the latest experimental observations. The conditions of the atmosphere all over the world is discussed. Various types of exhalations and gases are also described, with explanations based on the phlogiston theory." – Neville, Vol. II., p. 374. REFERENCES: Roy G. Neville, Historical Chemical Library, vol. II.