Paris, Académie des Sciences, 1896-1901. Six papers in one. 4to (26.6 x 20.3 cm). 30 pp. Old style blue stiff paper boards. Two title pages of the Comptes Rendus (for 1896 and 1899) bound in.

A nice collection of some of the earliest papers on radioactivity; the first paper published in the year radioactivity was discovered, the others of the years immediately following that discovery. Henri Becquerel (1852-1909) first observed that rays emitted spontaneously from the disintegration of apparently solid substances. Soon afterwards he noted that certain uranium compounds emitted radiations after exposure to sunlight, and that these radiations could pass through plates of aluminium. Also an important collection (the first title, for example, is listed in the Dictionary of Scientific Biography). Exact contents of this collection: Sur diverses proprietés des rayons Uraniques (1896, pp. 855-859); Sur la dispersion anomale de la vapeur de sodium incandescente, et sur quelques conséquences de ce phenomene (1899, pp. 145-151); Recherches sur les phénomenes de phosphorescence produits par le rayonnement du radium (1899, p. 912-917); Sur quelques observations faites avec l'uranium a de tres basses températures (1900, pp. 199-202); Sur le rayonnement des corps radio-actifs (1899, pp. 1205-1207) Sur la radioactivité de l'uranium (1901, pp. 977-980). Some slight, uniform age toning, two pages with a small marginal tear and some stamps. Otherwise very good.