Haarlem, Les Héritiers Loosjes, 1886. 8vo (23.6 x 15.0 cm). v, 454 pp.; 12 plates. Original printed wrappers.

A rare copy of volume 20 of the Archives Néerlandaises des Sciences exactes et naturelles, with works by three Nobel Prize winners: Lorentz (Physics, 1902), Van 't Hoff (Chemistry, 1901), and Einthoven (Medicine, 1924). Hendrik Lorentz' contribution, on pp. 129-170 is titled Sur l'application aux phénomenes thermo-électriques de la seconde loi de la théorie mécanique de la chaleur; Henry van 't Hoff's paper is titled L'équilibre chimique dans les systèmes gazeux ou dissous à l'état dilué (pp. 239-302). This is the first appearance of an important paper in which van't Hoff "...showed from quantitative experiments on osmosis that dilute solutions of cane sugar obey the laws of Boyle, Gay-Lussac, and particularly leading to an extension of Avogadros law. He here announced the laws which bears his name and which apply to ideal solutions solutions which are diluted to such an extent that they are comparable to ideal gases. Einstein in 1905 and later made importent applications of these laws. Thus van't Hoff was able to prove that the laws of thermodynamics are valid not only for gases but also for dilute solutions. His pressure law gave general validity to the electrolytic theory of Arrhenius, consequently van't Hoff became an adherent of the theory of electrolytic dissociation." (DSB); Willem Einthoven's contribution (pp. 361-387, plate) is titled Stéréoscopie dépendant d'une différence de couleur, the first French edition of his thesis which is fundamental to the theory of stereoscopic effects caused by colour differences. Uncut, unopened. Short tear in rear wrapper fore edge and in one leaf top margin (not in one of the papers mentioned above), otherwise a near mint copy. DSB XIII, p. 579 (for van 't Hoff).