Talking classic chemistry

Chemistry in the schoolroom: 1806 - selections from Mrs Marcet's Conversations on chemistry

Hazel Rossotti (ed)

Bloomington, US: AuthorHouse 2006 | Pp212 | £12.49 | ISBN 1 425 90534 X

This book celebrates the bicentenary of the publication in 1805 of Mrs Jane Marcet's original Conversations on chemistry, which she was inspired to write after attending Humphry Davy's lectures at the Royal Institution.  

Taken to the lectures by her husband, a physician at Guy's Hospital, Marcet found them fascinating but was conscious that she had insufficient scientific background to appreciate them fully. So her husband and his friends taught Marcet the basics of chemistry and then persuaded her to write a book designed to help others who also lacked this basic scientific education. The result was her Conversations on chemistry, in which Marcet covers topics in chemistry through imaginary conversations between a tutor, Mrs. B, and two teenage pupils, Emily and Caroline. For this commemorative text Hazel Rossotti, a former chemistry teacher, has written an excellent introduction which provides an insight into the biographical, scientific, literary and social context of Marcet's work.