It’s also interesting because it’s so old, and techniques have changed so much. There are little things, like the suggestion that multiplication and division be performed with logarithms, since calculators were a ways off, and bigger things, like the rather different way molecules are described–rather than being described solely as consisting of X atoms of some element and Y atoms of another, in a certain configuration, as modern books do, this book describes them as consisting of certain weights of elementary substances–a difference motivated, I guess, by the experimental techniques used at the time for identifying the composition of compounds.

I’m quite glad I’ve been reading it. I’m a bit behind the schedule I set, I’m afraid–I read a contemporary review of the book which indicated certain problems with the selection of material and the presentation of some topics, which induced me to slow down my reading while searching for another book, but even if there are such problems, I still think it’s worth reading.

It is my intention to write a fuller review of the book when I’ve finished it, so if you’re interested in reading that, you’ll need to wait another month or two. I hope this can satisfy your curiosity, for now.