On the theory of Chemical Combination

Abstract

This paper was presented in 1861 to the Faculty of Medicine, when I was a candidate for the degree of M.D. In consequence of a somewhat adverse opinion expressed as to the speculations contained in it, I exercised the discretion allowed (I think unwisely) by the University to graduates, and did not print it. Some of my friends have urged me to do so now, and although I am quite aware that it contains much that is crude and some things that are erroneous, and that all that was then new or important in it has since been much better expressed by others, I still think that it is not altogether unworthy of preservation as a contribution to the history of the subject. It is printed verbatim, and I would ask such of my friends as may read it to recollect that it was written eighteen years ago by a medical student. A. C. B. UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, March 1879.