Opuscules physiques et chimiques

New printing of the second edition, illustrated with three folding plates engraved by Tardieu and bound before the table of contents. The first edition was published in 1774.
Contemporary binding in half speckled sheep, smooth spine decorated with gilt fillets and dotted lines, red straight-grained morocco title label, paste-paper boards, the first stamped in gilt with the inscription "Ecole royale d'artillerie de Douai". Bookworm damage to the lower part of the upper joint as well as to the upper part of the lower joint. Front board joint cracked for a few centimeters without significance. One corner slightly bumped.
Some scattered foxing.
Manuscript annotations on the front pastedown, a bibliographer's note in pencil on the first blank endpaper. Several stamps of the Ecole royale d'artillerie de Douai on the verso of the half-title and on the title page.
The work consists of two parts: the first - entitled Précis historique sur les émanations élastiques qui se dégagent des corps pendants la combustion - concerns fixed air; the second, Nouvelles recherches sur l'existence d'un fluide élastique fixe dans quelques substances, et sur les phénomènes qui résultent de son dégagement ou de sa fixation, focuses on the nature of air and marks the beginnings of his research on phlogiston.