An Early work by Thomas Pynchon

[Daniel Harper]

Actually, I'd be willing to bet that this is somewhat characteristic
of the period. Not every chemistry textbook will start similarly, but
classical education was much more common in the 1870s than today, and
thus some exposure to the etymology of the terms and their
philosophical significance is more evident in late nineteenth-century
science textbooks.

(Sorry it took me three days to get around to putting that out there.)

On Nov 7, 2007 8:52 PM, David Payne <dpayne1912 at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Zowee! How many Chemistry textbooks start with something like this?!?:
>
>  "The name Chemistry, is said to be derived from the Arabic word Kimia,
> something hidden or concealed, and from this, to have been converted into
> Xyueia*, a word first used by the Greeks about the eleventh century, and
> meaning the art of making gold and silver. Between the fifth century and the
> taking of Constantinople in the fifteenth century, says Dr. Thomson, in his
> History of Chemistry, the Greeks believed in the possibility of making god
> and silver artificially; and the art which professed to teach the processes
> was called by them, Chemistry. This idea, however, has long since been
> thoroughly discarded, and is now no longer heard of."
>
> *My note (er, "my" as in "me"--that is, Dave): This word was written in
> Greek, so I couldn't quite type it out correctly.
>
>
>  ________________________________
>
>  > From: robinlandseadel at comcast.net
> > To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> > Subject: An Early work by Thomas Pynchon
> > Date: Wed, 7 Nov 2007 22:39:59 +0000
>
>
> >
> > Introduction to Chemical Physics
> > Designed for the use of
> > Academies, High Schools and Colleges
> > -------------------------------------------------
> > By Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, M. A.,
> >
> > http://tinyurl.com/28l62z
> >
> > The link goes to the whole book, I haven'y even looked inside yet.. But
> I've got
> > plenty of reason to believe I'm gonna find something in here. . . .
>
>
> ________________________________
> Climb to the top of the charts!  Play Star Shuffle:  the word scramble
> challenge with star power. Play Now!



-- 
...the insanely, endlessly diddling play of a chemist whose molecules
are words...
--Daniel Harper