Paris, G. Masson, 1888. Bound with the original printed wrappers to all 4 issues (8 wrappers) in contemp. hcalf. Wear to top of spine. Light wear along edges. Two small stamps on verso of titlepage. In ""Annales de Chimie et de Physique"", 6. Series - Tome XIV. 576 pp. The entire volume offered. Becquerel's papers pp. 170-257 a. pp.257-279.
First printing of Henri Becquerel's doctorial thesis. Becquerel is known for his discovery of radioactivity, for which he received the Nobel Prize for physics jointly with the Curies in 1903, and for other contributions to that field which he made during the half-dozen years when he was most active in it.After studying infrared spectra ""He then studied the absorption of light in crystals (1886-88), particularly its dependence of the plane of polarization of the incident light and the direction of its propagation through crystal (the papers offered). With these researches Becquerel obtained his doctorate from the Faculty of Sciences of Paris (1888) and election to the Academy of Sciences (1889).""(DSB I, p.558).The volume has other notable papers by Chappuis et Riviere, E. Edlund, M. Berthelot (3 papers).