Expériences sur les Végétaux, spécialement sur la Propriété qu'ils possèdent à un haut degré, soit d'améliorer l'Air quand ils sont au foleil, soit de corrompre la nuit. ou lorsqu'ils sont à l'ombre; auxquelles on a joint unde Méthode nouvelle...

1780. Paris, Théophile Barrois, 1780. 8vo. Fine cont. full mottled calf, richly gilt spine and gilt titlelabel in red leather. Edges gilt. LXVIII,333,(3) pp. and 1 folded engraved plate (showing his experimental apparatus). Light browning to margins of title-page, otherwise clean and with broad margins. A fine copy. First French edition of perhaps the most important work in plant physiology. It is in this work that Ingen-Housz for the first time expounds the ideas and experiments that lead to his discovery of Photosynthesis in plant life, and as such it is of fundamental importance in the economy of living things. "His Experiments upon vegetables was published in the autumn of 1779 and was at once recognized as a very important advance. In brief he showed, that oxygen evolution by plant is absolutely dependent on light and that it only occurs from those parts which are green...The proof that light and green tissues are both essential for oxygen production finally cleared up the apparent contradictions and variable results of earlier experiments. Priestly was "much pleased" with Ingen-Housz's experiments and pointed immediately to the salient facts that he had established." (A.G. Morton: History of Botanical Science. p. 332.). Dibner: Heralds of Science No. 29. - Garrison & Morton No. 103. - Horblit No. 55. (All the English edition of 1779).