ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jane Marcet (ne Haldimand), 1769-1858, was the oldest child in a well-to-do Anglo-Swiss London family which had wide scientific, literary and financial connections. She was educated mainly at home, both by visiting tutors in boys subjects and by traditional governesses. When her mother died, fifteen-year-old Jane had to run the large household, be hostess at her fathers frequent intellectual soires and supervise the education of her siblings. In 1799, she married the physician Alexander Marcet, who had a strong interest in chemistry, and later was a co-founder of the Royal Society of Medicine. She produced four children, (one of whom died aged 10), and about thirty educational books. She enjoyed riding, travel to her relations in Switzerland, and painting; her elegant draughtsmanship is evident from the diagrams in this book.
ABOUT THE EDITOR
Hazel Rossotti (ne Marsh) was Fellow and Tutor in Chemistry at St. Annes College, Oxford University, UK for nearly forty years (and a part-time teacher of science to 12-year old boys for three). She did her first degree and her doctorate at Oxford, where married Francis, a fellow research student. There followed research and teaching at Stockholm and Edinburgh, a break for family and book-writing, and return to Oxford. Her primary research interest is chemical equilibria in solution, and she has written specialist books in this field. But she also enjoys writing about wider aspects of science for a variety of readers, including young people and adult non-scientists.
Now a Senior Research Fellow of St. Annes, she is exploring previous scientific books for pre-adult readers. She and her husband still live in Oxford, where she appreciates its libraries, townscape, countryside and good company; and its opportunities for continued learning: in stained-glass work, in modern and ancient Greek, in IT and, until recently, in windsurfing. But her main hobby is black-and-white photography.
