RUTHERFORD, Ernest. Radio-activity.
Cambrdige: Cambridge University Press, 1904.

A fine copy of his "proposal of a new theory of atomic disintegration and of the nuclear nature of the atom" (Grolier/Horblit 91; Dibner 51).

"The first textbook on radioactivity, surveying contemporary knowledge of the entire field. Reasearch progressed so rapidly in this erea that the second edition, published only a year later, had to be enlarged by fifity percent. The book includes a discussion of Rutherford's revolutionary transformation theory, developed during the period 1902-1903, which states that radioactivity is a by-product of the transmutation of one element into another." (Norman 1870).

8vo: 219 x 136 mm, original diced cloth, gilt-lettered spine and front cover. [ii] viii [ii] 399 [1] pp. and 1 full-page photo-engraved plate. Book plate to front paste-down, fresh and clean throughout. A fine copy.