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Searching the Chemical Literature before Chemical Abstracts


Modern chemical science had its origins in the 18th Century Enlightenment, and so did its literature. Papers on chemical topics were published in many scholarly journals, often those of various academies and philosophical societies throughout Europe and America. Journals dedicated to chemistry, such as Crell's Chemisches Journal (1778) and Lavoisier's Annales de Chimie (1789), began to appear in the late 18th century. Abstracts of literature appeared almost simultaneously in various publications, including Crell's. Yet for most English-speakers, 1907 -- the year Chemical Abstracts began indexing the world's chemical literature -- is the watershed date that now serves as a somewhat arbitrary demarcation between "modern" and "historical" chemistry. Finding the earlier chemical literature can be a real challenge. Here are some resources that can be helpful in identifying pre-1907 materials, listed in rough order of usefulness and accessibility. Remember that your best resource in this area is your librarian.

  FINDING ARTICLES        

SEARCHING FOR ARTICLES
If you don't already have a specific reference, use one of the index/abstract resources described below that covered the probable date range. This task is easier if you're starting with an author's name. Most chemical papers from this era had only a single author. Knowing the journal makes it easier still. Many journals published their own author and subject indexes annually, and some, such as Liebigs Annalen and Journal of the Chemical Society, helpfully cumulated these indexes every few years to make searching easier. Searching by topic is more difficult. If you're starting with a chemical compound, Beilstein (organic) and Gmelin (inorganic) are the best tools. Subject indexes do exist for some early abstracting sources and individual journals.

Note: 19th century authors often published multiple versions or translations of the same paper in different journals. The Royal Society's Catalogue of Scientific Papers (see below) is the best tool for identifying these variants.

GETTING THE ARTICLE
Once an article is identified, search the Library Catalog for print and/or electronic holdings of the journal or periodical. Much of this early material exists only in printed form, although retrospective digitization is progressing in both the open-access and publisher-subscription spheres.

Beilstein Crossfire star U.T. restricted
The Beilstein database, based on the earlier Beilstein Handbook, covers the literature of organic chemistry fairly comprehensively back to 1779. The indexing is primarily by chemical compound structure and reactions, but it can be searched in a variety of ways, including author name and bibliographic data. If you're starting from a chemical structure or reaction, this is your tool of choice.

Gmelin Handbook. 8th ed., 1924-1998 star
print Reference Stacks
This major German handbook series covered the literature of inorganic and organometallic compounds more or less comprehensively until the mid-20th Century, when it became much more selective. But it is invaluable for identifying the early journal and patent literature on metal compounds. It is arranged by chemical element and compound, and there are no author indexes. The MDL Crossfire database version (which UT Austin does not license) does permit author searching.

SciFinder Scholar (Chemical Abstracts) star U.T. restricted
The CAPLUS file in SciFinder contains the full content of Chemical Abstracts back to 1907, when it began publication. All records have had CA indexing terms and Registry Numbers algorithmically assigned where possible. However, pre-1967 indexing is not as thorough as post-1967 indexing. In general, the older the record the more minimal its indexing is likely to be. Users should also be aware that some of the more powerful Registry-based search features in SciFinder and STN (e.g. CAS Roles other than "Preparation") query only the 1967-forward CAPLUS file segment. The Preparation role has been retroactively applied to Registry Numbers back to 1907.

CAS has begun selective retro-indexing of pre-1907 journal literature, starting with:

  • JACS and J. Phys. Chem. back to their first volumes, plus selected landmark papers
  • Journal of the Chemical Society, Abstracts (1890-1906)
  • J. Chem. Soc., Transactions (1878-1906)
  • ca. 20,000 U.S. patent records from 1890-1906
  • ca. 18,000 machine-translated records from Chemisches Zentralblatt, 1905-06
The CASREACT file includes about 590 references from the French INPI core reaction database back to 1840.

Catalogue of Scientific Papers. (1800-1900) star
print Q 1 R88 Chemistry Reference Stacks 19 vols.
This is the best source for identifying 19th century scholarly papers by author in all the sciences except medicine and surgery. It was compiled by the Royal Society of London. The Catalogue is an author index divided into date ranges: v. 1-6: 1800-1863; v. 7-8: 1864-1873; v. 9-11: 1874-1883; v.12: Supplementary volume, 1800-1883; v.13-19: 1884-1900. The Catalogue helpfully lists multiple versions and translations of the same article in a single entry. Separate subject indexes for the entire set were planned, but only three were published, covering mathematics, mechanics (i.e. engineering topics), and physics.

e-book U.T. restricted The three subject indexes and vols. 13-19 (covering 1884-1900) are searchable in Nineteenth Century Masterfile.
e-book The Catalogue has been scanned (with varying quality) by the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, which provides free single-page PDFs on their Gallica site. Because no searching or index capabilities are available at this site, this version is not very useful unless you already know the exact Catalogue volume and page number you want to view. For practical purposes, it is easier to use the printed edition. For more information see the Scholarly Societies Project.

International Catalogue of Scientific Literature. 1901-19
print Q 1 I584 1969 Chemistry Reference Stacks (reprint)
The Catalogue of Scientific Papers was continued after 1901 by a multi-part index published by the Royal Society. Part D, in 14 issues, covered chemistry through 1914. Citations are found in each issue's author section; a classified subject index accompanies each. The project ended due to World War I. It has not been digitized.

Journal of the Chemical Society: Abstracts. 1871-1925 star
print Journal Stacks; FILM
The Chemical Society's flagship journal contained a separate section abstracting chemical literature after 1871. This section merged in 1926 with the abstracts in the Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry to form British Abstracts, which continued until 1953. The JCS abstracts were not comprehensive, but they are the most readily accessible alternative for the time period before 1907. Each volume has subject and author indexes, and JCS published collective indexes for 1841-72, 1873-82, 1883-92, 1893-1902, 1903-12, and 1913-22. (The library's print volumes are very fragile and should be handled with care.)
e-book The abstracts from 1890-1906 have been added to CAPLUS (SciFinder). The abstracts can also be searched and PDF text retrieved from the RSC Archives.

Journal of the American Chemical Society. 1879-90
printJournal Stacks
JACS published abstracts from major foreign journals starting in its first volume in 1879; this section disappeared after 1890. (A separate section abstracting patents of interest to chemists can also be found in these early years.) After 1897 the Review of American Chemical Research was included as a supplement (see below).
e-book The pre-1890 abstracts have been digitized in the ACS Archive and have been added to the CAPLUS file in SciFinder.

Review of American Chemical Research. 1895-1906
print Shelved with JACS
This abstracting journal was founded at MIT by Arthur A. Noyes. Its first two volumes were published with Technology Quarterly and Proceedings of the Society of Arts. From 1897 to 1906, it was published as a separate supplement to the Journal of the American Chemical Society (bound with the Society's Proceedings). As its title implies, it initially covered only U.S. journals. When William A. Noyes (a distant relative of Arthur) became editor of JACS in 1902, RACR's scope was enlarged to include U.S. patents and papers by Americans published in foreign journals. Chemical Abstracts took over and expanded this operation, under the latter Noyes' editorship, in 1907. RACR has not been digitized and is not included in the ACS Archive or in CAPLUS.

Chemisches Zentralblatt. 1830-1969 star
print 1830-1896: FILM 7163; 1897-1969: 540.5 C42 Library Storage
This pioneering German abstracting journal began in 1830 as Pharmaceutisches Central-blatt, and later (1850-55) Chemische-Pharmaceutisches Central-blatt. After 1897 it was published by the Deutsche Chemische Gesellschaft. It is an important tool describing early chemical and pharmacy publications, although it is a challenge to use for the non-German reader. Its coverage of German chemistry is regarded as superior to CA's until World War II, and its abstracts were longer and more informative. Its quality and timeliness declined sharply after the war, not helped by its being co-produced in West and East Germany. It ceased in 1969. No electronic version exists. In 2007 CAS began adding some machine-translated records from the 1905-06 period to the CAPLUS file.

A listing of periodicals covered can be found in Periodica chimica (2nd ed., 1952 and a 1962 supplement, by M. Pflücke): QD 1 P45 Reference.

Chemische Berichte. ca.1880-96
print Journal Stacks; FILM
e-book Gallica (BNF)
The German Chemical Society published abstracts (Referate) in its Berichte from about 1880 (in a separate section after 1884) until it took over publication of Chemisches Zentralblatt in 1897.

Reuss Repertorium.
print 016.3 B95 NO.29 PCL Stacks
e-book Digital Version (GDZ)
This bibliography, compiled by I.D. Reuss and originally published from 1801-21, covers journals published by scholarly societies in the 17th and 18th centuries. Its full title translates as "Index of Articles published by Scholarly Societies, arranged by discipline." For more information see the Scholarly Societies Project.

Science Citation Index (Web of Science) U.T. restricted
This tool indexes articles and books from all time periods that have been cited by other authors. For instance, if a modern author cites a paper from the 19th century, that citation will be listed under the original author's name in the Citation Index part of SCI. Doing a cited reference search is a good way to verify bibliographic citations to early papers, books, patents, and miscellany. However, the title abbreviations used in citations can be cryptic and often require further investigation.

Poggendorff, J. C. Biographisch-literarisches Handworterbuch der exakten Naturwissenschaften. (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1863- )
print Q 141 P635 PCL Reference
This multi-volume German biographical resource can shed light on publications into the early 20th century. For more information see the Scholarly Societies Project.

 

ABSTRACTS IN OTHER JOURNALS
Prior to the establishment of formal indexing services in the 20th century, some major journals published abstracts of selected literature. In addition to the journals listed above, other journals that also published chemistry abstracts during this time include:

Bulletin de la Société chimique de France. (Répertoire de chimie pure and Répertoire de chimie appliqué) 1857-?
Storage
Annalen der Chemie. 1832-60
Storage
Journal für praktische Chemie. 1834-73
Storage
Journal of physical chemistry. 1896-1906
Journal Stacks
Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry. 1882-1925
Storage
Annales de chimie et de physique. 1789-1870
Storage

 

  FINDING BOOKS        

Library Catalog
The UT-Austin online library catalog covers the book and journal holdings of all UT libraries and is searchable by keywords, title, author, and call number.

WorldCat U.T. restricted
Search the holdings of thousands of libraries worldwide. A public version is also available.

Dissertation Abstracts U.T. restricted
Indexes PhD dissertations written at U.S. universities back to 1865. Records for older dissertations usually lack abstracts.

Select bibliography of chemistry. (Washington DC: Smithsonian Inst., 1893-1904)
print QD 11 B65 Chem Stacks
This bibliography and its two supplements list books in chemistry in many languages from 1492 up to about 1902. Entries are by author within these seven sections: bibliography, dictionaries/tables, history, biography, pure and applied chemistry, alchemy, and periodicals. Section VIII appeared later as a supplement covering dissertations. Compiled by H.C. Bolton.

National union catalog, pre-1956 imprints. (Mansell)
print Z 881 A1 U518 PCL Oversize Stacks
Massive printed card catalog of the Library of Congress with book holdings information for a number of major research libraries. Invaluable reference source for obscure books and ephemera not included in the WorldCat database.

  OTHER RESOURCES        

History of Science, Technology, and Medicine U.T. restricted
This database indexes modern journal articles, conference proceedings, books, book reviews, and dissertations in the history of science, technology, and medicine and allied historical fields. It covers 1975 to the present. This is a good place to find research on historical scientific concepts and personalities.

Web Search
Doing a general web search on a search engine like Google is always worth a try. Citations to older literature are often found on various web pages and electronic articles. It probably won't get you the original paper -- you'll have to come to the library for that -- but it could help verify a citation.

see more See also the pathfinder on Chemical Biography.