ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the contents of a portion of William Elliot Griffis' chemistry lecture notes, written in Fukui, and aims to compare these contents with those of standard chemistry reference bodes of the time. In order to analyze the contents of Griffis' notebooks, it is necessary to know which chemistry textbooks he and his pupils used in Fukui. Moreover, in an important philosophical point, Griffis argued that chemistry was not only concerned with analysis but also synthesis, and that the object of chemistry was the application of chemical knowledge in real life. Griffis had acquired both granulated zinc and its sheet and generated hydrogen gas by adding hydrogen chloride to the granulated zinc, to demonstrate the fast diffusion and combustion of hydrogen. There are further descriptions of vaporization of zinc, the existence of oxides and sulfides, the alloys of zinc with lead and copper, and the formation of salts through the reaction of zinc with acid and alkali.
