A Comprehensive Treatise on Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry. Vol. 1

1922

Chemistry Department, University of Otago

London: Longmans, Green and Co.

In the preface of the first volume of his Comprehensive Treatise, which was published in 1922, Mellor writes ‘Much of the material of this work was compiled in card-index form long before my Modern Inorganic Chemistry [1912] appeared.’ Described by many as a ‘Herculean task’, Mellor wrote letters to scientists and institutions in Budapest, New York, Milwaukee, Vienna, Washington and Germany, among others, requesting the use of images for the tomes. Balancing professional duties, domestic duties, and other writings, he worked from dawn till dusk on Comprehensive Treatise. An anecdote in an obituary (1938) relates that while writing at night he had a wet towel wrapped around his head to keep himself awake.