Matthew Moncrieff Pattison Muir was born into a wealthy Scottish family on April 1, 1848 in Glasgow. He was encouraged through his upbringing in an interest in the natural sciences, and focused on chemistry. He did indeed become a chemistry professor at Gonville and Caius College in Cambridge. By 1881, he became a Fellow, and then the head of the Caius Laboratory. His own research was focused on bismuth compounds. His facility for writing was prized, and he became famous for his textbooks, especially Heroes of Science: Chemists (1883) and History of Chemical Theories and Laws (1907). This is a reprint edition with minor text and illustration imperfections.