History of Chemistry, Volume 1 (of 2) From the earliest time to the middle of the nineteenth century

Physics and Chemistry are twin sisters—daughters of Natural Philosophy; like Juno’s swans, coupled and inseparable. Physics is concerned with the forms of energy which affect ma...

The latter half of the seventeenth century was a remarkable period in the history of the intellectual development of Europe. At that time nearly every department of human knowle...

Although the intellectual tendencies of the Hellenic mind were hardly calculated to favour the development of chemistry as a science, the speculations of the Greeks concerning t...

Chemistry, as an art, was practised thousands of years before the Christian era; as a science, it dates no further back than the middle of the seventeenth century. The monumenta...

As the horizon of chemistry widened and its operations extended, it became necessary to treat its subject-matter methodically. Accordingly attempts were made in the various syst...

Even before the appearance of _The Sceptical Chemist_ there was a growing conviction that the old hypotheses as to the essential nature of matter were inadequate and misleading....

The opening years of the nineteenth century were made memorable by the promulgation of the atomic theory by John Dalton. The enunciation of this theory, which affords a simple a...

We have seen how chemistry made a new departure during the political upheaval which occurred in this country about the middle of the seventeenth century. It acquired a new impet...

The term “iatro-chemistry” denotes a particular phase in the history of medicine and of chemistry. The iatro-chemists were a school of physicians who sought to apply chemical pr...

The first year of the nineteenth century is further memorable on account of the invention of the voltaic pile, and by reason of its application by =William Nicholson= and =Sir A...

During the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries the cult of alchemy attained to the dignity of a religion. Belief in transmutation and in the virtues and powers of the...

Speculations as to the origin and nature of matter, and as to the conditions and forces which affect it, are to be found, more or less imperfectly developed, in the oldest syste...

Relations of chemistry to physics. Relations of heat to chemical phenomena. Improvements in the mercurial thermometer. Newton. Shuckburgh. Brooke Taylor. Cavendish. Black. Disco...

Becher’s hypothesis of the _Terra Pinguis_. Its development into the theory of phlogiston. Stahl. Phlogiston, primarily a theory of combustion, becomes a theory of chemistry. It...

Nicolas Lemery divides chemistry into its two main branches of inorganic and organic chemistry. State of knowledge of products of organic origin during the early years of the ni...

Ancient speculations as to the origin and nature of matter. Water the primal principle. Thales of Miletus. Persistency of his doctrine. Its influence on science. Theories of Ana...

Influence of the Hellenic mind on the development of chemistry. Origin of the idea of the transmutation of metals. Philosophical foundation for the belief in alchemy. Alchemisti...

Alchemy in the Middle Ages. Association of religion with alchemy by the Christian Church. Alleged nature of the Philosopher’s Stone. Its character described. Its power. The Univ...

The atomic hypotheses of the ancients. Newton. Bergmann. Lavoisier. Richter. Stochiometry. John Dalton: sketch of his life and character. How he was led to his explanation of th...

The Voltaic Pile. Electrolytic decomposition of water by Nicholson and Carlisle. Application of voltaic electricity to the decomposition of the alkalis by Davy. His life and wor...

The foundation of the Royal Society and other scientific academies. The appearance of “The Sceptical Chemist”: its attack on the doctrines of the Spagyrists. Boyle: his life and...

Theories of the iatro-chemists. Paracelsus. Doctrine of the _tria prima_. The Paracelsian harmonies. Libavius. Van Helmont. Sylvius. Willis. Services of iatro-chemistry to scien...

Downfall of phlogistonism. Lavoisier: his life and work. His death. _Le principe oxygine._ Principle of the conservation of matter. Chemistry a science of quantitative relations...

Egypt, the alleged birthplace of chemistry. Origin of the word “chemistry.” Chemical arts known to the ancients. Metallurgy of the ancients. Chemical products of the Chinese, Eg...