We must not forget that when was discovered no one knew that it would prove useful in hospitals. The work was one of pure science. And this is a proof that scientific work must not be considered from the point of view of the direct usefulness of it. It must be done for itself, for the beauty of science, and then there is always the chance that a scientific discovery may become like the radium a benefit for humanity.
By convention (νόμῳ) sweet is sweet, by convention bitter is bitter, by convention hot is hot, by convention cold is cold, by convention color is color. But in reality there are atoms and the void. That is, the objects of sense are supposed to be real and it is customary to regard them as such, but in truth they are not. Only the atoms and the void are real.
Even though Mendeleev always denied that electrons exist, they later turned out to be vital for ordering the elements in his table.
We avoid the gravest difficulties when, giving up the attempt to frame hypotheses concerning the constitution of matter, we pursue statistical inquiries as a branch of rational mechanics.
The extension of Black's method by the physicist Lavoisier led to the downfall of the purely qualitative theory of phlogiston, and gave to chemistry the true methods of investigation, and its first great quantitative law—the law of conservation of matter.
It will be seen that my apparatus for experiments on air is in fact nothing more than that of Dr. Hales, Dr. Brownrigg, and Mr. Cavendish, diversified and made a little more simple.
It was in consequence of living for some time in the neighbourhood of a public brewery, a little after Midsummer in 1767, that I was induced to make experiments on fixed air...
Dimitri was writing a textbook and wanted to organize the elements properly. So he wrote each element onto its own card to help him sort them out. Dimitri enjoyed playing cards, especially patience, and one evening he dosed off while working. He had a dream in which each of the cards lined up in rows, just like a game of patience. When he woke, he realized that he should put the elements in order of atomic mass.
This History has been written because of a conviction, from my own experience and experience with my students, that one of the best aids to an intelligent comprehension of the science of chemistry is the study of the long struggle, the failures, and the triumphs of the men who have made this science for us.
Free use has been made of all the chief authorities; the historical works of Kopp, Berthelot, Hoefer, Thomson, Ernst v. Meyer, Ladenburg, Rodwell, Muir, Wurtz, Hartmann, Gmelin, Karmarsch, and Siebert, besides the original works of nearly all the chemists mentioned for the past century and a half, have been consulted.
The ovum from which chemistry has been slowly evolved seems to have been sorcery and magic.
The word χημεία occurs first in the writings of , a Greek lexicographer of the eleventh century. It is there defined as the "preparing of gold and silver." This is manifestly a Greek rendering of the name Chema or Chemi, which is of Egyptian origin, and all attempts at deriving it from χεω, to fuse, or χνμα a liquid, are without import.
Plutarch tells us that Chemia was a name given Egypt on account of the black soil, and that this term further meant the black of the eye, symbolizing that which was obscure and hidden.
The Coptic word khems or chems is closely related to this, and also signifies obscure, occult, and with this is connected the Arabic word chema, to hide.
It is therefore the occult or hidden science, the black art.
No original manuscript of the earliest writers on chemistry or alchemy has been discovered. Our knowledge must be gleaned from the pages of those writing upon other subjects, or must come from fragments handed down to us through several copyists.
The reason generally assigned for this absence of early records is that burned all writings of the Egyptians bearing upon alchemy, because, as he said, these taught the art of making gold and silver; and, by destroying them, he took away from the Egyptians the power of enriching themselves and rebelling against the Romans.
[T]he Chinese... had... knowledge of metals, alloys, colors, and salts for a long time, and that they manufactured gun powder and porcelain before they were known in Europe.
In... India... knowledge of the extraction of metals, the making of steel, the preparation of colors, and similar technical operations, dates back to the most remote antiquity. They also theorized as to the elements and their number. Their synonym for death was, "man returns to the five elements."
[T]here is a similarity easily detected between the hieroglyphics and the alchemical signs. The phraseology in the early treatises is similar to that in the priestly writings.
[N]ote the important part played by the number four with the alchemists as well as with the Egyptian priests. There are the four bases or elements, the tetrasomy of ; the four zones, four funeral deities, four cardinal points, four winds, four colors, etc.
Ostanes, the Mede, was one of the celebrated early alchemists. Several writers have recorded for us the existence of a book called The Book of the Divine Prescriptions, which seems to have been the most famous writing of these Persian sages.
The belief in some wonderful connection between planets and metals is due to these ns. The signs of the heavenly bodies became the symbols for the metals. These planets influenced a supposed growth of the metals, and were esteemed all-powerful in regulating human life and fate. Many of these notions are to be attributed to the Alexandrian epoch.
The first principle in nature is asserted by Lucretius [Concerning the Nature of Things] to be that " Nothing is ever gotten out of nothing."
Lucretius pictured a solid substance as a vast number of atoms squeezed closely together, a liquid as composed of not so many atoms less tightly packed, and a gas as a comparatively small number of atoms with considerable freedom of motion. Essentially the same picture is presented by the molecular theory of to-day.
Another objector urges—"You say the atoms are always moving, yet the things we look at, which you assert to be vast numbers of moving atoms, are often motionless." ...Lucretius answers by an analogy. " And herein you need not wonder at this, that... since they are themselves beyond what you can see, they must withdraw from sight their motion as well; and the more so, that the things which we can see do yet often conceal their motions when a great distance off."
[M]any chemical facts, products, and processes have been known from a period considerably earlier than any of which we have a historic record. As a true science... chemistry is only between one and two hundred years old... but... it has been known and practised as an art continuously since prehistoric times. The skilled, and often royal or priestly, artisans handed down its secrets in the shape of workshop traditions, from the earliest ages till the present day...
The origin of the science of chemistry must... be sought in the art of alchemy. ...[I]n the course of their labours they gained much definite information regarding the properties of metals and other substances, devised the necessary apparatus and processes for chemical operations, and laid a foundation upon which later investigators have built up the modern science.
[T]he Alchemical Period... may with propriety be called "The Ancient History of Chemistry."
The application of the term [alchemy] has frequently but wrongfully been restricted to the pretended arts of making gold and silver, and the more profitable arts of adulterating and of imitating gold. It had, however, a wider application, and ought to be regarded as including all the arts known in ancient times which dealt with things now comprehended in the science of chemistry.
The use of the expression "chemist" to indicate a druggist reminds us of another branch of alchemy, the art of making drugs which received much attention in Ancient Egypt, and probably in other eastern countries, and was combined with the art of preparing poisons and their antidotes.
The ancient Egyptians... had a profound knowledge of the art of making, tinting, and working glass.
The arts and industries of dyeing, painting, and staining were known and practised in eastern lands in very ancient times. ...[T]he dyeing of skins and garments... is mentioned in most writings of antiquity. The colours used in early Egyptian art remain bright and clear. ...Remains found in Chaldea include coloured articles, as well as articles made of metal.
We are apt to suppose that the use of s is of modern origin, but that is not so. Not only did the Hebrews and the Greeks employ antiseptics in their religious rites, but in Egypt a very high degree of skill must have been attained in their preparation and use, before the body of King Rameses... and hundreds of others could have been preserved for between three and four thousand years so perfectly...
The development of the paraffin and other hydrocarbon industries during the present generation may make us fancy that this is a modern discovery; but it is the fact that the fire on the Hebrew altar fed by the Jewish priests was our familiar petroleum and was called r or nephi, a Hebrew word signifying purification...
[T]he first period [prehistory to 500 B.C.] into which the history of chemistry naturally divides itself is that during which a number of chemical facts were known, but not understood or explained. These facts were not correlated, nor was the subject studied with scientific purpose and method, consequently during this period chemistry was not a science.
The Greeks were no chemists. The bent of their mind was not towards natural science; few observations or experiments were made by them, and they preferred to argue from general principles to particulars, rather than from particular observations to general principles.
Davy held that if the battery is strong enough any compound may be decomposed, and that chemical affinity is merely a form of electric attraction. He vigorously put his theory into practice...