Description

By Forris Jewett Moore
1918

Contents

CHAPTER I
CHEMISTRY AMONG THE ANCIENTS 1
Ancient Arts; Theories of the Philosophers; Thaïes; Anaximenes and Leucippus; Heraclitus and Empedocles; Democritus and the Atomic Theory; Aristotle and the Four Elements; Archimedes and Eratosthenes; Pliny.

CHAPTER II
CHEMISTRY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. ALCHEMY 9
Intellectual Decline During the Middle Ages; Rise of Alchemy; Alchemistic Traditions; Fundamental Ideas; Practical Achievements; Prominent Individuals; Decay of Alchemy.

CHAPTER III
CHEMISTRY IN THE RENAISSANCE 18
The Revival of Learning; Career of Paracelsus; His Fundamental Ideas; Agricola; Van Helmont; Glauber.

CHAPTER IV
BOYLE AND His CONTEMPORARIES. THE PHLOGISTON THEORY .... 25
Boyle; Mayow and Hales; Kunkel and Becher; Stahl and the Phlogiston Theory; Advantages and Faults of the Theory; Early Criticism; Hoffmann, Boerhave, Marggraf; Geoffroy and His Tables
of Affinity; Rouelle.

CHAPTER V
THE LATER PHLOGISTIANS. THE DISCOVERY OF OXYGEN 33
Black's Work on Magnesia Alba; Cavendish; Life and Work of Scheele; His more Prominent Investigations; Book on Air and Fire; Priestley; His Discovery of Oxygen.

CHAPTER VI
LAVOISIER 47
Life and Character; Early Studies; Gain in Weight by Combustion; True Theory of Combustion; The Commission on Nomenclature; State of Chemical Knowledge; The Elements of Lavoisier; His Theory of Acids.

CHAPTER VII
THE LAW OF DEFINITE PROPORTIONS
Berthollet and the Statique Chimique; The Controversy with Proust; The Idea of Equivalence; Richter and Fischer.

CHAPTER VIII
DALTON AND THE ATOMIC THEORY
Beginnings of the Atomic Theory; Life and Character of Dalton; His Experiments with Gases; How the Atomic Theory Originated; The Law of Multiple Proportions; Dalton's Atomic Weights; Inadequacy of His Figures; Gay-Lussac; His Law of Combining Gas Volumes; Its Rejection by Dalton; Avogadro's Hypothesis; Ampere's View; Reception of the Hypothesis; Wollaston's Equivalents—
Prout's Hypothesis.

CHAPTER IX
THE EARLY HISTORY OF GALVANIC ELECTRICITY
Galvani; Early Experiments; Volta's Interpretation; The Contact Theory; Ritter's Chemical Explanation; Volta's Pile; Its Chemical Action; The Decomposition of Water; Grotthuss's Theory of the Mechanism of Electrolysis; Opposition of the 'Physical' and 'Chemical' Theories of Electricity.

CHAPTER X
HUMPHRY DAVY
Life and Character; Studies in Electrolysis; Formation of Acid and Alkali in the Electrolysis of Water; Isolation of the Alkali Metals; Erroneous Idea Concerning Ammonia; The Elementary Nature of Chlorine; The Hydrogen Theory of Acids; The Hydracides; Attitude of Davy toward the Theory of Electricity and the Atomic
Theory; Michael Faraday.

CHAPTER XI
BERZELIUS, THE ORGANIZER OF THE SCIENCE
Life and Character; His Atomic Weights; His Literary Activity; The Law of Dulong and Petit; The Law of Mitscherlich; Berzelius's Conception of Chemical Composition; The Dualistic System; Berzelius's Interpretation of Electrolysis; Wöhler's Reminiscences of
his Studies with Berzelius.

CHAPTER XII
DUALISM IN ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
Wöhler, Liebig, and Dumas; Wöhler; Life and Character of Liebig; The Laboratory at Giessen as a Center of Chemical Inspiration; Organic Analysis; Friendship of Liebig and Wöhler; Dumas;
State of Organic Chemistry in 1828; The Vital Force and the Synthesis of Urea; The First Radical Theory; Ethylene; The Benzoyl Radical; The Ethyl and Acetyl Theories; Increasing Indefiniteness of the Radicals.

CHAPTER XIII
THE REACTION AGAINST BERZELIUS 136
Substitution in Organic Chemistry; The Preparation of Trichloroacetic Acid; Dumas and the Idea of Types; Hostility of Berzelius; His Theory of Conjugate Compounds; Graham and Liebig on the
Polybasic Acids; Revival of the Hydrogen Theory; Dumas's Work on Vapor Densities; His Inability to Accept Avogadro's Hypothesis; Polymorphism and Isomorphism; Irregularity of the Specific Heats; Faraday's Law.; The Foundation of Elect