Historical View of the Progress of Chemistry

"Simplicity and precision ought to be the characteristics of a scientific nomenclature: words should signify things, or the analogies of things, and not opinions. If all the elements were certainly known, the principle adopted by Lavoisier would have possessed an admirable application; but a substance in one age supposed to be simple, in another is proved to be compound; and vice versa. A theoretical nomenclature is liable to continued alterations; oxygenated muriatic acid is as improper a name as dephlogisticated marine acid."

"Every school believes itself in the right; and if every school assumes to itself the liberty of altering the names of chemical substances, in consequence of new ideas of their composition, or decomposition, there can be no permanency in the language of the science, it must always be confused and uncertain."

"Bodies which are similar to each other should always be classed together; and there is a presumption that their composition is analogous."

"Metals, earths, alkalies, are appropriate names for the bodies they represent, and independant of all speculative views; whereas oxides, sulphurets, and muriates, are terms founded upon opinions of the composition of bodies, some of which have been already found erroneous."

"The least dangerous mode of giving a systematic form to a language, seems to be, to signify the analogies of substances by some common sign affixed to the beginning or the termination of the word. Thus, as the metals have been distinguished by a termination in um, as aurum, so their calciform or oxidated state, might have been denoted by a termination in a, as aura; and no progress, however great, in the science, could render it necessary that such a mode of appellation should be changed."

"Moreover, the principle of a composite nomenclature must always be very limited. It is scarcely possible to represent bodies consisting of five or six elements in this way, and yet it is in such difficult cases that a name implying a chemical truth would be most useful."

"The new doctrines of chemistry, before 1795, were embraced by almost all the active experimental enquirers in Europe; and the adoption of a precise mode of reasoning, and more refined forms of experiment, led not only to the discovery of new substances, but likewise to a more accurate acquaintance with the properties and composition of bodies that had long been known."

"New investigations were instituted with respect to all the productions of nature, and the immense variety of substances in the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdom, submitted to chemical experiments."

"The analysis of mineral bodies first attempted by Pott in experiments principally on their igneous fusion, and afterwards refined by the application of acid and alkaline menstrua, by Margraaf, Bergman, Bayen, and Achard, received still greater improvements from the labours of Klaprothk, Vauquelin, and Hatchett."

"Hoffman, in the beginning of the 18th century, pointed out magnesia as a peculiar substance. Margraaf, about fifty years later, distinguished accurately between the silicious, , and aluminous earths. Scheele, in 1774, discovered s. Klaproth, in 1788, made known zircone. Dr. Hope, strontites in 791. Gadolin, ittria in 1794; and Vauquelin, glucine in 1798."

"Seven metals only had been accurately known to the ancients, gold, silver, mercury, copper, tin, and . , , , and , though mentioned by the Greek and Roman authors, yet were employed only in certain combinations, and the production of them in the form of reguli or pure metals, was owing to the Alchemists."

"had been used to tinge glass in in the sixteenth century; but the metal was unknown till the time of Brandt, and this celebrated Swedish chemist discovered it in 1733."

"was procured by Cronstedt in 1751."

"The properties of , which was announced as a peculiar metal by Kaim in 1770, were minutely investigated by Scheele and Bergman a few years after."

"was discovered by Scheele in 1778, and a metal procured from it by Hielm in 1782, the same year that tellurium was made known by Muller."

"Scheele discovered in 1781; and soon after a metal was extracted from it by Messrs. Fausto & Juan José] D' Elhuyars."

"Klaproth discovered uranium in 1789."

"The first description of the properties of the oxide of titanium was given by Gregor in 1791."

"Vauquelin made known chromium in 1797; Hatchett columbium in 1801; and shortly after, the same substance was noticed by Ekeberg, and named by him tantalium."

"Cerium was discovered in 1804, by Hissinger and Berzelius."

"Platina had been brought into Europe and examined by Lewis in 1749 and in 1803, Descotils, Fourcroy, and Vauquelin announced a new metallic substance in it; but the complete investigation of the properties of this extraordinary body was reserved for Messrs. Tennant and Wollaston, who in 1803 and 1804 discovered in it no less than four new metallic substances, besides the body which exists in it in the largest proportion, namely, iridium, osmium, palladium, and rhodium."

"The attempts made to analyse vegetable substances previous to 1720, merely produced their resolution into the supposed elements of the chemists of those days, namely, salts, Earths, phlegm, and sulphur. Boerhaave and Newmann attempted an examination by fluid menstrua, which was pursued with some success by Rouelle, Macquer and Lewis. Scheele, between 1770 and 1780, pointed out several new vegetable acids."

"Fourcroy, Vauquelin, Deyeux, Seguin, Proust, Jacquin, and Hermbstadt, between 1780 and 1790, in various interesting series of experiments, distinguished between different secondary elements of vegetable matter, particularly extract, , gums, and resinous substances; and investigations of this kind have been pursued with great success by Hatchett, Pearson, Shraeder, Chenevix, Gehlen, Thomson, Thenard, Chevreul, Kind, Brande, Bostock and Duncan. The chemistry of animal substances has received great elucidations from several of the same enquirers; and Berzelius has examined most of their results, and has added several new ones, in a comprehensive work expressly devoted to the subject, published in 1808."

"Mr. Howard, by an accurate examination of the testimonies... and by a minute analysis of the substances said to have fallen in different parts of the globe... shewed that... meteoric productions differed from any substances belonging to our earth."

"The philosophy of heat, the foundations of which were laid between 1757 and 1785, by Dr. Black, Wilcke, Crawford, Irvine, and Lavoisier, since that period has received some new and very important additions, from the inquiries of Pictet, Rumford, Herschel, Leslie, Dalton, and Gay Lussac."

"The circurmstances under which bodies absorb and communicate heat, have been minutely investigated; and the important discoveries of the different physical and chemical powers of the different solar rays, and of a property analogous to polarity in light, bear immediate relation to the most refined doctrines of corpuscular science, and promise to connect by close analogies, the chemical and mechanical laws of matter."

"A general view of the philosophy of chemistry was published under the name of Chemical Statics, in 1803, by the celebrated Berthollet. It is a work remarkable for the new views that it contains on the doctrines of attraction; views which are still objects of discussion, and which bear an immediate relation to some of the conclusions depending upon very recent discoveries."

"At the time when the antiphlogistic theory was established, electricity had little or no relation to chemistry. The grand results of Franklin, respecting the cause of lightning, had led many philosophers to conjecture, that certain chemical changes in the atmosphere, might be connected with electrical phænomena;—and electrical discharges had been employed by Cavendish, Priestley, and Vanmarum, for decomposing and igniting bodies; but it was not till the era of the wonderful discovery of Volta, in 1860, of a new electrical apparatus, that any great progress was made in chemical investigation by means of electrical combinations."

"Nothing tends so much to the advancement of knowledge as the application of a new instrument. The native intellectual powers of men in different times, are not so much the causes of the different success of their labours, as the peculiar nature of the means and artificial resources in their possession. Independent of vessels of glass, there could have been no accurate manipulations in common chemistry: the air pump, was necessary for the investigation of the properties of gaseous matter; and without the Voltaic apparatus, there was no possibility of examining the relations of electrical polarities to chemical attractions."

"By researches, the commencement of which is owing to Messrs. Nicholson and Carlisle, in 1800, which were continued by Cruickshank, Henry, Wollaston, Children, Pepys, Pfaff, Desormes, Biot, Thenard, Hissinger, and Berzelius, it appeared that various compound bodies were capable of decomposition by electricity; and experiments, which it was my good fortune to institute, proved that several substances which had never been separated into any other forms of matter in the common processes of experiment, were susceptible of analysis by electrical powers; in consequence of these circumstances, the fixed es and several of the earths have been shewn to be metals combined with oxygene; various new agents have been furnished to chemistry, and many novel results obtained by their application, which at the same time that they have strengthened some of the doctrines of the school of Lavoisier, have overturned others, and have proved that the generalizations of the Antiphlogistic philosophers were far from having anticipated the whole progress of discovery."

"Certain bodies which attract each other chemically, and combine when their particles have freedom of motion, when brought into contact, still preserving their aggregation, exhibit what may be called electrical polarities; and by certain combinations these polarities may be highly exalted; and in this case they become subservient to chemical decompositions; and by means of electrical arrangements the constituent parts of bodies are separated in an uniform order, and in definite proportions."

"Bodies combine with a force, which in many cases is correspondent to their power of exhibiting electrical polarity by contact; and heat, or heat and light, are produced in proportion to the energy of their combination. Vivid inflammation occurs in a number of cases in which gaseous matter is not fixed; and this phenomenon happens in various instances without the interierence of free or combined oxygene."

"Experiments made by Richter and Morveau had shewn that, when there is an interchange of elements between two neutral salts, there is never an excess of or basis; and the same law seems to apply generally to double decompositions."

"When one body combines with another in more than one proportion, the second proportion appears to be some multiple or divisor of the first; and this circumstance, observed and ingeniously illustrated by Mr. Dalton, led him to adopt the atomic hypothesis of chemical changes, which had been ably defended by Mr. Higgins in 1789, namely, that the chemical elements consist of certain indestructible particles which unite one and one, or one and two, or in some definite [] numbers."

"Whether matter consists of indivisible corpuscles, or physical points endowed with attraction and repulsion, still the same conclusions may be formed concerning the powers by which they act, and the quantities in which they combine; and the powers seem capable of being measured by their electrical relations, and the quantities on which they act of being expressed by numbers."

"In combination certain bodies form regular solids; and all the varieties of crystalline aggregrates have been resolved by the genius of Haüy into a few primary forms."

"The laws of crystallization, of definite proportions, and of the electrical polarities of bodies, seem to be intimately related; and the complete illustration of their connection, probably will constitute the mature age of chemistry."

"The just fame of those who have enlightened the science by new and accurate experiments, cannot fail to be universally acknowledged; and concerning the publication of novel facts there can be but one judgment; for facts are independent of fashion, taste, and caprice, and are subject to no code of criticism; they are more useful perhaps even when they contradict, than when they support received doctrines, for our theories are only imperfect approximations to the real knowledge of things; and in physical research, doubt is usually of excellent effect, for it is a principal motive for new labours, and tends continually to the developement of truth."

"From the first discovery of the production of metals from rude ores, to the knowledge of the bleaching liquor, chemistry has been continually subservient to cultivation and improvement."

"In the manufacture of porcelain and glass, in the arts of dying and tanning, it has added to the elegancies, refinement, and comforts of life; in its application to medicine it has removed the most formidable of diseases; and in leading to the discovery of gunpowder, it has changed the institutions of society..."

"It is... a double source of interest in this science, that whilst it is connected with the grand operations of nature, it is likewise subservient to the common processes as well as the most refined arts of life. New laws cannot be discovered in it, without increasing our admiration of the beauty and order of the system of the universe; and no new substances can be made known which are not sooner or later subservient to some purpose of utility."

"When the great progress made in chemistry within the last few years is considered, and the number of able labourers who are at present actively employed in cultivating the science, it is impossible not to augur well concerning its rapid advancement and future applications. The most important truths belonging to it are capable of extremely simple numerical expressions, which may be acquired with facility by students; and the apparatus for pursuing original researches is daily improved, the use of it rendered more easy, and the acquisition less expensive."

"Complexity almost always belongs to the early epochs of every science; and the grandest results are usually obtained by the most simple means."

"A great part of the phaenomena of chemistry may be already submitted to calculation; and there is great reason to believe, that at no very distant period the whole science will be capable of elucidation by mathematical principles."

"The relations of the common metals to the bases of the alkalies and earths, and the gradations of resemblance between the bases of the earths and acids, point out as probable a similarity in the constitution of all inflammable bodies; and there are not wanting experiments, which render their possible decomposition far from a chimerical idea."

"It is contrary to the usual order of things, that events so harmonious as those of the system of the earth, should depend on such diversified agents, as are supposed to exist in our artificial arrangements; and there is reason to anticipate a great reduction in the number of the undecompounded bodies, and to expect that the analogies of nature will be found conformable to the refined operations of art."

"The more the phaenomena of the universe are studied, the more distinct their connection appears, the more simple their causes, the more magnificent their design, and the more wonderful the wisdom and power of their Author."

"Humphry Davy's objection to Bacon has not been found. In "Historical View of the Progress of Chemistry" in Elements of Chemical Philosophy (1812) Davy cited Bacon's Preface in Instauratio magna in support of his own rejection of Aristotle's "erroneous practice" of advancing general principles for application to particular instances, "so fatal to truth in all sciences". ...In his works Davy typically praised Bacon for his knowledge and novelty..."

"This historical sketch has no pretensions to originality. It is compiled from the best authors, and from the Introduction to Sir H. Davy's Elements of Chemical Philosophy."