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Operational Practice and the Emergence of Modern Chemical Concepts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Robert P. Multhauf
Robert P. Multhauf
Affiliation:
Smithsonian Institution, Retired
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Abstract

Both “early chemistry” and “modern concepts” are imprecise. The earliest references to the materials involved in metallurgy, painting, ceramics, and the like, reveal an awareness that one group of materials were called “salts” because of their similarities. I consider this a chemical “concept.” Seeking another example I claim to have found it in the so-called “mineral acids.” The evidence for the existence of this concept is cumulative during the period just before the emergence of “modern chemistry,” of which it may be considered a cause. That evidence is particularly found in the literature of pharmacy and of medicine, both of which belong to the practical arts.

Type
Article
Information
Science in Context , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1996 , pp. 241 - 249
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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