T H. E 



POPULAR SCIENCE 



MONTHLY 



JULY, 1915 



THE DAWN OF MODERN CHEMISTRY. 



By Peofessor JOHN MAXSON STILLMAN 



STANFORD UNIVERSITY 



THE period of the history of chemistry which I have chosen to 

 designate as the dawn of modern chemistry begins practically in 

 the early sixteenth century and extends well toward the latter part of 

 the eighteenth century. Not that the chemistry of that period shows 

 any very clear relation to the present state of chemical science, but 

 because at about the middle of the sixteenth century there was inaugu- 

 rated an era of activity in chemical thought and experimentation, which 

 has continued with steadily increasing velocity and productiveness to 

 the present time. The period referred to does not by any means mark 

 the beginnings of chemical arts or theories, for the beginnings of the 

 technical arts of chemistry may be traced back as far as recorded history. 

 The earliest records of Egyptian or Babylonian origin show that the 

 arts of metallurgy, the making of bronzes and other alloys, have been 

 practised, and uninterruptedly so, since at least some 3,500 years before 

 the Christian era. So also the manufacture of glass and pottery, the 

 coloring of glass and pottery, the manufacture of colors for dyeing and 

 painting, are of great antiquity. It is worthy of note also that these 

 technical arts of chemistry possessed since very ancient times a kind of 

 literature of their own in the form of recipes and directions for the 

 various processes of the special art. Such manuscripts were doubtless 

 not meant for public information, but for the use of the artisan alone, 

 and were transmitted from the master to the apprentice or successor for 

 his own use. The earliest original manuscript of this character known 

 to exist is a manuscript on papyrus written in the Greek language 

 which was discovered in an Egyptian tomb at Thebes, and is now pre- 

 served at Leyden. It dates from the third century of our era, and was 

 doubtless a manuscript which escaped the wholesale destruction of 

 alchemical and magical works in a.d. 290 by order of the Emperor 

 Diocletian, issued, as believed, to prevent the danger of the possible 

 making of gold by the alchemists and its resulting influence upon the 



