The Seventeenth Century 143 



space to inorganic phosphors than did Le Grand, and his views on 

 this particular subject will be found in Chapter VIII, It will be 

 noted that both Rohault and Le Grand discussed a variety of lumi- 

 nescences, whereas Descartes mentioned chiefly sea water, luminous 

 wood, and salt fish. Rohault and Le Grand were not only inter- 

 preting the views of the master, but also expanding his system to 

 include all known phenomena. 



NICOLAS LEMERY 



Probably few men have had more influence on the early develop- 

 ment of chemistry than Nicolas Lemery (1645-1715). A court 

 apothecary to Louis XIV and son of an apothecary, Lemery became 

 disgusted with the alchemistic doctrines of the day and spent his 

 life first in teaching the newer chemistry by simple experiments in 

 his own room, and later to large classes under the auspices of the 

 French Academy of Science, to which he was elected a member in 

 1699. He was one of the first to popularize science in any country. 

 We may hazard a guess that luminescence experiments played a 

 very considerable part in promoting the popularization. 



He wrote a much used textbook "^^ which passed through thirteen 

 editions during his lifetime and a total of twenty-two French edi- 

 tions. The first, Cours de Chymie Contenant la Maniere de Faire 

 les Operations qui sont en usage dans le Medecine (Paris, 1675) , 

 was translated as A Course of Chemistry by Walter Harris, London, 

 1677. It contained nothing on luminescence. The second edition of 

 Harris' translation (1686) from the fifth French edition (see title 

 page in figure 14) devoted fifteen pages to the element, phosphorus, 

 and four pages to the Hermetick phosphorus of Balduinus. How- 

 ever, the third English edition (and succeeding editions) edited by 

 James Keill in 1698, gave a really extensive account (pp. 684-732) 

 of phosphorus, as well as Homberg's, the Bolognian and the Bal- 

 duinian phosphors. This edition was entitled A Course of Chymistry 

 containing an easie Method of Preparing those Chymical Medicins 

 which are used in Physick. 



Lemery was greatly influenced by Descartes's (1644) idea of matter 

 as made up of particles in motion, and fire as resulting from terres- 

 trial particles agitated by the " materia coelestis " i. e., fire is violent 

 motion of minute bodies (corpuscles ignees) about their common 

 center. Descartes held that flame was directed upward because it 

 contains a large amount of " materia coelestis " lighter than air. 



"' It has been said (Clara de Milt, Jour. Chem. Educat. 19: 53-60, 1942) that much of 

 Lemery's material came from the Traite de la chymie (1663) of Christolphe Glaser 

 (died ca. 1670) . 



