The Evolution of the Sciences 



to a single man as chemistry does to Lavoisier. 

 He freed it from the last trace of metaphysics, 

 gave to the notion of element a precise 

 meaning, and gave expression in the chemical 

 equation to one of the essential elements of 

 chemical reaction. The work of Richter and 

 Proust left chemistry with a complete skeleton : 

 the existence of elements, the conservation 

 of matter and the existence of simple ratios in 

 combinations; what remains is, as a matter of 

 fact, simply physics. 



Thus classical chemistry was evolved in the 

 course of a few years ; it is the chemistry we all 

 have studied and it is still taught, more or less, 

 by the most recent text-books. 



Let us take up one of these books. We find 

 that it commences with some pages of generalities 

 setting forth in a clear and general form, with 

 the timely help of the atomic theory, the ex- 

 perimental principles of the science of chemistry. 

 Then the student is initiated into the principles 

 of nomenclature, which enable the objects 

 studied to be clearly designated; but every 

 nomenclature assumes a classification and we 



now perceive that classical chemistry is chiefly 



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