The Tendencies of Chemistry 



In consequence of all this progress chemistry 

 is suffering from growing pains. It no longer 

 knows the limits of its domain; the barriers 

 which separated it from the other sciences have 

 fallen one after the other, and in their place 

 are growing and prospering other branches 

 of universal science: physiological chemistry, 

 which devotes itself to disentangling the reactions 

 of living matter ; chemical mineralogy and geology, 

 which summon the resources of the laboratory 

 to explain the origin of minerals and formations; 

 and finally physical chemistry, which endeavours 

 to solve the fundamental problem of chemistry, 

 the study of chemical reactions, by bringing 

 to bear on it all the theoretical and practical 

 resources of physics. 



While chemistry sees its limits disappearing, 

 it is undergoing an internal evolution and 

 steadily increasing the intimacy of its union 

 with physics. Formerly it was possible to 

 distinguish a chemical laboratory from a physical 

 laboratory on the threshold simply by the 

 smell; this distinction is becoming every day 

 more difficult. It has been said that Lavoisier 

 founded chemistry by giving it the balance; 



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