FIG. ii2. ROBERT BOYLE. 



CHAPTER X. 



CHEMISTRY AND NATURAL HISTORY SCIENCE OF THE 

 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



A MONG the most successful followers of the new experimental 

 -*> method in science were the chemists Van Helmont and Robert 

 Boyle. VAN HELMONT ,(1577 1644) was born at Brussels of a noble 

 family and ancient lineage, and, had he been influenced by the ordinary 

 ambitions, he would doubtless have made a considerable figure in his 

 time as a courtier. Instead of following such a career, he applied 

 himself with extraordinary assiduity to the study of science, preferring 

 the toil of the laboratory to the splendour of the Court. His name 

 has some lustre in the history of chemistry, for he was the first to call 

 attention to certain invisible and impalpable, but nevertheless mate- 

 rial bodies which up to his time had been overlooked. These bodies 



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