NATURE 



THURSDAY, JULY 30, 1891. 



THE HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 

 A History of Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the 

 Present Day. By Ernst von Meyer, Professor of 

 Chemistry in the University of Leipzig, Translated 

 by George McGowan. (London : Macmillan and Co., 

 1 891.) 



OF all branches of natural science, none has a history 

 more profoundly interesting or more fascinating 

 than chemistry. And yet, strange to say, none has re- 

 <:eived less adequate treatment from the historian. The 

 reason for this comparative neglect is not far to seek. 

 The historian of science must have qualifications which 

 are rarely united in one man : not only must he possess 

 the attributes of the successful writer on social, political, 

 or economic history, but he must also be a past-master in 

 the special branch with which he deals, and be well in- 

 formed on all its cognate branches. Germany has given 

 us the classical volumes of Kopp ; from France comes 

 the learned work of Hoefer ; whilst in England we have 

 had, until quite recently, to be content with the some- 

 what trivial, disjointed, and partial narration of Thomas 

 Thomson. In addition we have had a number of mono- 

 graphs, especially within recent .years, on the labours of 

 particular individuals : many of these, like Henry's 

 ■" Dalton," Wilson's " Life of Cavendish," Bence Jones's 

 ■" Life and Letters of Faraday," and the remarkable series 

 of biographical sketches which we owe to the facile pen 

 of Hofmann, are delightful works ; but these, after all, are 

 only mhnoires pour servir. As a rule, the more formal 

 and general histories which deal with the organized 

 growth of the science are not very attractive ; either 

 their authors lack literary grace and charm, or they 

 are superficial, ill-informed, and, in some cases, so ob- 

 viously biassed as to render them altogether untrust- 

 worthy. And, moreover, not one of them has sought to 

 grapple with the splendid achievements of the last half- 

 century in any truly philosophic manner. Kopp and 

 Hoefer have, between them, told us all that is known, or, 

 in all probabiHty, ever will be known, or need be known, 

 respecting the beginnings of chemistry, and of its growth 

 through the Middle Ages, and down to the end of the 

 last century. We now require somebody to set about 

 doing for this nineteenth century what the German and 

 French historians have done for those that precede it. 

 The labour would be stupendous, but the result might be 

 magnificent. At no period in the history of the science 

 have its generalizations been more brilliant, and its 

 theories more comprehensive, more prolific, and, it may 

 be added, more securely established. The birth of the 

 •century saw the extension of the atomic hypothesis to 

 the explanation of the fundamental facts of chemical 

 combination, and it has been the chief and most cha- 

 racteristic work of the century to place that theory on a 

 foundation as sound and as firm as that on which the 

 immortal conception of Newton is based. The historian 

 of the chemistry of the nineteenth century need have no 

 other text than that of the atomic theory ; for round this 

 dominant conception all other present-day theories are 

 NO. I 135, VOL. 44] 



ranged ; it is the centre of a system which it vivifies and 

 feeds, and by which it itself is fed and strengthened in 

 return. 



Some attempt at what is here foreshadowed has been 

 made in the book before us, but, excellent as the work is 

 in many respects, it is even more suggestive of what re- 

 mains to be accomplished. The book is divided into six 

 chapters, of which the fifth and sixth are devoted to the 

 history of chemistry from the death of Lavoisier to the 

 present time, and these two chapters occupy nearly three- 

 fourths of the volume. This portion is not only the 

 larger, but is confessedly the most difficult of the whole. 

 In weighing and criticizing current chemical doctrine, 

 and in discussing the theories of the present, even the 

 most conscientious historian is apt to be unconsciously 

 biassed by the predilections and prejudices of his train- 

 ing and environment. Prof von Meyer has not been 

 unmindful of this possible danger, but after carefully 

 reading his work we can heartily congratulate him on 

 the success with which he has preserved the " objective 

 attitude" which is essential to the true historian. Ashe 

 tells us, it has been his earnest desire to shed a clear 

 light upon the conflicting views respecting the develop- 

 ment and importance of the chemical doctrines of to-day, 

 and to endeavour to apply a calmer and juster criticism 

 to the services of eminent investigators of quite recent 

 years than has hitherto, in many cases, been meted out to 

 them. It is possible that we apprehend Prof von Meyer's 

 meaning the more fully when we state that such a catho- 

 licity of sentiment and so judicial a temperament have 

 not always characterized the occupant of the Chair of 

 Chemistry in the University of Leipzig. 



For the two chapters which treat of modern chemistry 

 we have nothing but unqualified praise, and we earnestly 

 commend them to the attention of those students who 

 desire to have a coup d'o;il at once comprehensive and 

 accurate of the meaning and tendency of present-day 

 doctrine. When we have regard to the enormous mass 

 of material which has to be systematized, and, as it were, 

 brought within focus, some errors and omissions are in- 

 evitable. And it is possible that here and there a slight 

 lack of balance and due proportion may be discerned : 

 some matters have been treated at comparatively great 

 length, whilst others have been but scantily noticed. On 

 this point differences of opinion are sure to arise : tot 

 homines, tot sententice. But no candid reader can fail to be 

 impressed with the singularly fair and impartial manner 

 with which Prof, von Meyer has dealt with the labours 

 of contemporary workers. It is a pleasure to read a work 

 in which the writer has been superior to the petty Chau- 

 vinism which has disfigured certain historical productions 

 of the last twenty years. We would specially indicate 

 the critical notices of the labours and services of La- 

 voisier, Berzelius, Davy, Dumas, Liebig, and Wohler, as 

 models of historical acumen, sound judgment, and rigid 

 candour. On the time-honoured question, " With whom 

 should rest the merit of the discovery of the composition 

 of water ?" Prof von Meyer is scrupulously just and im- 

 partial. He shows that Lavoisier was so far dominated 

 by his principe oxygine ou acidifiant that, in burning 

 hydrogen, "he expected to find an acid as the product of 

 its combustion, and therefore looked for one. It is the 

 undisputed merit of the phlogistonist Cavendish to have 



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