HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 

 TO CHEMISTRY 



PART I 



ELEMENTS AND COMPOUNDS 



CHAPTER I 



RAW MATERIALS AND PRIMITIVE MANUFACTURES 



THE study of Chemistry as a branch of natural knowledge 

 may be said to begin with the work of the Honourable 

 Robert Boyle (1627-1691). But, at the time when Boyle 

 commenced his work, the most important. chemical processes 

 and many well-defined substances were already familiar, 

 many of them having been used for practical purposes 

 from very early times. Early chemical discoveries group 

 themselves naturally into three periods : 



1. The Prehistoric and Ancient Period culminated in 

 the civilisations of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. During this 

 period many of the raw materials, which it is the business 

 of Chemistry to study, were collected, purified, and brought 

 into common use in daily life ; but only in a few cases were 

 processes discovered for the preparation of new substances 

 by the action of these raw materials on one another. 

 Evidence as to the substances which were known during this 

 period is derived mainly from casual references in the writings 

 of ancient authors rather than from systematic works of a 

 scientific character. 



2. The Earlier Alchemistic Period extended from the 

 early part of the Christian era to about 1500 A.D. During 



