Chemical Philosophy, 79 



ble, until Newton first ascribed the chemical 

 union of bodies to an attraction between the par- 

 ticles themselves — a doctrine which was soon una- 

 nimously received, and has continued ever since to 

 prevail. The nature and laws of this attraction 

 were afterwards better explained and systematized 

 by Air. Geoffroy, a philosopher of France, who 

 invented a method of representing the different che- 

 mical affinities by figures and diagrams, and arrang- 

 ing them in tables; a method which has been since 

 generally received into practice, and which has 

 greatly contributed to the facility and advancement 

 of this science. Contemporary with Geoffroy 

 was BoERHAAVE, who, among the various objects 

 to which he directed his great and excellent mind, 

 made himself conspicuous by his attention to che- 

 mistry. He made many new experiments, and 

 improved almost every part of chemical philosophy 

 which was then known. He was particularly 

 distinguished by maintaining, in opposition to 

 Boyle and Newton, that heat was a real specific 

 substance, a fluid universally diffused, and one of 

 the most important agents in nature. In support- 

 ing this doctrine he triumphed over his illustrious 

 opponents, and established a principle which has 

 been in substance generally adopted by the philo- 

 sophical world since that time. 



At an early period of the eighteenth century 

 Stahl, an eminent German chemist, published 

 his theory of Phlogiston, which produced one of 

 the most remarkable revolutions in chemical phi- 

 losophy that ever occurred. This theory had 

 been invented and published, in the preceding 

 century, by Becher, a philosopher of Germany; 

 but he died before it obtained that character and 

 currency which it afterwards acquired. It was 

 reserved for Stahl to adopt and systematize bis 

 doctrines in a manner so plausible and consistent 



