NATURE 
169 
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1906. 
TWO HISTORIES OF CHEMISTRY. 
A History of Chemistry from Earliest Times to the 
Present Day. By Ernst von Meyer. Translated by 
George McGowan. Third English edition, trans- 
lated from the third German edition, with various 
additions and alterations. Pp. xxvii+691. (Lon- 
don: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.) Price 17s. net. 
A History of Chemistry. By F. P. Armitage. Pp. 
xx +266. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 
1906.) Price 6s. 
ROF. OSTWALD, who has done so much for 
the historical side of the literature of chemistry, 
has declared that ‘‘ there is no more effective means 
of vivifying and deepening the study of a science than 
to saturate one’s-self in its history.” And perhaps 
of no science can this be more emphatically said than 
of chemistry. The story of its rise and development 
is one of the most astonishing and most deeply in- 
teresting chapters in the history of human progress. 
No one science can show such a splendid succession 
of material triumphs, or afford a more striking exem- 
plification of the truth and wisdom of Bacon’s 
aphorism that Scientia est potentia. It matters little 
that the desire to know may have had its origin in 
the lowest motives of self-interest. No doubt at all 
times in the history of the world there have been 
persons curious to know for the mere sake of know- 
ing—persons, indeed, who deliberately preferred the 
risk of the possible unhappiness of wisdom to the 
apparently certain bliss of ignorance—but such per- 
sons have always been in a vast minority. But in the 
main the springs of human activity—intellectual no 
less than physical—have their origin in an enlightened 
self-interest. However ‘“‘pure’’ a science may be 
to its votaries, there is a good deal of human nature 
in it after all, and when we come down to ultimate 
causes it is precisely this aspect of the matter that 
gives to the history of chemistry its strong human 
interest, and makes the personal story of its culti- 
vators so fascinating. 
Teachers of chemistry do wisely, therefore, in en- 
couraging their pupils to make themselves familiar 
with the main outlines of the origin and growth of 
their science; and since it is impossible to separate 
this development from the human element which 
underlies it, to seek also to know something of the 
personal history and attributes of the men who have 
combined to make chemistry what it is. Luckily 
they have not far to seelx for historical compilations 
worthy to be recommended for such a purpose. Prac- 
tically every nation that zealously cultivates chemistry 
has furnished its contribution to the general stock of 
such compilations in obedience to, or in anticipation 
of, a demand which from the very nature of the case 
is inevitable. To a large extent the several histories 
may be said to reflect the popular estimation of the 
NO. 1938, VOL. 75] 
science in the countries which produced them. 
The monumental work of Kopp made its appearance 
at the period of, and possibly in consequence of, the 
national movement which originated with Liebig; 
and Hofer’s ‘‘ Histoire de la Chimie ’’ was in like 
manner the probable outcome of the activity in 
France which had_ its with Lavoisier. No 
original systematic work of the same _ character, 
certainly none of commensurate importance, has 
been put together by any English historian. 
Certain of our larger manuals contain, by way of 
introduction, some historical account of the origin and 
development of the science, and a few monographs 
or biographies of the better known British chemists 
have appeared from time to time, but as regards 
systematic works we are dependent upon translations 
of foreign treatises. 
Chief among’ these is the work of Ernst von Meyer, 
which made its first appearance in 1888, and of which ~ 
an English translation by Dr. McGowan was pub- 
lished in 1891. The volume before us is the third 
English edition. It has been prepared from the third 
German edition, published in 1904, and, thanks to 
the various additions and alterations which Dr. 
McGowan has introduced with the sanction of the 
author, the history is, as the phrase goes, thoroughly 
up to date. The main divisions of the worl remain 
very much as before, but some of the sections have 
been recast and much new matter has been added 
and old matter altered. For example, the author has 
not failed to take note of the results of recent inquiries 
into the life and work of that most remarkable man 
Paracelsus, who, as the researches of Mook, Schubert, 
Sudhoff, Aberle, and Strunz agree in showing, was 
by no means the bombastic charlatan he is commonly 
supposed to be. The mystery of Basil Valentine is 
submitted to a new examination, but the conclusion 
does not materially differ from that already arrived 
at by Kopp. But it is mainly in its account of the 
recent development of the science that the book 
differs from the works of Kopp and Hofer. Kopp, in 
his ** Entwickelung der Chemie in der neueren Zeit,’’ 
only carried his history down to the beginning of the 
last third of the nineteenth century—a time we can 
no longer consider new—and the generation that has 
followed has witnessed an astonishing expansion both 
in fundamental facts and in important and far- 
reaching dogmas, and it is in this period that the 
student of to-day probably finds his chief interest. 
Dr. von Meyer has himself lived through it, and he 
writes with a full and accurate knowledge of its 
achievements, and in the spirit of detachment, of 
impartiality and insight which characterise the true 
historian. The work is a perfect treasure-house in 
its wealth of bibliographical and biographical detail. 
Its literary charm lies in the simplicity and directness 
of its style, characteristics which Dr. McGowan has 
well preserved in his admirable rendering into Eng- 
lish. We commend the work to all students of 
chemistry in the certain conviction that they will rise 
from its perusal with their interest in the science—to 
use Ostwald’s words again—vivified and deepened. 
I 
rise 
