Atoms and Alchemy: Chymistry and the Experimental Origins of the Scientific Revolution

265 Pages·2006·0.95 MB·English

by  William R. Newman

ATOMS
AND
ALCHEMY

ATOMS
AND
ALCHEMY
Chymistry
and the Experimental Origins
of the Scientific Revolution
William R. Newman
the university of chicago press
chicago and london
TheUniversityofChicagoPress,Chicago60637
TheUniversityofChicagoPress,Ltd.,London
(cid:2)C 2006byTheUniversityofChicago
Allrightsreserved.Published2006
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
15 14 13 12 11 10 2 3 4 5
isbn-13:978-0-226-57696-1(cloth)
isbn-13:978-0-226-57697-8(paper)
isbn-10:0-226-57696-5(cloth)
isbn-10:0-226-57697-3(paper)
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Newman,WilliamRoyall.
Atomsandalchemy:chymistryandtheexperimentaloriginsofthescientific
revolution/WilliamR.Newman.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
isbn0-226-57696-5(alk.paper)—isbn0-226-57697-3(pbk.:alk.paper)
1.Science—History. 2.Science—Philosophy. 3.Alchemy—History
4.Chemistry—History. I.Title.
q125.n484 2006
509—dc22
2005030542
(cid:2)∞Thepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimumrequirementsofthe
AmericanNationalStandardforInformationSciences—PermanenceofPaperfor
PrintedLibraryMaterials,ansiz39.48-1992.
Contents
ListofIllustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
ANoteonTerminology xi
Introduction:TheProblematicPositionofAlchemyintheScientific
Revolution 1
one TheMiseenSce`nebeforeSennert
1 TheMedievalTraditionofAlchemicalCorpuscularTheory 23
2 ErastusandtheCritiqueofChymicalAnalysis 45
3 AristotelianCorpuscularTheoryandAndreasLibavius 66
two DanielSennert’sAtomismandtheReformofAristotelianMatterTheory
4 TheCorpuscularTheoryofDanielSennertandItsSources 85
5 TheInterplayofStructureandEssenceinSennert’sCorpuscular
Theory 126
three RobertBoyle’sMatterTheory
6 Boyle,Sennert,andtheMechanicalPhilosophy 157
7 Boyle’sUseofChymicalCorpusclesandtheReductiontothePristine
StatetoDemonstratetheMechanicalOriginofQualities 190
AConciseConclusion 217
Bibliography 227
Index 241

Illustrations
Following page 82
1 Thinsheetoftechnicalgradesilverpartiallycutintosmallpieces
2 Silverpiecesundergoingdissolutioninnitricacid(aquafortis)
3 Completelyclear,bluesolutionofthetechnicalsilverinnitricacid
4 Solutionofpotassiumcarbonate(saltoftartar)beingpouredintothesolution
ofsilverandnitricacidtoinitiateprecipitation
5 Precipitateconsistingmostlyofsilvercarbonate
6 Silvercarbonateinacrucibleafterbeingfilteredandwashed
7 Hotsilverthathasbeenfreshlyreducedfromthesilvercarbonateprecipitate
8 Metallicsilverinitscrucibleaftercooling

Acknowledgments
TheresearchforthisbookreceivedgenerousfundingfromtheDibner
Institute for the History of Science and Technology, the John Simon
GuggenheimFoundation,theInstituteforAdvancedStudy,theNational
ScienceFoundation(SES-9906126),andIndianaUniversity.Theorigi-
nalconceptbehindthebookwasbornofthejointmentorshipthatIre-
ceivedasagraduatestudentfromJohnE.MurdochandRobertHalleux.
My ideas received further stimulus from the conference on medieval
and early modern corpuscular matter theories organized by Professor
Murdoch and myself and held at the University of St. Andrews in the
summerof1996(theconferencewasfundedbyConstanceBlackwelland
the Foundation for Intellectual History, and it resulted in the publica-
tion of Christoph Lu¨thy, John E. Murdoch, and William R. Newman,
eds.,LateMedievalandEarlyModernCorpuscularMatterTheories[Leiden:
E.J.Brill,2001]).AsubsequentseminaronAristotle’sDegenerationeet
corruptione that I was able to attend in 1999–2000 under the direction
ofProfessorMurdochprovedextremelyvaluableforthecompositionof
thebookaswell.
I am particularly indebted to the detailed comments of three schol-
ars who graciously gave their time to read and criticize a preliminary
draftoftheentirebook—PeterAnstey,MichaelHunter,andRose-Mary
Sargent. In addition, I owe a debt to numerous other historians with
whomIhavediscussedissuesdevelopedinthetexts.AmongthemIin-
clude Domenico Bertoloni Meli, Michael Friedman, Noretta Koertge,
ChristophLu¨thy,CraigMartin,MargaretOsler,LawrenceM.Principe,