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HEROES OF SCIENCE.
CHEMISTS
BY
M. M. PATTISON MUIR, M.A., F.R.S.E.,
FELLOW, AND PRÆLECTOR IN CHEMISTRY, OF GONVILLE AND CAIUS COLLEGE,CAMBRIDGE.
PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE
OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION APPOINTED BY THE
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE.
LONDON:
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE,
NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, CHARING CROSS;
43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C.;
26, ST. GEORGE'S PLACE, HYDE PARK CORNER, S.W.
BRIGHTON: 135, north street.
New York: E. & J. B. YOUNG & CO.
1883.
"The discoveries of great men never leave us; they areimmortal; they contain those eternal truths whichsurvive the shock of empires, outlive the struggles ofrival creeds, and witness the decay of successivereligions."—Buckle.
"He who studies Nature has continually the exquisitepleasure of discerning or half discerning and divininglaws; regularities glimmer through an appearance ofconfusion, analogies between phenomena of a differentorder suggest themselves and set the imagination inmotion; the mind is haunted with the sense of a vastunity not yet discoverable or nameable. There is foodfor contemplation which never runs short; you gaze atan object which is always growing clearer, and yetalways, in the very act of growing clearer, presentingnew mysteries."—The author of "Ecce Homo."
"Je länger ich lebe, desto mehr verlern' ich dasGelernte, nämlich die Systeme."—Jean Paul Richter.
PREFACE.
I have endeavoured in this book to keep to the lines laid down for me bythe Publication Committee of the Society, viz. "to exhibit, by selectedbiographies, the progress of chemistry from the beginning of the inductivemethod until the present time." The progress of chemistry has been made thecentral theme; around this I have tried to group short accounts of thelives of those who have most assisted this progress by their labours.
This method of treatment, if properly conducted, exhibits the advances madein science as intimately connected with the lives and characters of thosewho studied it, and also impresses on the reader the continuity of theprogress of natural knowledge.[Pg iv]
The lives of a few chemists have been written; of others there are,however, only scanty notices to be found. The materials for this book havebeen collected chiefly from the following works:—
Kopp's "Geschichte der Chemie."
Thomson's "History of Chemistry."
Ladenburg's "Entwickelungsgeschichte der Chemie."
Wurtz's "History of the Atomic Theory."
Watts's "Dictionary of Chemistry."
Whewell's "History of the Inductive Sciences."
Rodwell's "Birth of Chemistry;" "Inquiry into theHermetic Mystery and Alchemy" (London, 1850); "PopularTreatises on Science written during the Middle Ages,"edited for the Historical Society of Science by ThomasWright, M.A. (London, 1841); "Ripley Reviv'd; or, AnExposition upon Sir George Ripley's Hermetico-PoeticalWorks," by Eirenæus Philal