Overview

At the beginning of the seventeenth century, chemistry remained in its infancy. Scientists still had not agreed upon language to describe chemicals and had no ways of classifying them. In addition, chemistry played a role in many different fields that did not necessarily share knowledge with one another: medicine, metallurgy (the science of metals and their uses), pottery making, glass manufacturing, and alchemy. The field that had the most direct impact on the birth of modern chemistry was alchemy. Alchemy was a combination of philosophy, religion, and primitive science whose chief goal was the perfection of matter. This goal included the conversion of metals into gold and the discovery of a potion that would cure all disease. Many scientists of the time viewed chemistry as a pseudo-science much like astrology and palm reading are viewed today. The work of Robert Boyle...