1645-1715

French chemist, physician, and pharmacist, whose Cours de chymie (Course on Chemistry) of 1675 was Europe's most influential chemical textbook for over fifty years, with eleven editions in his own lifetime and over thirty editions by 1756. Influenced by René Descartes's theories of corpuscular matter and mechanical motion, Lemery explained chemical properties and reactions in terms of minute particles, which joined together by means of hooks, points, and pores of complementary shapes. He also advocated use of "wet" (solution) over "dry" (combustion) methods of chemical analysis.