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177
The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry
·
M. M. Pattison Muir
134
Lavoisier
also
recognised
that
certain
definite
substances
could
be
divided
into
things
simpler
than
themselves,
but
that
other
substances
refused
to
undergo
simplification
by
division
into
two
or
more
unlike
portions.
He
spoke
of
the
object
of
chemistry
as
follows:--[8]
"In
submitting
to
experiments
the
different
substances
found
in
nature,
chemistry
seeks
to
decompose
these
substances,
and
to
get
them
into
such
conditions
that
their
various
components
may
be
examined
separately.
Chemistry
advances
to
its
end
by
dividing,
sub-dividing,
and
again
sub-dividing,
and
we
do
not
know
what
will
be
the
limits
of
such
operations.
We
cannot
be
certain
that
what
we
regard
as
simple
to-day
is
indeed
simple;
all
we
can
say
is,
that
such
a
substance
is
the
actual
term
whereat
chemical
analysis
has
arrived,
and
that
with
our
present
knowledge
we
cannot
sub-divide
it."
[8]
I
have
given
a
free
rendering
of
Lavoisier's
words.
In
these
words
Lavoisier
defines
the
chemical
conception
of
elements;
since
his
time
an
element
is
"the
actual
term
whereat
chemical
analysis
has
arrived,"
it
is
that
which
"with
our
present
knowledge
we
cannot
sub-divide";
and,
as
a
working
hypothesis,
the
notion
of
element
has
no
wider
meaning
than
this.
I
have
already
quoted
Boyle's
statement
that
by
elements
he
meant
"certain
primitive
and
simple
bodies
...
not
made
of
any
other
bodies,
or
of
one
another."
Boyle
was
still
slightly
restrained
by
the
alchemical
atmosphere
around
him;
he
was
still
inclined
to
say,
"this
must
be
the
way
nature
works,
she
must
begin
with
certain
substances
which
are
absolutely
simple."
Lavoisier
had
thrown
off
all
the
trammels
which
hindered
the
alchemists
from
making
rigorous
experimental
investigations.
If
one
may
judge
from
his
writings,
he
had
not
struggled
to
free
himself
from
these
trammels,
he
had
not
slowly
emerged
from
the
quagmires
of
alchemy,
and
painfully
gained
firmer
ground;
the
extraordinary
clearness
and
directness
of
his
mental
vision
had
led
him
straight
to
the
very
heart
of
the
problems
of
chemistry,
and
enabled
him
not
only
calmly
to
ignore
all
the
machinery
of
Elements,
Principles,
Essences,
and
the
like,
which
the
alchemists
had
constructed
so
laboriously,
but
also
to
construct,
in
place
of
that
mechanism
which
hindered
inquiry,
genuine
scientific
hypotheses
which
directed
inquiry,
and
were
themselves
altered
by
the
results
of
the
experiments
they
had
suggested.
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