The Origins of Chemistry

"The Origins of Chemistry" integrates the histories of Greek, Arabic, and Latin alchemical traditions with philosophy, technology, and the genesis of medical chemistry. Multhauf differs from his predecessors by finding the sources of chemistry not in medieval alchemy, but in the "chemical" science of matter described in antiquity. This landmark study, which concludes with the field's reorganization by Lavoisier and his contemporaries, contains an exceptional bibliography of primary and secondary sources. Robert P. Multhauf is retired from the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., where he was Director of the Museum of History and Technology.