Matter and Method in the Long Chemical Revolution

Matter and Method in the Long Chemical Revolution examines the role of and effects on chemistry of both the seventeenth-century scientific revolution and the eighteenth-century chemical revolution in parallel, using chemistry during the chemical revolution to illuminate chemistry during the scientific revolution, and vice versa. Focusing on the crises and conflicts of early modern chemistry (and their retrospectively labeled ’losing’ parties), the author traces patterns of continuity in matter theory and experimental method from Boyle to Lavoisier, and reevaluates the disciplinary relationships between chemists, mechanists, and Newtonians in France, England, and Scotland.