Creating Chemistry in Provincial France before the Revolution: The Examples of Nancy and Metz. Part 2 Metz

Abstract

The second part of this paper explores the means through which chemistry was established as a public science in Metz. It demonstrates again the important role played by apothecaries and physicians in this process and how they exploited, shaped and were in turn shaped by the growing public audience for science. By the 1780s chemistry was thriving in both cities, it had gained legitimacy across a wide domain and by the end of the decade the new “chemical public” was interested in and being actively informed about the theoretical and experimental developments that were to constitute the Chemical Revolution.