- Lasswitz , Kurd . 1963 . Geschichte der Atomistik vom Mittelalter bis Newton Vol. II , 261 – 293 . Hildesheim reprint of Hamburg and Leipzig, 1890) Marie Boas [Hall], ‘The Establishment of the Mechanical Philosophy’, Osiris, 10 (1952), 412–541; compare 413–15, 461–3; Robert Hugh Kargon, Atomism in England from Hariot to Newton (Oxford, 1966), 93, 101–5.
- Alexander , Peter . 1985 . Ideas, Qualities and Corpuscles: Locke and Boyle on the External World 17 – 18 . Cambridge Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer, Leviathan and the Air-Pump (Princeton, 1985), 3–79; Steven Shapin, A Social History of Truth (Chicago, 1994), 126–7; Peter Dear, ‘Totius in verba: Rhetoric and Authority in the Early Royal Society’, Isis, 76 (1985), 145–61; ‘Miracles, Experiments, and the Ordinary Course of Nature’, Isis, 81 (1990), 663–83.
- The claim that Boyle founded modern chemistry is defended by Partington J.R. A History of Chemistry London 1961 II 496 496 It is already present, however, in Hermann Kopp, Geschichte der Chemie (Leipzig, 1931; reprint of Braunschweig, 1843), i, 163–72.
- Debus , Allen G. 1967 . Fire Analysis and the Elements in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries . Annals of Science , 23 : 127 – 147 . Alexander (note 2), 17–24; Marie Boas Hall, Robert Boyle on Natural Philosophy (Bloomington, 1965), 70–1.
- Boyle , Robert . 1772 . “ Origin of Forms and Qualities ” . In The Works of the Honourable Robert Boyle Edited by: Birch , Thomas . London [hereafter cited as Works], iii, 13.
- Newman , William R. 1994 . Gehennical Fire: The Lives of George Starkey, an American Alchemist in the Scientific Revolution xi – xiv . Cambridge, MA
- Kim , Yung Sik . 1991 . Another Look at Robert Boyle's Acceptance of the Mechanical Philosophy: its Limits and its Chemical and Social Contexts . Ambix , 38 : 1 – 10 . also points this out. Compare 5–6.
- Boyle . “ The Sceptical Chymist ” . In Works Vol. I , 459 – 459 . in
- See Boyle Works I 463 463 510, 558, 589; iii, 13, for just a few examples.
- Kuhn , Thomas . 1952 . Robert Boyle and Structural Chemistry in the Seventeenth Century . Isis , 43 : 12 – 36 . compare 17. Unlike Boas Hall, however, Kuhn was keenly aware of the chymical corpuscularianism that preceded Boyle: compare 15–17. But the major point of his article is that these theories all postulated the existence of inalterable elemental corpuscles, whereas Boyle believed in a particulate ‘uniform catholic matter’. Thus, according to Kuhn, Boyle's chymistry was fundamentally opposed to elemental theory, and ultimately inadequate as a basis for the developments in chemical theory that led to Lavoisier. This position has been vigorously challenged by Antonio Clericuzio, ‘A Redefinition of Boyle's Chemistry and Corpuscular Philosophy’, Annals of Science, 47 (1990), 561–89. Kuhn's position has been defended, however, by Ursula Klein, ‘Robert Boyle—Der Begruender der neuzeitlichen Chemie?’, Philosophia naturalis, 31 (1994), 63–106. See also Kim (note 7), 9.
- Marie , Hall Boas . 1958 . Robert Boyle and Seventeenth Century Chemistry 75 – 75 . Cambridge
- Marie , Hall Boas . 1958 . Robert Boyle and Seventeenth Century Chemistry 82 – 84 . Cambridge
- 1944 . The Life and Works of the Honourable Robert Boyle 214 – 230 . Oxford
- Lawrence , Principe . Aspiring Adept , (forthcoming)
- Clericuzio . 1952 . Robert Boyle and Structural Chemistry in the Seventeenth Century . Isis , 43 : 563 – 564 . 583–7.
- Barbara , Kaplan Beigun . 1994 . ‘Divulging of Useful Truths in Physick’ The Medical Agenda of Robert Boyle 136 – 136 . Baltimore ‘Fusing his chemical ideas to his corpuscular philosophy, [Boyle] attempted to create a qualitative, comprehensive vision of how the human body operated in the context of its environment’.
- This may be seen in Clericuzio's apparent assumption that the English Helmontians who knew Boyle—such as George Starkey and John Webster—all derived their corpuscular tendencies from him rather than from the alchemical tradition itself. Clericuzio Antonio From Van Helmont to Boyle. A Study of the Transmission of Helmontian Chemical and Medical Theories in Seventeenth-Century England British Journal for the History of Science 1993 26 303 334 Compare 321, 326–34.
- Newman , William R. 1994 . “ Boyle's Debt to Corpuscular Alchemy ” . In Robert Boyle Reconsidered Edited by: Hunter , Michael . 107 – 118 . Cambridge
- Newman , William R. 1991 . The Summa perfectionis of pseudo-Geber 322 – 322 . Leiden
- Newman , William R. 1991 . The Summa perfectionis of pseudo-Geber 143 – 154 . Leiden
- William R. , Newman . 1991 . The Summa perfectionis of pseudo-Geber 148 – 149 . Leiden
- Newman , William R. 1991 . The Summa perfectionis of pseudo-Geber 682 – 682 . Leiden
- Newman , William R. 1991 . The Summa perfectionis of pseudo-Geber 725 – 725 . Leiden
- Newman , William R. 1991 . The Summa perfectionis of pseudo-Geber 704 – 704 . Leiden
- Newman , William R. 1991 . The Summa perfectionis of pseudo-Geber 707 – 708 . Leiden
- Newman , William R. 1991 . The Summa perfections of pseudo-Geber 725 – 725 . Leiden
- Newman , William R. 1991 . The Summa perfectionis of pseudo-Geber 162 – 167 . Leiden
- Newman , William R. 1991 . The Summa perfectionis of pseudo-Geber 193 – 210 . Leiden
- Lasswitz . 1963 . Geschichte der Atomistik vom Mittelater bis Newton Vol. I , 343 – 351 . Hildesheim
- Newman . 1994 . Gehennical Fire: The Lives of George Starkey, an American Alchemist in the Scientific Revolution 145 – 149 . Cambridge, MA
- Hooykaas , Reijer . The Concept of Element: Its Historical-Philosophical Development 20 – 23 . trans. H. H. Kubbinga (privately printed, s.l., s.d.) 28, 32–40, 45–9, 58, 59, 69, 71, 74, 114, 123, 125, 131–3, 137, 139, 142–54, 165, 167, 174–5, 186–90.
- Hooykaas . The Concept of Element: Its Historical-Philosophical Development 138 – 139 .
- Boyle . Works , I 101 – 101 . 502, 513, 530, 539, 549, 550, 551, 552; ii, 44, 96, 98, 99, 120, 713; iii, 37, 113, 114, 116, 120, 121, 125, 127, 294, 676, 702, 703 (2), 741; iv, 72, 274; v, 61, 92.
- Boyle . Works , II 44 – 44 . For the date of composition of the final essays in Part I of The Usefulness of Natural Philosophy, see Clericuzio (note 10), 571. For the date of Boyle's Essay Of the holy Scriptures, see Michael Hunter, ‘How Boyle Became a Scientist’, History of Science, 33 (1995), 59–103; compare 67; for Boyle's reference to Sennert therein, compare 77.
- Boas [Hall] , Marie . 1963 . Geschichte der Atomistik vom Mittelalter bis Newton Vol. II , 428 – 429 . Hildesheim
- Sennert , Daniel . 1637 . Physica Hypomnemata Vol. 84 , 109 – 109 . Lyon
- Sennert , Daniel . 1637 . Physica Hypomnemata Vol. 84 , 97 – 97 . Lyon 104, 125. Here of course Sennert may also be echoing a corresponding passage from the 24th chapter of Geber's Summa perfectionis, which we reproduced above. Geber there argued that elementary corpuscules of fire, air, water, and earth combined to yield the two principles, mercury and sulphur, which he treated as second-order corpuscles. Although Geber never explicitly speaks of prima mista, as does Sennert, the Summa could easily have served as an inspiration to that idea. Newman (note 19), 143–92.
- Sennert . Physica Hypomnemata , 96 – 96 . ‘Sunt enim secundo alterius, praeter elementares, generis atomi (quasi si quis prima mista appellare velit, suo sensu utatur), in quae, ut similaria, alia corpora composita resoluuntur’.
- van Melsen , Andreas . 1957 . Atom Gestern und Heute 121 – 121 . Freiburg Hooykaas (note 32), 161.
- Melsen . 1957 . Atom Gestern und Heute 115 – 124 . Freiburg Norma Emerton, The Scientific Reinterpretation of Form (Ithaca, 1984), 76–125.
- Lasswitz . 1963 . Geschichte der Atomistik vom Mittelalter bis Newton Vol. I , 450 – 454 . Hildesheim reprint of Hamburg and Leipzig, 1890) Rembert Ramsauer, Die Atomistik des Daniel Sennert (Braunschweig, 1935), 72–3.
- Lasswitz is completely silent on the alchemical sources of Sennert's corpuscularianism, arguing instead (and without convincing evidence) that Sennert must have been influenced by the Methodism of Asclepiades of Bithynia. Compare Lasswitz Geschichte der Atomistik vom Mittelalter bis Newton Hildesheim 1963 I 454 454 reprint of Hamburg and Leipzig, 1890) Ramsauer champions the unlikely possibility that Sennert was heavily influenced by Giordano Bruno. Compare Ramsauer (note 42), 72–3. But see Tullio Gregory, ‘Studi Sull'atomismo del Seicento ii’, Giornale Critico della Filosofia Italiana, 45 (1966), 44–63.
- Sennert , Daniel . 1611 . Institutiones medicinae 1044 – 1044 . Wittenberg 1050, 1051 (four times), 1052 (twice), 1056, 1065, 1068, 1073, 1078, 1079, 1080 (three times), 1082.
- Sennert , Daniel . 1611 . Institutiones medicinae 1046 – 1046 . Wittenberg For diakrisis and synkrisis, see Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford, 1940), 399, 1667. The terms were used by Empedocles, Plato, and Anaxagoras in a corpuscular sense, and by Epicurus in a strictly atomistic one.
- Sennert . Institutiones , 1050 – 1050 . ‘Geber, lib. I. summ. perf. c. 51. definit calcinationem, quod sit rei per ignem pulverisatio, per privationem humiditatis partes coniungentis…. Magnum autem habet usum calcinatio in metallis & similibus. Primo, quaedam calcinantur, ut ad solutionem fiant aptiora. Cum enim compages corporum talium fit durior: aliter essentiae inde extrahi non possunt, nisi in minimas partes & atomos quasi redigantur’.
- Sennert . Institutiones , 1046 – 1046 . ‘Trituram quod attinet, praecipuus eius finis est, ut res in minimas partes redigantur, ut postea vel facilius & exactius cum aliis misceri, vel virtus earum extrahi possit’.
- Sennert . Institutiones , 1047 – 1047 . ‘…ad medicamenta fermentanda, ad unguenta, emplastra subtilissima opus esse tritura, ut omnia exacte misceri, & minimum unius a minimo alterius tangi possit’.
- Sennert . Institutiones , 1079 – 1079 . ‘Unde Geber, libro 2. summ. perfect. p. 4. c. 40. sublimationem esse dicit, rei siccae per ignem elevationem cum adhaerentia in suo vase’. This is taken verbatim from the Summa: compare Newman (note 19), 361, 683.
- Sennert . Institutiones , 1079 – 1079 .
- Newman . 1991 . The Summa perfectionis of pseudo-Geber 361 – 363 . Leiden
- Sennert . Institutiones , 1080 – 1080 . ‘Habet autem sublimatio varias utilitates. Primo enim separat partes subtiles, puriores, & volatiles a crassioribus, impuris & fixis’.
- Newman . 1991 . The Summa perfectionis of pseudo-Geber 143 – 192 . Leiden
- For Sennert's matter theory, see Meinel Christoph Early Seventeenth-century Atomism: Theory, Epistemology, and the Insufficiency of Experiment Isis 1988 79 68 103 and Hans Kangro, Joachim Jungius' Experimente und Gedanken zur Begruendung der Chemie als Wissenschaft (Wiesbaden, 1968), passim.
- Boyle . Works , III 37 – 37 . (note), 113, 114, 116, 120, 121, 125, 127, 294.
- Boyle . Works , I 513 – 513 . 530, 539, 549, 550, 551, 552. The reference at i, 530 praises Sennert for admitting that the tria prima are composed of the four elements, but this is set in the context of Boyle's rejection of the tria prima as primordial constituents of matter.
- Boyle . Works , I 101 – 101 . ii, 96, 120; iii, 676, 741; v, 92.
- Boyle . Works , I 502 – 502 . ii, 44, 98, 99, 713; iii, 702, 703, 704; iv, 72, 274; v, 61. The two citations of Sennert in the context of corpuscularianism are found at Boyle, Works, i, 502; ii, 713. We shall consider the first of these in textu, but the second (ii, 713), which will be quoted here, does not make it clear whether Boyle is adding the discussion of atoms or whether Sennert has already mentioned them: ‘They rub the frozen parts of [frostbitten] bodies with snow, or else cast the whole body into water, by which means the whole body is crusted over with ice, as eggs and apples are, as if the freezing atoms did pass from the body frozen into the water or snow; and this way of curing gangreens from cold Sennertus doth prescribe’.
- Boas [Hall] . 1952 . The Establishment of the Mechanical Philosophy . Osiris , 10 : 428 – 429 . where she asserts that Sennert ‘contributed nothing new to the development of a mechanical philosophy based upon a theory of atoms’, and that Boyle's reaction to him was merely that the English savant ‘regretted his staunch adherence to the doctrine of substantial forms’. Even on 466–7, where she notes the similarity of Boyle's ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ corpuscles to those of ‘the peripatetic atomists such as Sennert’, Boas Hall refuses to postulate a direct influence, for she wishes to argue that Boyle's matter theory was a radically ‘new hypothesis’.
- Westfall , Richard S. 1956 . Unpublished Boyle Papers Relating to Scientific Method . Annals of Science , 12 : 63 – 73 . 103–17. Hunter (note 35), 68–9, also draws attention to the importance of this document.
- Boyle , Robert . Of the Atomicall Philosophy , Royal Society Boyle Papers [henceforth RSBP] Vol. XXVI , 162 – 162 .
- Boyle , Robert . Of the Atomicall Philosophy , XXVI 162 – 162 . Van Helmont is mentioned on 166, Santorio on 171.
- Boyle , Robert . Of the Atomicall Philosophy , XXVI 163 – 163 .
- Aristotle . 1953 . “ De generatione et corruptione ” . In The Works of Aristotle Edited by: Ross , W.D. Vol. II , 12 – 13 . Oxford trans. Harold Joachim 328a
- Aristotle . 1950 . “ Meteorologica ” . In The Works of Aristotle Edited by: Ross , W.D. Vol. III , 383a 22 – 383a 22 . Oxford trans. E. W. Webster 384b 30–5, 385a 8–10, 388a 13–388b 9, 389a 9–23, 390b 14–22, et passim.
- Clericuzio . 1990 . A Redefinition of Boyle's Chemistry and Corpuscular Philosophy . Annals of Science , 47 : 569 – 571 .
- Sennert . Hypomnemata , 1637 102 – 102 . ‘Lac etiam ipsum etsi unum corpus apparet: tamen diversas partes per minima mistas demonstrant, serum, butyrum, caseus, ubi separantur. Ita sanguis animalium etsi unum corpus homogeneum apparet: tamen non solum diversae in eo partes, quae diversis membris alimentum praebent, reperiuntur, verum etiam, si destilletur, sal volatilis, qui antea non apparebat, magna copia recipienti adhaerescit’.
- Bloch , Olivier René . 1971 . La philosophie de Gassendi: nominalisme, matérialisme et métaphysique 248 – 248 . La Haye
- Boyle . Of the Atomicall Philosophy, RSBP , XXVI 163 – 163 . 168. As Robert Frank has noted, the pagination of the manuscript has been disordered. Originally p. 168 followed 163 directly. Compare Robert Frank, Harvey and the Oxford Physiologists (Berkeley, 1980), 316, n. 28.
- Meinel . 1988 . Early Seventeenth-century Atomism: Theory, Epistemology, and the Insufficiency of Experiment . Isis , 79 : 92 – 95 . especially 95
- Clericuzio . 1990 . A Redefinition of Boyle's Chemistry and Corpuscular Philosophy . Annals of Science , 47 : 570 – 570 . n. 40, relying on Meinel, briefly draws attention to Boyle's use of a different Sennertian passage describing the parting of silver and gold by nitric acid, which Sennert presents as a reductio in pristinum statum. Although Clericuzio has ascertained Boyle's authorial source correctly, I believe that he has misidentified the Sennertian lemma that forms the basis of Boyle's comments in Of the Atomicall Philosophy. As I argue below, Boyle's precise source was more likely the passage from Sennert's Hypomnemata, 1637, 98 (cited below) where Sennert speaks first of a single metal, and then an alloy, both dissolved in nitric acid and then precipitated. Sennert's influence on Boyle is also alluded to in passing by Elisabeth Stroeker, ‘Element und Verbindung. Zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte zweier chemischer Grundbegriffe’, Angewandte Chemie, 80 (1968), 747–53. Compare 750.
- Sennert . 1637 . Hypomnemata , : 100 – 100 . ‘… liberatae metallorum atomi ob similitudinem uniuntur, & ita in pristinum corpus abeunt’.
- Sennert . 1637 . Hypomnemata , : 98 – 98 . ‘Ita quamvis aqua, in qua metallum solutum est, non nisi limpida aqua esse videatur, & tam exacte sit mista, ut talis aqua etiam per chartam transfudi possit: tamen metallum suam naturam in ea integram servat, & facili negotio forma subtilissimi pulveris ad fundum praecipitatur, qui postmodum in metallum iterum funditur. Ita etiam si una massa ex auro & argento fiat per fusionem, & ita per minimas atomos coeant, ut corpus istud ex variis constare nemo agnoscere possit: interim in minimis illis atomis quodque suam formam retinet, & per aquam fortem separari, & in pristinum corpus reduci potest. Hinc mularum operationum chymicarum, & eorum, quae in chymicis fiunt, caussae reddi possunt’.
- Boyle . Works , I 478 – 478 . iv, 303
- Sennert , Daniel . 1629 . De chymicorum cum Aristotelicis et galenicis consensu et dissenu … 396 – 396 . Wittenberg ‘Neque enim sublimationes semper instituuntur, ut aliquid separetur, sed etiam, ut corpus integrum in minima redigatur. Hinc sublimationes pistilla chymicorum dicuntur’.
- Boyle . Works , I 475 – 475 .
- Boyle . Of the Atomicall Philosophy, RSBP , XXVI 163 – 163 .
- Boyle . Sceptical Chymist, Works , I 475 – 475 .
- Sennert . 1637 . Hypomnemata , : 103 – 103 . ‘Si enim simul aurum & argentum fundantur, atomi auri & argenti ita per minima miscentur, ut nullo sensu hae ab illis discerni queant. Interim utraeque suas formas integras servant. Quod vel ex eo patet, quod, si massae isti aqua fortis affundatur, argentum solvitur, & in liquorem abit, aurum vero forma pulveris remanet. Argentum solutum si praecipitetur, forma pulveris subtilissimi subsidet. Uterque pulvis, si seorsim fundatur, in pristinum aurum & argentum abit. Ita si argentum vivum sublimetur, praecipitetur, in aquam abeat, & alias mutationes externas, quae fiunt pro varia atomorum, in quas resolvitur, cum aliis mistione, induat: semper tamen suam formam essentialem retinet, facileque a corporibus, quibus permiscetur, separatur, & in pristinam currentis Mercurii redit’.
- Boyle . Sceptical Chymist, Works , I 475 – 475 .
- Boyle . Sceptical Chymist, Works , I 475 – 475 .
- Kuhn . 1952 . Robert Boyle and Structural Chemistry in the Seventeenth Century . Isis , 43 : 24 – 24 .
- Boyle . Sceptical Chymist, Works , I 524 – 524 . ‘For though some [bodies] seem to be made up by the immediate coalitions of the elements, or principles themselves, and therefore may be called prima mista, or mista primaria; yet it seems, that many other bodies are mingled (if I may so speak) at the second hand, their immediate ingredients being not elementary, but these primary mixt newly spoken of; and from diverse of those secondary sorts of mixt may result, by a further composition, a third sort, and so onwards’.
- Sennert . Hypomnemata , 80 109 – 110 .
- Boyle . Sceptical Chymist, Works , I 502 – 503 .
- Boyle . Sceptical Chymist, Works , I 505 – 505 .
- Boyle . Sceptical Chymist, Works , I 504 – 504 .
- Boyle . Sceptical Chymist, Works , I 530 – 530 .
- Clericuzio . 1990 . A Redefinition of Boyle's Chemistry and Corpuscular Philosophy . Annals of Science , 47 : 578 – 579 .
- Kargon , Robert Hugh . 1964 . Walter Charleton, Robert Boyle and the Acceptance of Epicurean Atomism in England . Isis , 55 : 184 – 192 . Kargon (note 1), 97–9.
- White , Harold Ogden . 1938 . Plagiarism and Imitation During the English Renaissance 120 – 202 . Cambridge, MA White links the widespread abuse of plagiarism in the period up to 1625 to classical theories of imitation.
- Paull , H.M. 1968 . Literary Ethics: A Study in the Growth of the Literary Conscience 106 – 111 . Port Washington reissue of 1928 edn) See also Alexander Lindey, Plagiarism and Originality (New York, 1952), 62–94; and Thomas Mallon, Stolen Words: Forays into the Origins and Ravages of Plagiarism (New York, 1989), 1–12.
- I think particularly of Shapin Schaffer A Social History of Truth Chicago 1994 65 69 139, 186, and Shapin (note 2), 126–92.
Annals of Science
Volume 53, 1996 - Issue 6