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expand1998 (1)
1Author:  Williams, Henry Smith, 1863-1943Requires cookie*
 Title:  A History of Science: in Five Volumes. Volume IV: Modern Development of the Chemical and Biological Sciences  
 Published:  1998 
 Subjects:  University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text 
 Description: THE development of the science of chemistry from the "science" of alchemy is a striking example of the complete revolution in the attitude of observers in the field of science. As has been pointed out in a preceding chapter, the alchemist, having a preconceived idea of how things should be, made all his experiments to prove his preconceived theory; while the chemist reverses this attitude of mind and bases his conceptions on the results of his laboratory experiments. In short, chemistry is what alchemy never could be, an inductive science. But this transition from one point of view to an exactly opposite one was necessarily a very slow process. Ideas that have held undisputed sway over the minds of succeeding generations for hundreds of years cannot be overthrown in a moment, unless the agent of such an overthrow be so obvious that it cannot be challenged. The rudimentary chemistry that overthrew alchemy had nothing so obvious and palpable.
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