In the 18th century, chemists saw fire as the traditional, central tool for conducting chemical operations and analysis. Yet, building on the critiques of Joan Baptista van Helmont and Robert Boyle, academic chemists placed analysis by fire as a technique for breaking chemical bodies into their constituent elements or principles under serious scrutiny. One such chemist was Herman Boerhaave (1668-1738), who claimed, following Boyle, that many examples of analyses were, in fact, not reductions into a body's elements, but rather the rearrangement of particles by the fire. As a result, Boerhaave undertook an examination to determine the true effects of chemical operations in matter, focusing primarily on the nature and effects of fire. This paper will discuss some of Boerhaave's experiments and conclusions from this examination, which relate to his definition of a chemical element, his notion of the pabulum ignis as principle of inflammability, and his operational definition of chemical species. In addition, I show that these aspects of Boerhaave's work have ramifications for later developments in chemistry, especially those of Lavoisier and his compatriots during the Chemical Revolution.

Corpuscles, elements, and principles: The limits of fire analysis in Herman Boerhaave's chemistry

246th National Meeting (2013)

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