Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

In the 17th century, the famous alchemist John Rudolph Graub (Johann Rudolf Glauber,1604-1670) was considered to be a chemical engineer. He reacted sulfuric acid with salt to get hydrochloric acid and sodium sulfate.

When Grober worked in the pharmacy, he used sodium sulfate as a laxative. This drug has a great market and is called Glover salt. He proudly called it a "elixir" and claimed that sodium sulfate had cured his typhoid fever. Naming chemicals after characters was a popular phenomenon at that time because chemistry had not yet officially appeared.

Robert Boyle (Robert Boyle,1627-1691), a pioneer of modern chemistry, was also an "alchemist" who once gave his "precious metal powder" to another "alchemist"-Newton.

Newton also experimented with alchemy, but in the end he thought that "elemental particles might have to be separated in order to achieve elemental evolution." The so-called element particles is the "particle theory" advocated by Boyle, which is different from the atomic theory of ancient Greece.

The proposal of the ancient atomic theory is based on the thinking of the origin of the universe, but when the atomic theory was put forward, it not only explained the movement logically, but also put forward the concept of emptiness, that is, the world is made up of atoms and void, so the world is material and moving.

This is what Aristotle opposes. He does not think that there is vanity in the world. He proposes that "nature hates vacuum". The world is made up of four different elements and is continuous. As a student of Plato (427-347 BC), Aristotle had deep attainments in mathematics.

The portraits of Plato and Aristotle, Pythagoras, believe that mathematics is the origin of the universe, and mathematical concept is a kind of objective existence. Plato corresponds the four classical elements earth, fire, air and water to cube, regular tetrahedron, regular octahedron and icosahedron as the four elements that make up the world. The fifth, the regular dodecahedron, forms the sky. Moreover, the universe is round, which is also related to the ancient Greek belief that uniform circular motion is a "natural" motion.

Aristotle believes that mathematical concepts are only an attribute of matter. Plato's mathematics is too abstract to achieve logical self-consistency, so he returns to linear thinking and proposes that points occupy space, but they are inseparable. However, there is a continuity between points, and an infinite number of points form a line. Moreover, the world is made up of four bottom-up elements-earth, water, air and fire-that combine in different ways to form everything. The movement is carried out in matter (which requires a medium rather than a vacuum, such as air and water).

Aristotle's core idea is reason on the basis of logic and logic, and for matter in the distant sky, he puts forward the concept of "ether" on the basis of quaternion theory. Instead of wrestling with the division of matter, he sees the world as a continuous and moving entity of different elements.

However, Aristotle associated the four elements with cold, hot, dry and wet feelings, and then constructed a physical and physiological system by discussing the body fluids and emotions of the human body. This connection is based on intuitive feelings rather than scientific experiments. Although it can be logically self-consistent, it will be overturned by scientific and technological progress.

In the pre-Qin period, Zhuangzi (369-286 BC) put forward the concept of "hammering with one foot, half a day and inexhaustible life", which combines the concept of infinitesimal with continuous thinking.

Zhuangzi's portrait Mozi (before 476 or 480-before 390 or 420) put forward the concept of "end", which is also regarded as a kind of "atomic theory". But none of them rose to the height of logic. The theories of all kinds of schools are just a collection of concepts or simple inferences.

In fact, some of Aristotle's ideas are far less abstract than Plato and are more easily accepted by linear thinking advocating the view of nature. His "formal logic" laid the logical foundation of reason and became the source of reason.

Euclid's "geometric primitive" (Elements of Geometry) is the perfect application of logical thinking in mathematics. Aristotle provided an internal driving force for the development of science, which is one of the reasons why Aristotle's rational logic was respected by theologians in the Middle Ages. Coupled with Ptolemy's geocentric theory and Galen's medicine, the three constructed a medieval Christian theological theory system. It was Aristotle's rational logic that made theologians pursue truth in the Middle Ages, resulting in modern science.

In 1637, Descartes wrote "I think and therefore I am" (I think, therefore I am) in his Discourse on the Method. However, Descartes explained that this sentence means "when we doubt, we must not doubt our own existence" (We cannot doubt of our existencewhile we doubt). In terms of linear thinking, these two sentences contradict each other, but they are consistent in terms of abstract thinking. And he opposes the classical atomic theory that a circular object moves without a vacuum.

After all, ancient atomic theory is a kind of philosophical thinking. As Bertrand Russell (Bertrand Russell,1872-1970) said, philosophy is the middle zone between theology and science. Some people understand that philosophy is the transition from superstition to science. However, it has been proved countless times in history that superstitious people can have both philosophical thinking and scientific contributions. Science is not an immutable truth, but a system of thinking that needs constant revision, breakthrough, and even self-negation.

Hayyann, an Arab chemist and alchemist, classified chemicals and made a list of mercury, sulfur, antimony, arsenic and sulfuric acid. In addition, there are more than 20 experimental equipment on alchemy in his works, and many common chemical processes such as distillation, extraction and crystallization, as well as a variety of chemical reactions are described. Because sulfur reacts easily with silver and mercury, he put forward the theory of metal thiomercury. That is, all metals contain sulfur and mercury, and according to their different proportions, different kinds of metals are formed, and the proportion of sulfur and mercury in gold is perfect. As long as the two are in the right proportion, gold can be smelted through general metals, sulfur and mercury.

In his book The Sceptical Chymist published in 1661, Boyle criticized both Aristotle's four-element theory and Paracelsus's alchemy three-element theory. Because when he was experimenting with alchemy, he found that heating objects would produce many complex and different compounds, which he thought could be explained by particle theory. Later, Boyle used particle theory to fully modify Aristotle's element theory, but he was not sure how many kinds of "particles" there were.

In Boyi's ear and eye, matter is made up of different particles, but unlike atomic theory, particles are divisible. Newton even proposed that light is a kind of particles and can be divided, and light particles have their own mass, shape and color. At that time, scientists still sought to find a universal "theorem" to explain the whole objective world, and they seriously underestimated the diversity and complexity of the world.

Alchemy has greatly enriched people's understanding of material transformation, especially promoted the improvement of metallurgy. Many people focus on the phenomenon of "burning".

John Joachim Becher (Johann Joachim Becher,1635-1682) was the father of a Protestant administrator who died in the Thirty years' War (1618-1648). Becher supported the family at an early age, first by craftsmanship and later by teaching. In 1650, at the age of 15, he began to travel around Europe, to Stockholm, Amsterdam and perhaps Italy.

In 1652, Becher went to the University of Mainz (University of Mainz) to study medicine and theology. During this period, he studied alchemy. In 1654, at the age of 19, he published "omnipotent philosophy and Universal Medicine through philosophical Stone" (Discours about the Allmighty Philosophical andUniversal Medicine by the Philosopher Called Philosopher's Stone) under a pseudonym. That year, in Madelberg, Mayor Otto von Gehrik (Otto von Guericke,1602-1686) performed the famous Madelberg Hemispheric experiment.

Becher soon received the attention and appreciation of Ludwig von H ö rnigk,1600-1667, dean and later president of the University of Mainz School of Medicine.

In 1673, he was hired as a professor at the University of Mainz and became a physician to Johann Philipp von Sch ö nborn,1605-1673, Bishop of Mainz, who was responsible for convening parliament to elect and vote for the next Holy Roman Emperor.

The Bishop's assistant, the Jesuit priest Gaspard short (Gaspar Schott,1608-1666), was also a science enthusiast. He kept correspondence with scientists and published details about the Madeburg hemispheric experiment, which enabled Boyle to learn about the vacuum pump around 1655.

In 1660, Becher published the book Metallurgy. The following year, he introduced a language of 10,000 words as Esperanto, the earliest attempt at Esperanto.

In 1662, Becher married the daughter of the president of Mainz University. In 1679, he came to Munich to serve the Bavarian elector Ferdinand Marial (Ferdinand Maria,1636-1663), for whom Marial built a laboratory. Because Becher proposed mercantilism, proposed the construction of a South American colony, and proposed to monopolize the right to trade in silk, the merchants were collectively opposed and forced to leave.

During this period, Britain, France and the Netherlands competed for supremacy at sea. The Netherlands was known as the "coachman of the sea" for a time. In 1651, Cromwell issued the mercantilist Act of Navigation regulations through Parliament, and British forces attacked the Dutch fleet and declared war on the Netherlands, which led to the retrogression of the Netherlands. The two sides signed the Treaty of Westminster in 1654. Britain gained equal trade rights with the Netherlands and acquired St. Helena (which later became Napoleon's exile). In Asia, Zheng Chenggong (1624-1662) recovered Taiwan in 1661, and the Dutch East India Company was defeated again.

King Charles II of England was unlucky after his restoration. He took the initiative to provoke the second Anglo-Dutch War. Although he occupied New Amsterdam in North America (the former Dutch colony) in 1664, the Netherlands struggled with it for two years, and Britain was forced to take the initiative to make peace. The Dutch navy made a surprise attack on England in June 1667, shelling London. A month later, the two countries quickly signed the Breda Peace Treaty.

Although Becher left Munich, he was recognized by the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold Ⅰ I (1640-1705) and came to Vienna as a councillor of commerce in 1666. In Vienna, he has a laboratory that studies textiles, pigments and minerals, and publishes related books.

Becher's words and deeds in Vienna are still radical, proposing to build a canal with the Netherlands (which was not built until 1992) to increase trade. In 1672, under his supervision, Austria built a wool factory. In 1676, under his personal leadership, a textile workshop with 186 workers was built. However, he stressed that the state should control trade and finance, which led to his dismissal and was once jailed for opposing imports of French products.

In 1678, Becher went to Holland and began to design a machine for winding cocoons. The following year he claimed to have invented a way to refine gold from sand and sell it to the Netherlands. However, while the gold refinery was under construction, he was invited by Prince Rupert (Prince Rupert of the Rhine,1619-1682) to leave for the UK. There, he inspected the prince's mine in Scotland and finally returned to London until his death. Before his death in 1682, he published another chemistry book listing 1500 chemical reactions, one of which was the formation of philosophies, and he still remembered to turn lead into gold.

What Becher had an influence on later generations was the physical species (Physica Subterranea) published in Vienna in 1669, which made a great contribution to mineralogy. According to his formulation in this book, matter consists of three elements: water, air and earth. The role of the gas element is only an agonist (catalyst), so that the water element and soil element are combined into different substances in different proportions. Moreover, there are three different soil elements, solid soil (terra lapidea,stony / rocky earth), liquid soil (terra flfluida,liquid earth) and oily soil (terra pinguis,oily / fatty earth). Oily soil can burn, and, as it burns, it will be released into the air and the remaining material will be reduced. Similarly, when the metal is burned, it will produce calx, which is lighter than the original one.

He removed the fire elements that could not be observed and tested, and at the same time divided the earth elements into different categories, which was an improvement on the original elemental theory. This indicates that people not only discuss and think about the theory of elements in philosophy, but also start observation and experiment.

Wen Yuan: "History of New drugs: from panacea to the Frontier of Life Science", slightly deleted by author: Peng Lei, Editor: some of the pictures in Zhang Runxin's article come from the network copyright belongs to the original author. This article comes from Wechat official account: Origin Reading (ID:tupydread), author: Peng Lei.

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