ABSTRACT
Many years elapsed after the foundation of modern physics before chemistry dispensed with its medieval outfit and, partly dispensed with its medievaly under the guidance of Robert Boyle but more especially through Lavoisier, whom he had influenced, entered on the scientific path of investigating the composition of bodies. J. J. Becher’s ideas were taken over and extended by G. E. Stahl, Professor of Medicine and Chemistry at the University of Halle, and subsequently in Berlin. It was Stahl who gave vogue to the term “phlogiston”, in the place of Becher’s “oily earth,” as the principle of inflammability. The chapter discusses the story of the various chemical discoveries which eventually led to the displacement of the phlogiston theory by the new chemistry. Among the pioneers who used quantitative methods in chemistry, and thereby showed, at least implicitly, their faith in the principle of conservation of matter, Black holds an honourable place.
