Atoms in French chemistry textbooks during the first half of the Nineteenth century : the Eléments de chimie médicale by Mateu Orfila (1787-1853) / José Ramón Bertomeu Sánchez, Antonio García Belmar.
Abstract:
The Élements de chimie médicale by Mateu Orfila i Rotger (1787-1853) is an excellent historical source for a reappraisal of the rise and fall of French atomic theory over the first half of nineteenth century. The book was edited eight times between 1817 and 1851. Several abridged versions were also published in English, Spanish,German, Italian and Dutch translations. We shall first analyse how atomic theory was received in French chemistry textbooks during the 1810s and 1820s. Atoms were regarded by French authors as a practical tool and not as a theoretical novelty. We shall follow atomic theory through the first editions of Orfila's and Thenard's textbooks. At the end of the 1820s, new methods for calculating atomic weights were introduced in textbooks as well as Berzelian formulae. We shall then study how and why atomic theory reached its apex in Thenard's and Orfila's textbooks between 1827 and 1835. Finally, we shall discuss why Orfila gave up atomic weight in his seventh edition (1843). We shall analyse Orfila's epistemological concerns, his views about the differences between atoms and equivalents, his interest for plant and animal chemistry and the institutional constraints (official syllabus) related to atomic theory. No single reason can be used to explain Orfila's rejection of atomic weights in the 1840s. He, indeed, chose a particular attitude among the many positions on atomic theory adopted by French chemistry textbook writers over these years
Nuncius A. 19, fasc. 1 (2004), p. 77-119