The Making of the Chemist: The Social History of Chemistry in Europe, 1789–1914

by Edited by David Knight , Helge Kragh

• ISBN13: 9780521583510
• ISBN10: 0521583519
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-10-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Modern chemistry, so alarming, so necessary, so ubiquitous, became a mature science in nineteenth-century Europe. As it developed, often from a lowly position in medicine or in industry, so chemists established themselves as professional men; but differently in different countries. In 1820 chemistry was an autonomous science of great prestige but chemists had no corporate identity. It was 1840 before national chemical societies were first formed; and many countries lagged fifty years behind. Chemists are the largest of scientific groups; and in this book we observe the social history of chemistry in fifteen countries, ranging from the British Isles to Lithuania and Greece. There are regularities and similarities; and by describing how national chemical professions emerged under particular economic and social circumstances, the book contributes significantly to European history of science.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	vii	(2)
Preface	ix	(9)
David Knight
Map of Europe ca 1815	xviii	(2)
Map of Europe ca 1914	xx
Part 1: The big three	3	(130)
1 The organisation of chemistry in nineteenth-century France	3	(12)
Maurice Crosland
2 The chemistry profession in France: the Societe Chimique de Paris/de France 1870-1914	15	(24)
Ulrike Fell
3 Two factions, one profession: the chemical profession in German society 1780-1870	39	(38)
Ernst Homburg
4 Origins of and education and career opportunities for the profession of `chemist' in the second half of the nineteenth century in Germany	77	(18)
Walter Wetzel
5 Chemistry on an offshore island: Britain, 1789-1840	95	(12)
David Knight
6 `A plea for pure science': the ascendancy of academia in the making of the English chemist, 1841-1914	107	(14)
Gerrylynn K. Roberts
7 A British career in chemistry: Sir William Crookes (1832-1919)	121	(12)
William H. Brock
Part 2: Medium developed countries	133	(102)
8 Development of chemistry in Italy, 1840-1910	133	(30)
Luigi Cerruti
Eugenio Torracca
9 The evolution of chemistry in Russia during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries	163	(14)
Nathan M. Brooks
10 Seeking an identity for chemistry in Spain: medicine, industry, university, the liberal state and the new `professionals' in the nineteenth century	177	(14)
Agusti Nieto-Galan
11 The profession of chemist in nineteenth-century Belgium	191	(16)
Geert Vanpaemel
Brigitte Van Tiggelen
12 Chemistry in Ireland	207	(12)
David Knight
Gerrylynn K. Roberts
13 Chemistry on the edge of Europe: growth and decline in Sweden	219	(16)
Colin A. Russell
Part 3: On the periphery	235	(94)
14 Out of the shadow of medicine: themes in the development of chemistry in Denmark and Norway	235	(30)
Helge Kragh
15 Chemistry and the scientific development of the country: the nineteenth century in Portugal	265	(24)
Antonio M. Amorim da Costa
16 The transmission to and assimilation of scientific ideas in the Greek-speaking world, ca 1700-1900: the case of chemistry	289	(16)
Kostas Gavroglu
17 The first chemists in Lithuania	305	(14)
Mudis Salkauskas
18 Individuals, institutions, and problems: a review of Polish chemistry between 1863 and 1918	319	(10)
Stefan Zamecki
Afterword: The European commonwealth of chemistry	329	(14)
Helge Kragh
Notes on contributors	343	(6)
Index	349