A Short History of Chemistry, "for well over a thousand years men toiled ... seeking the 'philosopher's stone,' a pinch of which should suffice to change a thousandfold greater mass of lead or mercury into gold" (117). Such an example serves to show the lack of progress made when the scientific method is abandoned in favor of whim and fancy.
In the sixteenth century, chemistry was subordinated to medicine as an area worthy of investigation. New medicines were discovered, and the groundwork of chemical physiology was laid, but scientific theories to explain chemical behavior would have to wait until the seventeenth century.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the collection and interpretation of facts for their own sake took precedence over attempts at gold transmutation or commercial medicines. The experimental, scientific method, as espoused by Francis Bacon (1561 1626), written in the vernacular, could be printed and circulated due to improvements in communication.
Robert Boyle, born one year after Bacon's death, could be called the father of "scientific" chemistry. It is important to note the "scientific" in order to distinguish Bacon from Antoine Lavoisier (1743 1794). Lavoisier is generally considered to be the father of "modern" chemistry. At the end of the eighteenth century, Lavoisier defined both the chemical element and the compound. Such definitions placed chemistry on a quantitative basis. Prior to Lavoisier's contributions, chemists were pursuing the misconception that "phlogiston," for want of the discovery of the effects of oxygen, was the essential component of
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