This study examines the historical development of the attempts to reform the nomenclature of early chemistry. It is shown that the historical emergence of chemistry as a scientific discipline during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was closely tied to the move to provide a new foundation for its technical language. Chapter One provides a short overview of the historiography of science and chemistry during the eighteenth century. Chapter Two investigates the relationship between the progress made by some eighteenth-century sciences and the lively discussions on the origin and nature of their language. Chapter Three examines the sources and the development of the lexicons of metallurgy, mineralogy, alchemy, and chemistry during the period 1500 to 1782.t Chapter Four analyzes in detail the contents of the Méthode de nomenclature chimique, a work published in 1787 in which Lavoisier and his collaborators established the basis of the modern nomenclature of inor ganic chemistry. Chapter Five offers an analysis of Lavoisier's masterpiece, the Traiti iMmentaire de chimie (published in 1789), and considers the reception of this work in Europe. A brief appendix reconstructs the development of alchemical and chemical symbolism and discusses their affinities and differences.

Cover illustration : Allegorical engraving depicting the unveiling of Nature. From J.B. Rom6 de I'Isle, Description méthodique d'une collection de minéraux (Paris, 1773).

Science History Publications, 1993

ISBN 0-88135-152-0

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