In Inventing Chemistry, historian John C. Powers turns his attention
to Herman Boerhaave (1668-1738), a Dutch medical and chemical professor
whose work reached a wide, educated audience and became the template for
chemical knowledge in the eighteenth century. The primary focus of this
study is Boerhaave's educational philosophy, and Powers traces its
development from Boerhaave's early days as a student in Leiden through
his publication of the Elementa chemiae in 1732. Powers reveals how
Boerhaave restructured and reinterpreted various practices from diverse
chemical traditions (including craft chemistry, Paracelsian medical
chemistry, and alchemy), shaping them into a chemical course that
conformed to the pedagogical and philosophical norms of Leiden
University's medical faculty. In doing so, Boerhaave gave his chemistry
a coherent organizational structure and philosophical foundation and
thus transformed an artisanal practice into an academic discipline.
Inventing Chemistry is essential reading for historians of chemistry,
medicine, and academic life.