Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
ensuing years other textbooks by Scherer (1795), Parkinson (1799),
Imhof (1802), and Wurzer (1806) came out. The wide distribution of
these topics in Germany gave the term '
populäre Chemie
' a common
ring (Weber 1791, Scherer 1795, Parkinson 1799, Imhof 1802, Wurzer
1806).
Soon all these titles were overshadowed by two English works that
appeared in 1806, the
Chemical Catechism
by Samuel Parkes (1761-
1825) and the initially anonymously published
Conversations on Chem-
istry
by Jane Marcet (1769-1858). That these works explained chemistry
in simple terms was hardly new; the way in which they did so was new
however. Strategies like dialogue and catechism, deployed successfully
by earlier popularizers like Pluche and Martinet, were now applied to
chemistry for the first time. Until after the middle of the nineteenth cen-
tury both works were repeatedly translated and republished. Parkes'
Chemical Catechism
subscribed to physico-theological views much more
explicitly than Marcet. The topic by Parkes was intended as a tool for
parents to teach their children chemistry at home, but in a popular fash-
ion “a body of incontrovertible evidence of the wisdom and beneficence
of the Deity” was equally imparted. Fully in the tradition of Baconian-
ism, Parkes assumed that only uncompromising attention for the experi-
mental fact would offer a safeguard against “insidious sophistry […]
scepticism or superstition” (Parkes 1837, pp. vi-vii, 18-9; Knight 1986;
cf.
also Wurzer 1806, pp. vi-vii). Parkes'
Catechism
, then, had much
more in common with Martinet's moralizing
Catechism of Nature
(which
was very popular in England) than just the name and the didactic form.
Jane Marcet's
Conversations
was specifically aimed at women, which
is why the dialogue in the topic is between a female instructor and two
girls. This topic gained enormous popularity among English and, espe-
cially, American women. Until after 1850 over 50 editions (including il-
legal ones) appeared in both countries that were used in girls' schools
and for self-study (Marcet 1841, Knight 1986, Lindee 1991). At the be-
ginning of the nineteenth century the popular chemistry textbook defini-
tively established a solid footing in England, Germany, and France.
Dutch publishers, translators, and authors were not lagging. About a
quarter century after chemistry became fashionable with Dutch physi-
cians, apothecaries, and entrepreneurs (Snelders 1992, pp. 314-6, 319-22;
