The "Subtile Aereal Spirit of Fountains": Mineral Waters and the History of Pneumatic Chemistry.

The standard history of pneumatic chemistry is dominated by a landmark-discoverers-type narrative stretching from Robert Boyle, through Stephen Hales, Joseph Black, and Joseph Priestley, to Antoine Lavoisier. This article challenges this view by demonstrating the importance of the study of mineral waters - and their "aerial component" - to the evolution of pneumatic chemistry, from around van Helmont to the period before Black (1640s-1750s). Among key figures examined are Joan Baptista van Helmont, Johann Joachim Becher, Robert Boyle, Friedrich Hoffmann, and William Brownrigg.

MINERAL WATERS ACROSS THE CHANNEL: MATTER THEORY AND NATURAL HISTORY FROM SAMUEL DUCLOS'S MINERALLOGENESIS TO MARTIN LISTER'S CHYMICAL MAGNETISM, CA. 1666-86.

Our essay analyses a little-known book, Observations sur les eaux minerales des plusieurs provinces de France (1675), which is a study of French mineral waters, commissioned by and conducted at the French Royal Academy of Science (est. 1666). Its author, Samuel Cottereau Duclos (1598-1685), was a senior founding figure of the Academy, its chief chymist and one of its most influential members.

The 'absolute existence' of phlogiston: the losing party's point of view.

Long after its alleged demise, phlogiston was still presented, discussed and defended by leading chemists. Even some of the leading proponents of the new chemistry admitted its 'absolute existence'. We demonstrate that what was defended under the title 'phlogiston' was no longer a particular hypothesis about combustion and respiration.