WTL SYMPOSIUM PAPER
I W. T. Lippincott University of Arizona Tucson, AZ 85721
I
Retrospects and Prospects in Chemical Education
1
A personal view
Origins ol Academic Chemistry
In reflecting on the theme of this symposium, and partieularly on the retrospects portion, I thought it might he of interest to describe what some historians have termed "the origins of academic chemistry." The story begins with a series of letters written nearly 400 years ago by a teacher to one of his former students. This was long before chemistry became an accepted academic discipline. The letters were written in Latin, and they appear to he an attempt by the teacher to rescue a promising former student from the seductions of the counter-culture of his times. The counter-culture was the Paracelsian view of chemical ideology that sought to comprehend natural phenomena and by analogy, supernatural phenomena, in terms of chemical reactions and processes. Paracelsians were enchanted by alchemical traditions and believed in an "elixir vitae9'-a strange fluid that could postpone decay, renew youth, and prolong life. They ridiculed much traditional medical wisdom and advocated the use of alchemically prepared medicants. They also insisted that physicians actually compound the medication administered to patients. By teaching that God has assigned to man the task of transforming, by means of alchemy, the raw products of nature into a state appropriate for man's utilization, the Paracelsians forged an alliance of craft and knowledge. This had some success in advancing knowledge in pharmacy, baking, smelting, and other crafts. Carried away hy their radicalism, Paracelsians created their own "world view" and with it sought to overthrow traditional scholastic and mechanical philosophy. The student to whom the teacher was writing was a practicing physician who apparently was about to he captured by Paracelsianism.
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This, for me, has been an exciting and exhausting dayeasilv as h a ~ o vas anv I can remember. I sincerelv wish I could ;idequately wpress my gratitude toall u,ho made it posiitrlr. I 1:wk hoth thr eluqurnr( nnd the em~ttional I~nror~unnrely. strtmgth to d o s o 'l'herel'orr, I hope that all of yw-and particularlv the oreani7ers of this Svm~usium.itsdisrinr~~ishc.d speakers, the officers of the ~ i v i s i i nof chemical ~ d i c a t i o n and the editors, members of the Board of Publications, members of the Editorial Board and staff of the JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION will sense what I feel, hut cannot say, and will find in these brief remarks some small measure of my appreciation for the kindness and generosity you have shown me here today and throughout my work with you. When Bill Cook and Derek Davenport first informed me of this Symposium, they did so with all the grace and eloquence for which both of them are so well-known. I wish there were time to descrihe the unforgettable way they handled i t
In the first lctt?r, written in about l~'IT~..\ndreasI.ih;~\~ius wiwns his former itudcnr of the e\.ils i j f this kind of rhcmistrs. telling him of the potential danger. to his health, social pmitimi, and s~holarlvrep~lrntionthnr he iswurtinr.'l'hr tr;rher attempts to expoHe f i r his protegi. the impietiesand follies of chemists claims, their antisocial behavior and their overIwariny ilrn)xance. Rrcnllinji his pupil'< serious pr,xecution of philosophy and medirint., Lih.wius reminds him of his mri;il heritaee. "We were horn t o . . . nurture. assist. and Drotect human shciety. Anyone who takes himself off tothe ciemical furnaces deserts these obligations." Libavius goes on to say that, throughout history, legal opinion has been against chemists. Their hooks have been burned; in almost every nation, chemists have perished after cruel imprisonment or a t their own hands. "While thev." eaze with loneine " " a t mercurv undergoing transmutation, they more quickly turned themselves into beggars and outcasts of society. No one would teach [chemistry] from a public platform unless he wished to he proclaimed a teacher of fraud and deceit and a trumpeter of barbarism. Chemistry is the occupation, not of philosophers, hut of reprobates." In a second letter, Libavius drops the other shoe, demonstrating that chemistry is indeed a legitimate form of human activitv worthv" of ~ u r s u i for t its own sake. In essence. ~,this letter is less a statement of theoretical principles which have governed chemistrv than a set of attitudes which should g o w m its prdcrin.. .\~c
