Chemical Education Today
Letters Online Annotations to Robert Boyle’s Sceptical Chymist When The Sceptical Chymist first appeared in Everyman’s Library in 1911 it would have been comprehensible to anyone who had studied chemistry. At that time many of the older chemical names were still mentioned in textbooks. Names such as aqua fortis, copperas, and litharge were still sometimes used. However as these names now mean nothing to many younger chemists, a modern student could not read The Sceptical Chymist and understand it without some help. A compilation of online annotations are available and should provide the assistance required. Firstly, there is an index of the names of the scientists mentioned by Boyle. As many of the names may not be familiar to the modern reader, there are brief biographical notes and reference is given when possible to English editions of their books. Secondly, there is an index of substances giving both the old names, which Boyle used, and modern chemical names. Lastly, there are notes, using modern chemical names and
formulae, to clarify the experiments that Boyle describes. As knowledge of Latin is less general than it used to be, translations are given of some of the Latin passages quoted by Boyle. In some cases, use has been made of translations that were published in the 17th century. Consult these annotations at http://www.chem.gla.ac.uk/ staff/alanc/annotations.pdf (accessed Jan 2003). The 1661 edition of The Sceptical Chymist is available online at this URL: http://www.library.upenn.edu/etext/collections/science/boyle/ chymist (accessed Jan 2003). Although the Everyman edition has been out of print for some years, copies are still to be found in libraries and second-hand bookshops. However, a reprint of the 1661 edition is in print, ISBN 0-922802-90-4, by Kessinger Publishing, LLC, priced at $36.00. John S. Davidson Crosslaw Ballplay Road Moffat, Dumfriesshire DG10 9JU, United Kingdom
[email protected] JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 80 No. 5 May 2003 • Journal of Chemical Education
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