Bacon, Lord Verulam, as early as the commencement of the 17th century, had pointed out the importance of chemical investigations, and had predicted the immense advantages which would result from the science, when it came to be properly cultivated and extended; but he did not himself attempt either to construct a theory of chemistry, or even to extend it beyond the bounds which it had reached before he began to write. Neither did Boyle, notwithstanding the importance of his investigations, and his comparative freedom from the prejudices of the alchymists, attempt any thing like a theory of chemistry; though the observations which he made in his Sceptical Chemist, had considerable effect in overturning, or at least in hastening the downfall of the absurd chemical opinions which at that time prevailed, and the puerile hypotheses respecting the animal functions, and the pathology and treatment of diseases founded on these opinions. The first person who can with propriety be said to have attempted to construct a theory of chemistry, was Beccher.
John Joachim Beccher, one of the most extraordinary men of the age in which he lived, was born at Spires, in Germany, in the year 1635. His father, as Beccher himself informs us, was a very learned Lutheran preacher. As he lost his father when he was very young, and as that part of Germany where he lived had been ruined by the thirty years’ war, his family was reduced to great poverty. However, his passion for information was so great, that he contrived to educate himself by studying what books he could procure, and in this way acquired a great deal of knowledge. Afterwards he travelled through the greatest part of Germany, Italy, Sweden, and Holland.
In the year 1666 he was appointed public professor of medicine in the University of Mentz, and soon after chief physician to the elector. In that capacity he took up his residence in Munich, where he was furnished by the elector with an excellent laboratory: but he soon fell into difficulties, the nature of which does not appear, and was obliged to leave the place. He took refuge in Vienna, where, from his knowledge of finance, he was appointed chamberlain to Count Zinzendorf, and through him acquired so much importance in the eyes of the court, that he was named a member of the newly-erected College of Commerce, and obtained the title of imperial commercial counsellor and chamberlain. But here also he speedily raised up so many enemies against himself, that he found it necessary to leave Vienna, and to carry with him his wife and children. He repaired to Holland, and settled at Haerlem in 1678. Here he was likely to have been successful; but his enemies from Vienna followed him, and obliged him to leave Holland. In 1680 we find him in Great Britain, where he examined the Scottish lead-mines, and smelting-works; and in 1681, and 1682, he traversed Cornwall, and studied the mines and smelting-works of that great mining county; here he suggested several improvements and ameliorations. Soon after this an advantageous proposal was made to him by the Duke of Mecklenburg Gustrow, by means of Count Zinzendorf; but all his projects were arrested by his death, which took place in the year 1682. It is said that he died in London, but I have not been able to find any evidence of this.
It would be a difficult task to particularize his various discoveries, which are scattered through a multiplicity of writings. He was undoubtedly the first discoverer of boracic acid, though the credit of the discovery has usually been given to Homberg.[179] But then he gives no account of boracic acid, nor does he seem to have attended to its qualities. The following is a list of Beccher’s writings:
1. Metallurgia, or the Natural Science of Metals.
2. Institutiones Chymicæ.
3. Parnassus Medicinalis illustrata.
4. Œdipus Chymicus seu Institutiones Chymicæ.
5. Acta laboratorii Chymici Monacensis seu Physica Subterranea.—This, which is the most important of all his works, is usually known by the name of “Physica Subterranea.” This is the sole title affixed to it in the edition published at Leipsic, in 1703, to which Stahl has prefixed a long introduction. It is divided into seven sections. In the first he treats of the creation of the world; in the second he gives a chemical account of the motions and changes which are constantly going on in the earth; in the third he treats of the three principles of all bodies, which he calls earths. The first of these principles of metals and stones is the fusible or stony earth; the second principle of minerals is the fat earth, improperly called sulphur; the third principle is the fluid earth, improperly called mercury; in the fourth section he treats of the action of subterraneous principles, or the formation of mixts; in the fifth he treats of the solution of the three classes of mixts, animals, vegetables, and metals; in the sixth he treats of mixts, in which he gives their chemical constituents. This section is very curious, because it gives Beccher’s views of the constitution of compound bodies. It will be seen from it that he had much more correct notions of the real objects of chemistry, than any of his contemporaries. In the seventh and last section he treats of the accidents and physical affections of subterraneous bodies.
6. Experimentum Chymicum novum quo artificialis et instantanea metallorum generatio et transmutatio, ad oculum demonstratur.—This constitutes the first supplement to the Physica Subterranea.