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There was a time in early 19th century Europe when chemistry was regarded not only as the dominant science of the day, but also as the most attractive and civilizing of all disciplines of “natural philosophy.” As the poet Coleridge announced with glee, as he began a private chemical course in 1801: “I shall attack Chemistry, like a Shark!” In fact for several decades chemistry came to symbolize the spirit of Science itself. It stood for pure disinterested and experimental research, combined with technological applications “for the relief of man's estate” (in the famous phrase of Sir Francis Bacon). It held out the promise of universal benefits “for all mankind.” Previously, science had been represented by Astronomy and Newton's Principia. But in his authoritative Study of Natural Philosophy (1831) a retrospective overview of all scientific developments in every field since the mid-18th century, the great scientific polymath Sir John Herschel transferred this flag-bearing role to Chemistry. Chemistry, wrote Herschel, had become decisively “the most popular” as well as the most “ influential” of all the sciences. “We find none which have sprung forward, during the last century, with such extraordinary vigour, and have had such influence in promoting corresponding progress in others.” It was also the most exciting. It explored a dramatic new world of “wonderful and sudden transformations,” and was the “most completely experimental” of all the sciences in its drive and ambition (Herschel, On the Study of Natural Philosophy , 1831, part 3, chap. 4, pp. 299–309). The chemical experiments of the period 1770–1830 were indeed dazzling, and opened up the previously “secret” or “invisible” world of matter itself. These revelations included the discovery and correct naming of new gases (“artificial airs”) such as hydrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and nitrous oxide; the crucial decomposition of water—until then …