This book tells the story of how chemists, physicians, and surgeons attempted to end the problem of urinary stones. From the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth centuries, chemists wanted to understand why the body formed urinary, pancreatic, and other bodily stones. Chemical analysis was an exciting new means of understanding these stones and researchers hoped of possibly preventing their formation entirely. Physicians and surgeons also hoped that, with improved chemical analysis, they would eventually identify substances that would reduce the size of stones, leading to their easier removal from the body. Urinary stones and other stones of the body caused the boundaries of surgery, chemistry, and medicine to blur. The problem of the stone was transformational and spurred collaboration between chemistry and medicine. Some radical physicians in America and Britain combined this nascent medical advancement with older disciplines, like humoral theory. Chemists, surgeons, and physicians in Charleston, Philadelphia, and London focused on the stones of the body. Chemical societies and museums also involved themselves in the problem of the stone. Meanwhile, institutions in Charleston, Philadelphia, and London served as repositories of specimens for testing and study as previously disparate practitioners and disciplines worked toward the comprehensive knowledge that could, perhaps, end suffering from stones. The primary audience of this book is historically-minded chemists, surgeons, physicians, and museum professionals.

This book provides an overview of the origins and evolution of the periodic system from its prehistory to the latest synthetic elements and possible future additions. The periodic system of the elements first emerged as a comprehensive classificatory and predictive tool for chemistry during the 1860s. Its subsequent embodiment in various versions has made it one of the most recognizable icons of science. Based primarily on a symposium titled “150 Years of the Periodic Table” and held at the August 2019 national meeting of the American Chemical Society, this book describes the origins of the periodic law, developments that led to its acceptance, chemical families that the system struggled to accommodate, extension of the periodic system to include synthetic elements, and various cultural aspects of the system that were celebrated during the International Year of the Periodic Table.

This book describes the main issues of eighteenth-century pharmacology and therapeutics and provides detailed case studies of three key areas: lithontriptics (remedies against urinary stones), opium, and Peruvian bark (quinine).

This book tells the story of two of the most important figures in the history of chemistry. Carl Wilhelm Scheele (1742–1786) was the first to prepare oxygen and realise that air is a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen; he also discovered many important organic and inorganic substances. His fellow chemist and good friend, Torbern Bergman (1735–1784), was one of the pioneers in analytical and physical chemistry. In this carefully researched biography, the author, Anders Lennartson, explains the chemistry of Scheele and Bergman while putting their discoveries in the context of other 18th-century chemistry. Much of the information contained in this work is available in English for the first time.