The Art of Chemistry—Myths, Medicines, and Materials. Arthur Greenberg. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2003, 357 pp., $ 59.95. ISBN 0-474-07L80-3.

Abstract

The neurologist Oliver Sacks has stated that “Chemistry is perhaps the most intricate, most fascinating, and certainly most romantic history of all the sciences”. There is no single publication that exhaustively summarizes and reconstructs the history of chemistry. However, by piecing together different publications and information from different sources, we understand its milestones and recognize the leading figures in the development of this science. Arthur Greenberg’s book, The Art of Chemistry , is similar in style to his A Chemical History Tour (2000) and, as stated in the preface, presents the “wonderful artwork employed over the centuries to illustrate chemical apparatus as well as our various metaphors for the nature and structures of matter”. Thus, 188 figures, most of an extraordinary artistic value, are used to illuminate 72 essays, and a recurring theme is our very human need to visualize, and to understand, the fundamental nature of matter. Although the primary reason for buying this book is its artistic content and artwork, the forward motion to explain the transformation of myths, superstitions, and their application to the arts and medicine into modern science as we know it will captivate readers. For example, although alchemy is now considered an exercise in naivete, if not downright fraud, it …