Historical introduction to chemistry / by T.M. Lowry.

  • Martin Lowry
Date:
1915
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Historical introduction to chemistry / by T.M. Lowry. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    32/608 page 12
    THE ACIDS A. Discovery of the Common Acids Vegetable acids.—The earliest acids known were of vegetable origin, but until the middle of the eighteenth century scarcely any attempt was made to isolate them from the “sour” liquids in which they occur, or even to distinguish between various acids of similar origin. The most familiar of the vegetable acids was sour wine or vinegar, which was known to have a remarkable action upon soda (Chapter I. p. 4). Its power of dissolving chalky materials is illustrated by the story of Cleopatra and the pearls which she dissolved and drank in a cup of vinegar, as well as by Livy’s fantastic story of the use of vinegar by Hannibal to dissolve away the limestone rocks of the Alps. Distilled vinegar was familiar to the alchemists from the time of Geber, and was frequently used as a solvent, but it was not until a much later period that the acid constituent, acetic acid, was isolated in a pure state. A large number of crystalline acids of animal and vegetable origin were, however, prepared at the close of the eighteenth century by the Swedish chemist, Carl Wilhelm Scheele, (1742-1786), whose work on these substances may be
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