Materials in eighteenth-century science : a historical ontology / Ursula Klein and Wolfgang Lefèvre.

Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, [2007], ©2007.

x, 345 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Includes bibliographical references (p. [307]-325) and indexes.

Materials in eighteenth-century science: contexts and practices -- Commodities and natural objects -- Practices of studying materials in eighteenth-century chemistry -- Why study classification? -- A world of pure chemical substances -- 1787: a new nomenclature -- The Tableau de la nonmenclature chimique -- Classifying according to chemical composition -- Simple substances and paradigmatic syntheses -- Operations with pure chemical substances -- Classification of pure chemical substances before 1787 -- A revolutionary table? -- A different world: plant materials -- Diverse orders of plant materials -- Ultimate principles of plants: plant analysis prior to 1750 -- The epistemic elevation of vegetable commodities -- The failure of Lavoisier's plant chemistry -- Uncertainties -- A novel mode of classifying organic substances and an ontological shift around 1830 -- Conclusion: Multidimensional objects and materiality.