The Sceptical Chymist

"It is my intent to beget a good understanding between the chymists and the mechanical philosophers who have hitherto been too little acquainted with one another's learning." Published in 1661, many people believe that this book was one of the first to argue in favour of what we now know as modern chemistry, and against the pseudoscience of alchemy. In doing so, Boyle was taking on some of the great historical names in the field we now call the philosophy of science. The Dutch historian of science Eduard Jan Dijksterhuis perhaps best summed up the influence the book had: "After the appearance of The Sceptical Chymist, Aristotle's doctrine of the four elements, as well as Paracelsus' theory of the three principia, gradually passes into disuse."