Boyle, Hooke, and the Birth of Microscopy and Chemistry

Robert Boyle (1627-1691), an Anglo-Irish natural philosopher and one of the founding members of the Royal Society, is often regarded as a father of modern chemistry for his systematic rejection of inherited theoretical frameworks. In The Sceptical Chymist (1661) he challenged both the Aristotelian doctrine of four elements — earth, water, air, and fire — and the Paracelsian tria prima of salt, sulfur, and mercury, arguing instead that a true chemical element should be defined operationally, as a substance that could not be broken down further by chemical analysis. Boyle insisted that chemistry be practiced with the same experimental rigor and public reporting of method that characterized the new experimental philosophy generally, even as he himself continued to pursue alchemical transmutation throughout his life.