Hrvoj Vančik

Vančik, Hrvoj

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Drago Grdeni}Povijest kemijeHistory of ChemistryNovi Liber, [kolska knjiga, Zagreb, 2001We are currently witnessing a revival of interest in broaderaspects of the ideas that originate from chemistry. Theycomprise redefinition of chemistry as a science with anoriginal conceptual system, philosophical aspects of che-mistry, relationships between chemistry and relatedsciences (physics or biology), chemical epistemology,and especially a historical view of the developments ofexact scientific disciplines. The position of any historyof science is not only to compile a chronological list ofchemists and discoveries. Moreover, the philosophy ofchemistry (and even more the history of chemistry) ischemistry itself. History of science is a metascience thathas the role to explain how discoveries happened andunder which conditions, from which ideas of othersciences, from which original concepts, and under whichsocial and practical circumstances. Such a study of thehistory of science that is deeply involved in other dis-ciplines, and in philosophy, is extremely stimulating fordeveloping new mental constructions, concepts, theoriesand designs. Following these directions, serious publica-tions about the history of chemistry, regardless of whetherthey are review articles, original scientific papers, booksor textbooks, must include all these aspects, and satisfyall these requirements. Because of such high require-ments and standards, the appearance of a new successfulwork in this field is not an everyday event.Povijest kemije (History of Chemistry) is a book writ-ten by Professor Drago Grdeni} about the history of che-mistry that satisfies exactly such a role. Although its firstapplication is to serve as a textbook, the work is muchmore. In its 20 chapters and 900 pages, the publicationdeals with all historical aspects of chemistry. The initialsections discuss two basic origins from which chemistryemerged as an autonomous science – technology and phi-losophy. The author pointed out that the most importantfactor that triggered the development of chemistry is ex-periment. Practical work of ancient (proto)chemists onattempting to mimic natural processes is the backgroundof all chemical methods and concepts. From the simpleand correct explanation of early Greek philosophy in in-troductory chapters, we can learn how it stimulated de-velopment of chemical ideas. Grdeni} discusses and givesan original interpretation of the appearance of two aspectsof human activities, i.e., science and technology. In de-scribing the Alexandrian protochemistry, the author ex-plains how the ancient technology practice under the pres-sure of philosophical concepts was split into two futuredirections: fundamental and applied science (philosophy).In spite of the fact that the mainstream development ofmodern chemistry started with protochemistry in Alex-andria, and was transferred through Arabian culture toEurope, the impact of other cultures, such as Indian orChinese, cannot be disregarded. The author respected thisevidence and devoted two chapters to these Asian che-mical traditions and their influence on the later develop-ment of modern chemistry.Discussion about these historical and philosophicalsources of chemistry is undoubtedly the most interestingcontribution of this work, and it takes up almost half ofthe book. The second half consists of a series of chaptersdealing with the development of most important chemi-cal concepts: elements (Chapter 10), phlogiston theory(Chapter 11), Lavoisier's scientific revolution (Chapter 13),atoms and molecules (Chapters 14 and 15), and structu-ral theory (Chapters 16 and 17). Histories of specificbranches, such as organic, inorganic, and physical che-mistry, are presented in chapters 16–19. The last chapteris entitled Unified Chemistry (Ujedinjena kemija) anddeals with electronic aspects of chemistry, influence ofquantum mechanics, and new reconstruction of chemicaltheory developed in the works of Linus Pauling. An ex-tra section is added about the diffraction methods.As we can see from the contents of the book, thiswork is mainly a history of classical chemistry. It doesnot discuss modern development of organic chemistry,notably the theories of reaction mechanisms. For instan-ce, the name of Roald Hoffmann is not in the Index. Termssuch as physical organic chemistry or reaction mecha-nisms are missing in the subject index as well. However,in spite of this, the work is one of the magisterial textsnot only about the history of chemistry, and about philo-sophy of chemistry, but it also contains very interestinganalyses of the sociology of science (chemistry). ManyCROATICA CHEMICA ACTACCACAA 79 (2) A23 (2006)important discoveries are explained within the frameworkof social circumstances. Biographies of famous chemistsare embellished by intriguing notes about their lives: werecognize them not as impersonal intellects but rather asinteresting human beings with souls and temperamentsof their own. From this aspect, I recommend this booknot only to students and academic scholars, but also tothe wider intellectual public. Evidently, a book that is sofull of new ideas and concepts stimulating to all readers,chemists, historians and philosophers of science cannotbe written by an author who is exclusively a cool histo-rian. Behind this text stands a real chemist-experimen-talist with a life experience in science and encyclopaedicerudition, such as Professor Grdeni}. Unfortunately, thiswork is still only in Croatian, and not useful to interna-tional readers, but we hope that its English translation willappear soon!Hrvoj Van~ik24 BOOK REVIEWSCroat. Chem. Acta 79 (2) A23-A24 (2006)

Drago Grdeni: Povijest kemije [History of Chemistry]

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