Emergence from Alchemy. Many of the major scientific advances of the eighteenth century were in chemistry. Chemistry was originally the realm of alchemists, including Isaac Newton (1624-1727), who are often associated in the modern mind with the "mystical" search for the "philosopher's stone" reputed to turn base metals to gold and to ensure immortality. Yet, modern scholars have credited these alchemist/chemists with advancing chemical knowledge and contributing to the development of modern scientific methods and equipment. By the Enlightenment, chemistry had emerged as a discipline based on rational scientific inquiry. It also had a conspicuous and direct economic benefit. The various European states, along with individual manufacturers and merchants, helped to advance the development of chemistry as a science by demanding certain products and often providing the resources for systematic investigations into their development. Many "pure" scientists joined...