By the end of the nineteenth century, the elements and matter comprising all things could no long be viewed as immutable. The dramatic rise of scientific methodology and experimentation during the later half of the eighteenth century set the stage for the fundamental advances in chemistry and physics made during the nineteenth century. In less than a century, European society moved from an understanding of the chemical elements grounded in mysticism to an understanding of the relationships between elements found in a modern periodic table. During the eighteenth century, there was a steady march of discovery with regard to the chemical elements. Isolations of hydrogen and oxygen allowed for the formation of water from its elemental components. Nineteenth century scientists built experiments on new-found familiarity with elements such as nitrogen, beryllium, chromium and titanium.

By the mid-nineteenth century, chemistry was in need of organization. New elements...