Redalyc.ELECTIVE AFFINITIES. the FACES of CHEMISTRY

Mètode Science Studies Journal ISSN: 2174-3487 [email protected] Universitat de València España ELECTIVE AFFINITIES. THE FACES OF CHEMISTRY Mètode Science Studies Journal, núm. 2, 2012, pp. 25-64 Universitat de València Valencia, España Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=511751286007 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative ELECTIVE AFFINITIES THE FACES OF CHEMISTRY elective affi nities elective affi Monograph coordinated by Antonio García Belmar and José Ramón Bertomeu Sánchez n the mid-eighteenth century, the famous Encyclopédie by Diderot and D’Alembert, stated that «an interest in chemistry» was really «a madman’s passion». Chemists belonged to «a different I race», «very few in number» and society expected almost «nothing from their art». However, when the century of enlightenment drew to a close, another commenter stated that the chemist had become an «idol», before which all kinds of people «bowed down», be they princes or clerics, educated or uneducated, subjects of high or low rank, alike. In the International Year of Chemistry, this Mètode monographic issue looks at the remarkable variations in the social image of chemistry, its affi nities and concerns, and its many faces, spanning the eighteenth century to the present day. monograph Antonio García Belmar . Professor of the Department of Community Nursing, Preventive Medicine and Public Health and of the History of Science. University of Alicante. José Ramón Bertomeu Sánchez . Professor at the López Piñero Institute for the History of Medicine and Science (University of Valencia-CSIC). Two artists of great renown and projection have collaborated with M ÈTODE on this monograph devoted to chemistry. The painter Uiso Alemany (Valencia, 1941) proposes a series of faces portraying «self-absorbed» chemists, while Eugènia Balcells (Barcelona, 1943) brings us some of her productions and multimedia installations, exploring the multi-faceted relationship between science and art. On the left, Uiso Alemany. «The Self-absorbed Chemist Series», 2010. Mixed technique, 27 x 35 cm. 2012 MÈTODE Annual Review 25 GOETHE AND THE AFFINITY BETWEEN CHEMISTRY AND LITERATURE MOLECULES AND DIVORCE IN A ROMANTIC NOVEL Xavier Duran In 1809, Johann Wolfgang Goethe published his novel entitled Elective Affi nities , also known as Kindred by Choice , which refers to one of the problems that had preoccupied chemists during the past century. Goethe’s work employed chemical affi nity as a metaphor and applied it to romantic relationships, but did so once this concept was considered from the new perspectives provided by elective affi nities elective affi modern chemistry. The years preceding the 1809 publication of Elective It is during this productive but turbulent period in Af Þ nities are replete with personal and intellectual 1806 Weimar was occupied and looted by Napoleons events that can explain the mixture of literature and army when Goethe was writing a novel, whose very science, and the air of fatalism and rebellion woven title takes a chemical metaphor that seems set to into the novel. On a personal level, Johann Wolfgang show humans limited ability to cope with a fate that Goethe had just turned Þ fty at the start of the century, seems relentlessly set by inescapable laws. We are and at that time this was an age which signi Þ ed in the nineteenth century, the era of rationality and entering the Þ nal stages of life, calculation, and everything seems in most cases, although in fact well-ordered and predictable. the German author lived to 82. The unfortunate young Werther In 1801 he was informed of a «GOETHE WRITES A NOVEL is far from this state and Goethe monograph kidney condition which was to WHOSE VERY TITLE TAKES seems to agree with the signs of become chronic. Four years later A CHEMICAL METAPHOR the times when writing a novel in 1805 his friend Friedrich that can almost be summarised in THAT SEEMS SET TO SHOW Schiller died and in 1808 he lost an equation. But perhaps this is his mother, to whom he had been HUMANS’ LIMITED ABILITY too simplistic and the story can be very close. TO COPE WITH A FATE THAT interpreted in a variety of ways. Concerning his intellectual SEEMS RELENTLESSLY SET activity, it is as renowned as it BY INESCAPABLE LAWS» ■ CHEMISTRY LESSONS AT is diverse, revealing the poets HOME varied interests. In 1808, he Þ nished the Þ rst part of Faust , a First, we will discuss the novel closet drama that took a lifetime to write and was not and highlight the references made to chemistry. completed until shortly before his death; meanwhile, Edward and Charlotte relive a childhood romance, he continued to work on Wilhlem Meister . In 1803, once thwarted by opposition from their respective he also took over the running of the Natural Sciences families, getting married after both have been Institutes at the University of Jena, publishing several widowed. Their quiet life is disrupted by the arrival studies on botany and Metamorphosis of Animals of a friend of Edwards, the captain, followed by the (1806). Shortly afterwards he began his Theory of arrival of Charlottes young niece, Ottilie. Colours (1809-1810), which was to scienti Þ cally Both the title and the events that occur are ahead discredit him given his vehement criticism of Newtons of their time, though little does the reader realise this work. on reading chapter fours conversation between the On the left, Uiso Alemany. «The Self-absorbed Chemist Series», 2010. Mixed technique, 27 x 35 cm. 2012 MÈTODE Annual Review 27 married couple and the captain (Ottilie had not arrived yet). The discussion takes place during the course of a common practice at that time: group reading aloud. Charlottes attention is drawn to the word af Þ nities and Edward explains its use in the book is metaphorical, referring to earths and minerals. That, however, leads to an explanation by the captain, an educated man well-versed in science, regarding how the word is used. He says he read it some time ago and does not know whether the scienti Þ c world continues to think the same about it now. This gives rise to Edward exclaiming most annoyed that «one cannot now-a-days learn a thing once and for all, and have done with it» a statement Goethe uses to convey the idea of an ever changing and unstable world. «Such natures, when they come in contact, at once lay hold of each other, and mutually affect one another, we speak of as having an af Þ nity one for the other», says the captain. And he cites alkalis and acids, as an example, whose af Þ nities are strikingly marked, and which, being of opposite natures seek one another out, lay hold of each other, modify each others character, and form an entirely new substance. Edward says: © Neue Pinakothek, München elective affi nities elective affi «Af Þ nities only begin really to Goethe took the title Elective Affi nities interest when they bring about from the world of chemistry. The affi nity between substances refers to the reason separations». And this last word «THE MAN WHO WISHED TO seems to upset Charlotte, who why certain compounds are formed rather GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS A than others, and why some separate to exclaims it is heard too often in be remade differently. Above, Joseph Karl SCIENTIST ACHIEVED MAINLY the world now-a-days. Stieler. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , The captain resumes his LITERARY GREATNESS THAT 1828. Oil on canvas, 63.8 x 78 cm. explanation with an example: WOULD OVERSHADOW HIS [...] Thus, what we call limestone is OTHER FACET. BUT EVEN expressions. Unhappily, we know cases enough where a connection a more or less pure calcareous earth SO, HE SPRINKLED HIS in combination with a delicate acid, apparently indissoluble between monograph NARRATIVE AND POETIC which is familiar to us in the form two persons, has, by the accidental of a gas. Now, if we place a piece WORK WITH SCIENCE» introduction of a third, been utterly of this stone in diluted sulphuric destroyed, and one or the other of the acid, this will take possession of once happily united pair been driven the lime, and appear with it in the form of gypsum, the out into the wilderness. gaseous acid at the same time going off in vapour. Here Edward concludes: «Then you see how much more is a case of separation; a combination arises, and we gallant the chemists are. They at once add a fourth, that believe ourselves now justi Þ ed in applying to it the words neither may go away empty». Later, the captain gives a Elective Af Þ nity; it really looks as if one relation had «coded» example: been deliberately chosen in preference to another. Suppose an A connected so closely with a B, that all Then Edward makes the following comment: «You sorts of means, even violence, have been made use of to mean me by your lime; the lime is laid hold of by the separate them, without effect. Then suppose a C in exactly captain, in the form of sulphuric acid, torn away from the same position with respect to D. Bring the two pairs your agreeable society, and metamorphosed into a into contact; A will ß ing himself on D, C on B, without refractory gypsum». Charlotte replies: its being possible to say which had Þ rst left its Þ rst connection, or made the Þ rst move towards the second.

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