Iatrochemistry
IATROCHEMISTRY (coined from Gr. iarp6$, a physician, and " chemistry "), a stage in the history of chemistry, during which the object of this science was held to be " not to make gold but to prepare medicines." This doctrine dominated chemical thought during the 16th century, its foremost supporters being Paracelsus, van Helmont and de la Boe Sylvius. But it gave way to the new definition formulated by Boyle, viz. that the proper domain of chemistry was " to determine the composition of substances." (See CHEMISTRY: I. History; MEDICINE.)
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
