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Nature 449, 788 (18 October 2007) | doi:10.1038/449788a; Published online 17 October 2007

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From alchemy to chemistry

Philip Ball1

BOOK REVIEWEDAndreas Libavius and the Transformation of Alchemy: Separating Chemical Cultures with Polemical Fire

by Bruce T. Moran

Science History Publications: 2007. 344 pp. $49.95

BOOK REVIEWEDChymists and Chymistry: Studies in the History of Alchemy and Early Modern Chemistry

edited by Lawrence M. Principe
Chemical Heritage Foundation/Science History Publications: 2007. 274 pp. $45

The Communist Party of Britain (Marxist–Leninist), it has been said, had no scorn for right-wingers to match that it reserved for the parenthesis-free Communist Party of Britain. To judge from the writings of the German chymist Andreas Libavius, little has changed.