Abstract
IN an article in Nature of February 10 on "Chemistry at the Older Universities of Britain during the Eighteenth Century", Dr. Archibald Clow repeats a number of assertions of a highly flattering character which have been made from time to time regarding John Mayow, by Beddoes, Yeats, Gotch, Gunther and others; statements which it is surely time to eliminate from the history of science. Dr. Clow says that Mayow's "De Sal-nitro et Spiritu nitro-aereo heralded the later discovery of oxygen", and he quotes, apparently with approval, Gunther's view that Mayow was the "greatest chemist whom Oxford ever produced". Also he says that "Mayow was not an associate of Boyle; indeed they seem to have been mutually unaware of each other's work, and Mayow's contributions remained hidden for many years".
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References
Isis, 15 47, 504 (1931).
Boyle's, "Works", 5, 395b (1744).
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PATTERSON, T. Chemistry at the Older Universities. Nature 155, 640 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1038/155640a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/155640a0
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