Gk. kheein () "to pour"; khuma (), "that which is poured out, an ingot"). Assuming a Greek origin, chemistry is defined as follows: :Chemistry, from the Greek word (khēmeia) meaning "cast together" or "pour together", is the science of matter at the atomic to molecular scale, dealing primarily with collections of atoms, such as molecules, crystals, and metals.
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Chemistry (the etymology of the word has been much disputed) is the science of matter and the changes it undergoes. The science of matter is also addressed by physics, but while physics takes a more general and fundamental approach, chemistry is more specialized, being concerned by the composition, behavior (or reaction), structure, and properties of matter, as well as the changes it undergoes during chemical reactions. It is a physical science which studies various substances, atoms, molecules, and matter (especially carbon based). Example sub-disciplines of chemistry include: biochemistry, the study of substances found in biological organisms; physical chemistry, the study of chemical processes using physical concepts such as thermodynamics and quantum mechanics; and analytical chemistry, the analysis of material samples to gain an understanding of their chemical composition and structure.
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The existence of this debate demonstrates that, at the time, the distinction between pure chemical compounds and mixtures had not yet been fully developed.Proust argued that compound applies only to materials with fixed proportions: Proust, J.-L. (1806). Sur les mines de cobalt, nickel et autres, Journal de Physique, 63:566-8. Excerpt, from Maurice Crosland, ed., The Science of Matter: a Historical Survey, Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1971.
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The new doctrine received warm support from some, as William Law and Priestley, who both, like Hume and Hartley himself, took the principle of association as having the like import for the science of mind that gravitation had acquired for the science of matter. The principle began also, if not always with direct reference to Hartley, yet, doubtless, owing to his impressive advocacy of it, to be applied systematically in special directions, as by Abraham Tucker (1768) to morals, and by Archibald Alison (1790) to aesthetics. Thomas Brown (d. 1820) subjected anew to discussion the question of theory.
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