Chemical Classifications, Textbooks, and the Periodic System in Nineteenth-Century Spain
The periodic system is closely linked to chemical pedagogy by many different ways. It is commonly accepted that Mendeleev discovered the periodic law while he was attempting to organize the chapters of a general chemistry textbook for his students at St. Petersburg University. The omnipresence of periodic tables in classrooms and textbooks throughout the twentieth century seems to confirm the decisive impact of Mendeleev’s work in chemistry teaching. Thus, one might assume that the advent of the periodic classification was followed by a revolution in late nineteenth-century chemistry classrooms. However, the papers included in this volume have found scarce evidence for a profound transformation of this kind in chemistry education. Our main aim here is to suggest some explanations for this apparent paradox by exploring the rather peripheral context of nineteenth-century Spain. Our approach is based on new historiographical trends in two interrelated areas: the history of science teaching and the circulation of knowledge. Teaching is no longer regarded by historians as a second-rate activity for scientists, but as a creative context in which new knowledge is produced thanks to the complex interaction of many historical forces and agents. Historians who subscribe to this trend also challenge the common view of textbook writing as repetitive, uninspiring work. Mendeleev was certainly not the first teacher to address the problem of finding an accurate classification for chemistry textbooks. In fact, when he prepared his Principles of Chemistry in 1868, there was already a long tradition of chemistry textbooks dating back to the seventeenth century, and many arrangements had been adopted and discussed by Mendeleev’s recent predecessors. Many mid-nineteenth-century textbooks devoted entire chapters to chemical classifications, in which the author presented the debates on artificial and natural classifications and added their own suggestions. One of these books was written in 1855 by Auguste Cahours (1813–1891), a professor of chemistry in Paris, and was translated into Russian with the aid of Mendeleev, just a few years before his work on the periodic system.