Subject: somewhat obscure chemistry quote

From: Eric Scerri <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2001 08:51:04 -0800

I think the quote you are looking for is the following statement by the
French philosopher A. Comte (1838):
   Every attempt to employ mathematical methods in the study of chemical
questions must be considered profoundly irrational. If mathematical
analysis should ever hold a promiment place in chemistry  - an
aberration
which is happily impossible - it would occasion a rapid and widespread
degradation
of that science.

All the best,
     Trond SAUE

--------------------

Whereas the German philosopher, Kant, believed that chemistry was not 
a proper science because it was not sufficiently mathematical in his 
time!

regards,
eric scerri
-- 

Dr. Eric Scerri ,
UCLA,
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry,
607 Charles E. Young Drive East,
Los Angeles,  CA 90095-1569
USA

E-mail :   [email-masked]
tel:  310 206 7443
fax:  310 206 2061
Web Page:    http://www.chem.ucla.edu/dept/Faculty/scerri/index.html

Editor  of  Foundations of Chemistry
http://www.wkap.nl/journalhome.htm/1386-4238

Also see International Society for the Philosophy of Chemistry
http://www.georgetown.edu/earleyj/ISPC.html