Technikatörténeti szemle 22. (1996)
Papers from the Second International Conference on the History of Chemistry and Chemical Industry (Eger, Hungary, 16–19 August, 1995) - Lichocka, Halina: The Methodological Problems of Organis Chemistry in the First Half of the 19th Century – Jedrzej Sniadeckis work
interfere with previously inaccessible areas, connected with the phenomenon of life. On the one hand this led to an enthusiastic attitude towards empirical sciences, while on the other it gave rise to the awareness of the real risks involved in, and the concomitant ethical questions connected with, the practical applications of scientific discoveries. A unique combination of fascination with science coupled with the common fear of the unknown, a product of the public perception of the rapidly accruing knowledge of nature, found expression in, among other things, the dynamic development, from early Victorian times, of literary works in which science was often portrayed as something horrific or sinister. The problem of the interrelations between science and literature was reported in Gillian Beer's paper delivered at the meeting of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry in December 1992 in London. In the paper, entitled Square Rounds and other Awkward Fits: Chemistry as Theatre and published 19 in the Ambix journal, the author drew attention to issue of the public reception of the results of scientific research and the role of scientists in promoting an image of science as a tool that can serve to subject the nature to humankind's exclusive objectives. As research techniques advanced and the apparatus grew more complex, the laboratory became less and less accessible to the general public and was turning into a mysterous centre of fantastic inspiration. The mathematization of knowledge produced additional fears of the scientists reaching mutual understanding in the language of formulae and theorems, which remained inaccessible to the uninitiated. A hermetic circle was beginning to form, in which magic and unholy forces seemed to reign supreme. All this contributed to an image of science as something mysterious and isolated, as something that could launch an attack and change the world even before such change could be brought under control. Such fears and misgivings appeared in connection with alkaloids. Morphine was a blessing as a sedative, pain-killer and palliative. But the very same morphine also led to addiction and death. An even greater risk stemmed from synthetic substances whose action on the human organism was many times stronger then that of compounds isolated from plants. Thus at the very start of the rapid development of organic chemistry, there came up the question of good and evil accompanying the achievements of science and the deception about the science being exempt from responsibility, which stemmed from the objectiveness of the results of measurement and calculation - a problem which is ever more ubiquitous and topical today.
