Stahl published his first treatise on chemistry, Zymotechnia Fundamentalis, in 1697. This work not only described various fermentative phenomena and techniques but also discussed the principle underlying fermentative reactions. Stahl posited that chemistry is the art of synthesizing and analysing, with the decomposition of matter requiring elements such as water and fire as “instruments”. These elements, in essence, consist of indivisible atoms composed of triangles. The size and motion of these atoms and the particles they formed of each hierarchy can fundamentally explain chemical phenomena, such as fermentation. Stahl opposed the view held by a priori philosophy that matter is infinitely divisible, while also rejecting the notion that one could infer the exact shapes of particles from the properties of macroscopic substances and chemical phenomena. Stahl’s Geometric Atomism diverged from the Atomism that posits the existence of a single, uniform atom and from the Mechanism that attributes chemical properties to the shapes of particles. It more closely resembled the Geometric Atomism found in Plato’s Timaeus, reflecting a possible convergence of Elementalism and Atomism.

As an important concept in alchemy, Alkahest has had a significant impact on the early development of modern chemistry. Boyle, influenced by Helmont, Starkey, and others, began to focus on Alkahest, but his understanding of it fundamentally differed from that of traditional alchemists and his research objectives were also distinct. There have been some discussions about Boyle's research on Alkahest ,but some key issues in his understanding of Alkahest remain to be solved. Alkahest was of great value to Boyle in that it not only served as a powerful weapon to refute the elemental theory, but also as an "ideal solvent" to support his theory of material composition. His research on Alkahest also stimulated his thinking on corpuscular theory. By systematically reviewing the original literature and analyzing Boyle's research objectives and basic understanding, this paper clarifies the special status of Alkahest in Boyle's theoretical system, and fully demonstrates his scientific spirit and experimental philosophy.

The likening of the study of nature to the act of mastering a language or deciphering a code was a common early modern metaphor, drawing in part on popular parallels drawn at the time between the book of God and the book nature, or Scripture and Creation. In what has become one of the most iconic proclamations in the history of science, Galileo declared that “this grand book, the universe … is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometric figures.” Though less known, the use of linguistic and lexical imagery in the ‘experimental tradition’ was as important and evocative as its application in the ‘mathematical tradition’, to use Kuhn’s famous historiographical distinction. This talk examines a selection of such seventieth-century instances, from Bacon’s Abecedarium nouvm naturae, part of his unfinished Great Instauration, through Charleton’s Epicurean-Gassendist Physiologia (1654) to Boyle’s claim in the 1660s that “each Page in the great Volume of Nature is full of real Hieroglyphicks, where (by an inverted way of Expression) Things stand for Words, and their Qualities for Letters.” Unpacking these examples and situating them in their intellectual and practical contexts, with emphasis on the arduous attempt to combine the mechanical and empirical approaches to nature, offers insights on the charged relationship between matter theory, natural history, and experimentalism during the height of the Scientific Revolution.