Mechanical and Chemical Explanations in Du Clos' Chemistry

International audienceSamuel Cottereau Du Clos (1598-1685) appears as the first French chemist to combine in chemistry – which is for him the science of substances, the physics of qualities – demonstrations using the laws of motion with demonstrations using the qualities of chemical principles, and in that way bringing to bear two different and complementary orders of explanations. According to him, the mechanical considerations represent a first approach, a stage towards the knowledge of “the truth of things” (la vérité des choses) in natural philosophy. He set out his chemistry at the Académie royale des sciences de Paris, especially through his criticism of Boyle’s Certain Physiological Essays in 1668-1669