Sourkes T L
McGill Universitiy, Department of Psychiatry, Montreal, Que., Canada.
J Hist Neurosci. 1995 Sep-Dec;4(3-4):204-15. doi: 10.1080/09647049509525639.
The period between 1600 and 1800 was one of great change in the history of science, generally, and in the history of chemistry, specifically. It opened with Francis Bacon's visionary recognition of the benefits to mankind that would accrue from the expansion of scientia and closed with the overthrow of the phlogiston hypothesis. New chemical knowledge resulted from the efforts of the alchemists, especially in Paracelsians, and of the phlogistic philosophers, some of it recorded by writers of magic books (Thorndike, 1958; Camporesi, 1989). The authors of these works reflected 'the general mentality ... imbued with magic, occult beliefs, unreal suggestions, 'voices', and 'rumours', ... 'errors' and 'prejudices'. In respect to brain chemistry there appeared, beside the fantastic, elements of fact that characterise this period as embracing the 'pre-history' of neurochemistry.
1600年至1800年期间，总体而言是科学史上的一个重大变革时期，具体来说是化学史上的重大变革时期。它始于弗朗西斯·培根对科学知识扩展将给人类带来的益处的前瞻性认识，终于燃素假说的推翻。新的化学知识源于炼金术士的努力，尤其是帕拉塞尔苏斯派炼金术士的努力，以及燃素学说哲学家的努力，其中一些由魔法书籍的作者记录下来（桑代克，1958年；坎波雷西，1989年）。这些作品的作者反映了“普遍的心态……充满了魔法、神秘信仰、虚幻的暗示、‘声音’和‘谣言’……‘错误’和‘偏见’”。关于脑化学，除了一些荒诞不经的内容外，还出现了一些事实元素，这些元素将这个时期描绘为包含神经化学的“史前史”。
