Gordin, Michael

Gordin, Michael D. 2004. A Well-Ordered Thing Dmitrii Mendeleev and the Shadow of the Periodic Table. New York Basic Books. 

I acknowledge many scholars of the periodic table from diverse fields, including Peter Atkins, Henry Bent, Bernadette Bensaude, Nathan Brooks, Edwin Constable, John Emsley, Michael Gordin, Ray Hefferlin, William Jensen, Herbert Kaesz, Masanori Kaji, Maurice Kibler, Bruce King, Mike Laing, Laurence Lavelle, Guillermo Restrepo, Dennis Rouvray, Oliver Sacks, Eugen Schwarz, Philip Stewart, Mark Winters and many others. 

Going further even than Muir, some eminent chemists stridently opposed modem alchemy and the transmutation hypotheses emerging to explain radioactivity. Toward the end of his life, Mendeleev, for example, became quite concerned about the implications of radioactivity for his scientific and chemical world view. As Michael Gordin explains, Mendeleev s most salient exposure to radioactivity, and the genesis of most of his hostile views of the phenomenon, was his visit to the Curies laboratory in Paris in 1902. What he saw evoked similar worries as the Spiritualists had. He wrote in his Paris notebook ... [M]ust one admit whether there is spirit in matter and forces Radio-active substances, spiritualism (Gordin 2004,213). Mendeleev... 

In sharp contrast with the above-mentioned statement, the famous Mendeleev historian, Michael Gordin, claimed in his book on Dmitrii Mendeleev and the Shadow of the Periodic Table that it does not follow [...] that Mendeleev must have been thinking in terms of physical atomism when he conceived his system. [...] Mendeleev s scepticism toward atomism sharply emphasises the difference between the present-day interpretation of the periodic system and Mendeleev s views of 1869. [...] For Mendeleev, any atoms that might exist had absolutely no... 

Acknowledgments The authors would like to extend a very special thanks to the Mendeleev historian, Michael Gordin, for his invaluable input, detailed comments, feedback and encouraging... 

In an earher article in Scientific American, 1 implied that Mendeleev had spent the remainder of his Ufc in elaborating the periodic system.This view has now been corrected by Michael Gordin. See M. Gordin, A Well Ordered Thing, Basic Books, New York, 2004. 

I thank Michael Gordin for this information. The article is D.I. Mendeleev, Die periodische Gesetzmassigkeit der chemischen Elements, Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie, supplement 8,133-229,1872. 

Georgetown University, USA. earlyj Qgeorgetown.edu William Goodwin Rowan University, USA. goodwinSrowan.edu Michael D. Gordin Princeton University, USA. mgordinSprinceton.edu Rom Harre... 

Mendeleev to Hieronymus G. Zeuthen, secretary of the Royal Danish Academy, of April 14, 1889. In French. Archive of the Royal Danish Academy of Science. Mendeleev s mention of the special Danish-Russian relationship was probably a reference to Princess Dagmar, the daughter of the Danish king Christian IX and, as Empress Maria Feodorovna, the wife of Russia s tsar since 1881, Alexander III. Mendeleev was a loyal and appreciated consultant of the tsar s administration. See Michael D. Gordin, A Well-Ordered Thing Dmitrii Mendeleev and the Shadow of the Periodic Table (New York Basic Books, 2004), chapter 6. 

Gestated under the warm sunny skies in Istanbul, this idea materialized into a book project thanks to many colleagues who are also interested in the history of chemistry. The contributors and editors, especially Masanori Kaji, wish to express special thanks to Brigitte Van Tiggelen, Carsten Reinhardt, William Brock, Michael Gordin, and Eric Scerri, who were of immense help during the various stages of the project. 

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