Origin from the three natural kingdoms

1 Boerhaave [1732]. For life and work of Boerhaave, see Gillispie [1970-1980] vol. II p. 224ff. 

From a broad comparative view, the eighteenth-century chemical order according to the three natural kingdoms is indeed remarkable. In the sixteenth century and early seventeenth century, most alchemists and chemists divided substances into natural raw materials on the one hand and chemical preparations on the other. From the per- 

Diderot and d Alembert [1966] vol. Ill p. 418. AU translations are our own, except where stated. 

Entire Plants Organs of Plants Raw Plant Materials Extracted Plant Substances Composite Chemical Preparations 

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In summary, in the theoretical part of his Traicte Le Febvre divided the realm of materials first by grouping them into the two large classes of natural mixts and pure substances. He further classified the natural mixts according to their origin from the three natural kingdoms. His classification of pure substances—certain kinds of chemical preparations—relied on a taxonomic criterion that combined perceptible features of chemical operations with their interpretation as either purification or exaltation —a mode of classification also chosen by Libavius. The further subdivision of essences and other kinds of pure substances relied on their perceptible properties and medical virtues. 

Well into the nineteenth century, chemists divided substances into three large groups according to their origin from the three natural kingdoms. The experimental parts of chemical textbooks especially were organized in this natural historical mode of clas-... 

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