Senac, Jean Baptiste

Senac, Jean-Baptiste. Nouveau cours de chymie, suivant les Principes de Newton de Sthall. Paris, 1723. 

Seances des Ecoles normales, recueillies par des stenographes, et revues par les professeurs, 6 vols. (Paris, 1796) [Bibliotheque nationale, R22215-22220]. Senac, Jean-Baptiste. Nouveau cours de chimie, suivant les principes de Newton de Sthall (Paris Jacques Vincent, 1723). 

With the appearance of Jean-Baptiste Senacs book in 1723, the French chemical community had available a clear direct source of knowledge about the chemistry of Stahl.This book has not been given much attention by modern historians, nor have they examined the faithfulness of its doctrines to those of Stahl. But like Stahl himself, Senac continued to use the old terms without any very obvious preference for phlogiston. In a discussion of the calcination of tin, for example, Senac writes,... 

Jean-Baptiste Senac, Nouveau cours de chymie, suivant lesprincipes de Newton de Sthall (Paris, 1723), liii-liv, 26, 74—78. Note that the book was published anonymously, and the attribution to Senac, otherwise known only as a physician, is open to question. 

Venel says the book nous apportdt le stahlianisme, fit la m me revolution dans notre chimie, que les reflexions sur I attraction que publia M. Mauper-tuis. . . ont operee dans notre physique, en nous faisant recevoir le newtonian-isme. It is attributed to Jean Baptiste Senac (1693-1770), physician to Louis XV, by Fourcroy, Gmelin, and Kopp, but Baron, who criticises it with undue severity, said it was compiled by students in the Jardin du Roi from lectures by Geoffroy and Boulduc. The first person singular is often used, as in lectures. 

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