Walter Charleton (1620 - 1707) e sua Teoria Atômica The atomic theory of walter charleton (1620 - 1707)

• Main Author: Paulo Alves Porto
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sociedade Brasileira de Química 1997-06-01
• Series: Química Nova
• Subjects: Walter Charleton; atomic theory; 17th-century chemistry
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0100-40421997000300016
• ISSN: 0100-4042; 1678-7064

<abstract language="eng">Several authors in the 17th century used the atomic hypothesis to explain observable phenomena. This paper analyzes some ideas about chemical transformation proposed by the English physician Walter Charleton. In Physiologia Epicuro-Gassendo-Charltoniana (London, 1654), Charleton examined philosophical aspects of the atomic theory, and suggested that the best explanation for all natural phenomena would be only in terms of atoms and their motions. Sometimes, however, he had to attribute to the atoms some kind of "internal virtue", to explain more complex properties of the matter. His idea of "element", and the little use of experimentation and quantification, also limited the range of Charleton's theory.