[About a quarrel concerning the artificial production of iron. The differences between Nicolas Lémery and his son,...

In the early eighteenth century, a quarrel developed between the chemists at the Académie royale des sciences. They discussed the question if it were possible or not to make artificially some iron from the combustion of vegetal organisms. Étienne-François Geoffroy defended the thesis resting on certain alchemical texts, but Louis Lémery, Nicolas’ son, refused it in the name of a mechanistic conception of chemical operations. Louis Lémery also had to oppose the hypothesis emitted by his father who preferred to admit that the test of the magnet, which was used to reveal the presence of fragments of iron into the ashes, was not convincing. He thought that other substances than iron could be attracted by the magnet. Louis thus had to reject the positions of his father, the latter did not seem for him to have a rather vigorous position against the allusions to alchemical writings and in favour of the strictly mechanistic theories.