Modern chemistry is a wide range of sciences that have evolved through a long period of historical development. The practical acquaintance of man with chemical processes dates back to ancient times. For many centuries theoretical explanation of chemical processes was based on natural-philosophical teaching about quality elements. In a modified form, it served as the basis for alchemy, which arose in about III-IV centuries A.D. and sought to solve the problem of transformation of base metals into noble ones. Not having achieved success in solving this problem, alchemists, nevertheless, have developed many methods of study of substances, discovered some chemical compounds, which to a certain extent contributed to the emergence of scientific chemistry. Natural philosophical views were also the basis of jatrochemistry (the predecessor of medical chemistry), which appeared in the XVI century and tried to find means of treatment of numerous diseases in chemical preparations. In the Middle Ages, the development of chemical production was accelerated: metallurgy, glassmaking, and dye-making. This contributed to the development of the first theoretical guidelines in the development of chemical knowledge. Actually, scientific chemistry dates back to the second half of the XVII century, when R. Boyle and his associates gave the first scientific definition of the concept of "chemical element". An important milestone on the way to the creation of scientific chemistry was the discovery, thanks to the works of M.V. Lomonosov and A. Lavoisier, of the law of mass conservation in chemical reactions. An important role in the formation of chemistry as an independent science was played by the discovery of stoichiometric laws in the late 17th - early 19th centuries. The development of chemical views in the XIX century began with the creation of D. Dalton bases of chemical atomistic. Soon A. Avogadro introduced the concept of "molecule". However, atomic-molecular representations were established in science only in the 60s of the XIX century. In the same period in the cognitive aim of chemistry took a fundamental place, along with the composition, also the structure of substances. The creation of the theory of chemical structure by A.M. Butlerov contributed to it to a decisive degree. One of the most significant milestones in the development of scientific chemistry and natural sciences is the discovery of the periodic law of chemical elements by D.I. Mendeleev. At the end of XIX - beginning of XX centuries the study of regularities of the chemical process began to belong to the leading directions of chemistry development. Since the second half of the XX century the concept aimed at studying the possibilities of using such conditions in the processes of obtaining target products which lead to self-improvement of catalysts of chemical reactions, i.e. to the self-organization of chemical systems, has been fruitfully developing in chemistry. Evolutionary chemistry turned to a comprehension of the ways of obtaining the most highly organized chemical systems, which are only possible nowadays. Thus, chemistry has historically developed four levels of studying substances: from the standpoint of their composition, structure, chemical action and self-organization. Nevertheless, the specificity of chemistry cannot be reduced to the study of substances only from the standpoint of this multilevel approach. The most specific for it is to comprehend the relationship of substances to chemistry. Moreover, the understanding of the phenomenon of chemistry finds its concentrated expression in the modern interpretation of the subject of chemistry.
Chemical view on nature, origins and modern state.
Chemistry is a very ancient science. There are several explanations for the word "chemistry". According to one of the available theories, it originates from the ancient name of Egypt - Kham and, therefore, should mean "Egyptian art". According to another theory, the word "chemistry" comes from the Greek word cumoz (plant juice) and means "the art of juice extraction". This juice may be molten metal so that with such an extended interpretation of the term it has to include the art of metallurgy. The elements of ancient Greek natural philosophy, the atomists of Levkipp and Democritus are closely related to chemistry. But, of course, the greatest contribution to the formation of this science made by the Egyptians. The name of the first surviving chemist is Bolos from Mend, who lived in the Nile delta at the turn of the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. By 300 AD, the Egyptian Zosima had written an encyclopedia that covered all the knowledge of chemistry collected by that time. But chemistry, represented in this work, was not yet a science in the full sense of the word, and remained closely related to the ancient Egyptian religion and did not go beyond the formation of the phenomenological level. In chemistry the properties were revealed, regularities between them were established, the essence of the phenomena was substituted by their mystical interpretation. Chemistry (chemists) was eradicated and persecuted by the Roman emperors, fanatics of Christianity: scientists were expelled, their books were burned, and science itself was forbidden. Some feared, for example, that chemists were engaged in receiving gold; others persecuted scientists for close connection of chemistry with ancient Egyptian religion which, from Christianity, was paganism. Since the last century.