At the beginning of the 19th century the description of matter attained, what one would call today, a scientific basis. Dalton1 supported the atomic theory with experiments permitting the development of modern chemistry. The book “A New System of Chemical Philosophy,” describes this new approach. In Fig. , an excerpt is displayed. Chapters I and II give a summary of the contemporary understanding of nature by analyzing heat and mass, the two basic building-blocks of any material. Chapter I displays the theory of the caloric as it was generally.
