At that time John Baptist Porta was conducting his
investigations, and, despite a considerable mixture of
pseudo-science, they were fruitful. His was not "black magic,"
claiming the aid of Satan, but "white magic," bringing into
service the laws of nature--the precursor of applied science.
His book on meteorology was the first in which sound ideas were
broached on this subject; his researches in optics gave the
world the camera obscura, and possibly the telescope; in
chemistry he seems to have been the first to show how to reduce
the metallic oxides, and thus to have laid the foundation of
several important industries. He did much to change natural
philosophy from a black art to a vigorous open science. He
encountered the old ecclesiastical policy. The society founded
by him for physical research, "I Secreti," was broken up, and
he was summoned to Rome by Pope Paul III and forbidden to
continue his investigations.
So, too, in France. In 1624, some young chemists at Paris having
taught the experimental method and cut loose from Aristotle, the
faculty of theology beset the Parliament of Paris, and the
Parliament prohibited these new chemical researches under the
severest penalties.
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