Becher

Becher, JOHANN JOACHIM, chemist, was born at Spire in 1635. He acquired an extensive knowledge of medicine, physics, and chemistry, and became professor at Mainz. He subsequently lived at Vienna, Munich, Würzburg, Haarlem, and finally London, where he died in 1682. He was accused of charlatany, but unquestionably he rendered important services to chemistry. His Physica Subterranea (1669) was the first attempt made to bring physics and chemistry into close relation. He began to construct a theory of chemistry, and investigated the process of combustion. In this and his other works (including Institutiones Chymice, 1662) lies the first germ of Stahl's phlogistic theory.