Editing Georg Ernst Stahl (section)

==Chemistry==
The best of Stahl's work in chemistry was done while he was a professor at Halle. Just like medicine, he believed that chemistry could not be reduced to [[mechanistic]] views. Although he believed in atoms, he did not believe that atomic theories were enough to describe the chemical processes that go on. He believed that atoms could not be isolated individually and that they join to form elements. He took an empirical approach when establishing his descriptions of chemistry.<ref name="source 3"/>

Stahl used the works of [[Johann Joachim Becher]] to help him come up with explanations of chemical phenomena. The main theory that Stahl got from J. J. Becher was the theory of [[phlogiston]]. This theory did not have any experimental basis before Stahl. Becher's theories attempted in explaining chemistry as comprehensively as seemingly possible through classifying different earths according to specific reactions. ''Terra pinguis'' was a substance that escaped during combustion reactions, according to Becher.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hudson|first1=John|title=The History of Chemistry|date=1992|publisher=The Macmillan Press|location=Hong Kong|isbn=0-412-03641-X|page=47}}<!--|access-date=26 February 2016--></ref> Stahl, influenced by Becher's work, developed his theory of phlogiston. Phlogiston theory did not have any experimental basis before Stahl worked with metals and various other substances in order separate phlogiston from them. Stahl proposed that metals were made of calx, or ash, and phlogiston and that once a metal is heated, the phlogiston leaves only the calx within the substance. He was able to make the theory applicable to chemistry as it was one of the first unifying theories in the discipline. Phlogiston provided an explanation of various chemical phenomena and encouraged the chemists of the time to rationally work with the theory to explore more of the subject. This theory was later replaced by Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier's theory of [[oxidation]] and [[caloric theory]].<ref name="source 1"/> He also propounded a view of [[fermentation (biochemistry)|fermentation]], which in some respects resembles that supported by [[Justus von Liebig]] a century and half later. Although his theory was replaced, Stahl's theory of phlogiston is seen to be the transition between [[alchemy]] and chemistry.<ref name="source 3"/>

Stahl is credited for being among the first to describe [[carbon monoxide]] as noxious ''carbonarii halitus'' (carbonic vapors) in his 1697 publication ''Zymotechnia fundamentalis.''<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hopper|first=Christopher P.|last2=Zambrana|first2=Paige N.|last3=Goebel|first3=Ulrich|last4=Wollborn|first4=Jakob|date=June 2021|title=A brief history of carbon monoxide and its therapeutic origins|url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1089860321000367|journal=Nitric Oxide|language=en|volume=111-112|pages=45–63|doi=10.1016/j.niox.2021.04.001}}</ref>