Elixir: A Parisian Perfume House and the Quest for the Secret of Life

by Theresa Levitt

A story of alchemy in Bohemian Paris, where two scientific outcasts discovered a fundamental distinction between natural and synthetic chemicals that inaugurated an enduring scientific mystery. For centuries, scientists believed that living matter possessed a special quality--a spirit or essence--that differentiated it from nonliving matter. But by the nineteenth century, the scientific consensus was that the building blocks of one were identical...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674250893
• ISBN13: 9780674250895
• Release Date: April 2023
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.8" x 8.6"