Vinous Quotes (1 quote)
I had formally advanced, in my first Memoirs upon the formation of water, that it was decomposed in a great number of chemical experiments, and particularly during the vinous fermentation. I then supposed that water exists ready formed in sugar, though I am now convinced that sugar only contains the elements proper for composing it. It may be readily conceived, that it must have cost me a good deal to abandon my first notions, but by several years reflection, and after a great number of experiments and observations upon vegetable substances, I have fixed my ideas as above.
In The Elements of Chemistry (1790), Pt. 1, Chap. 13, 139-140.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
