Aräon. Struktur und Kontext des „Systems der Chemie“ P. T. Meißners

In the year 1823 J. v. Liebig attacked the Austrian chemist and professor in Vienna P. T. Meißner. He considered the latter to be mentally ill, mainly because of what is called the „Aräon-concept“. This concept is based on the assumption that heat, light, electricity and magnetism are all different types of chemical compounds, consisting of oxygen and the matter of heat, which Meißner dubbed „Aräon“. This article tries to make understandable the idea of Aräon as well the structural similarities of the Aräon-concept with other theoretical approaches to the imponderabilia also based on atomism.