The history of the alchemical period is treated in more detail in the article Alchemy, and of the iatrochemical in the article Medicine.
From the mazy and incoherent alchemical and iatrochemical doctrines, the former based on false conceptions of matter, the latter on erroneous views of life processes and physiology, a new science arose - the study of the composition of substances.
In the succeeding iatrochemical period, the methods of the alchemists were improved and new ones devised.
The germs of analytical chemistry are to be found in the writings of the pharmacists and chemists of the iatrochemical period.
The founder of the iatrochemical school was Sylvius (1614-1672), who belonged to a French family settled in Holland, and was for fourteen years professor of medicine at Leiden, where he attracted students from all quarters of Europe.