In human chemistry, human chemical is the term used by American writer Thomas Dreier (1910) and English-born American engineer William Fairburn (1914) to define a human being as a type of chemical, being reactive to other chemicals of the same nature. [1] In 1948, Dreier summarized his use of this term as such: [2]
“Watch groups of people working or playing together and you will be startled to discover how ‘chemical’ are their reactions to one another. Once you acquire even rudiments of human chemistry, you will be baffled less often by people, and become impatient or angry less often at the (to you) annoying things they do. You will see and judge them for what they are—different kinds of human chemicals, obeying the laws of their natures as you and I obey the laws of our natures.”
Fairburn also used the term "human chemical element" to describe people as a type of chemical or chemical species. [1] These terms can be considered as precursors to the modern-day conception of the human molecule; albeit the term "human molecule" has an older etymology (1869) [3]
See also
● Human particle
● Social atom
References
1. (a) Dreier, Thomas. (1910). Human Chemicals. (27-pgs). Backbone Society.
(b) Fairburn, William Armstrong. (1914). Human Chemistry. The Nation Valley Press, Inc.
2. Dreier, Thomas. (1948). We Human Chemicals: the Knack of Getting Along with Everybody (pg. 4). Updegraff Press.
3. Thims, Libb. (2008). The Human Molecule, (preview). Morrisville, NC: LuLu.
