STAHL, (1660-1734). A
German physician and chemist, born at Ansbach. He
was called in 1694 to the chair of medicine, anatomy,
and chemistry in the newly founded
university of Halle, whence he removed to Berlin
in 1716, and was appointed physician to the
King of Prussia. Stahl was one of the ablest
chemists of his time, and destroyed numberless
absurd opinions which had found their way
into science, and propounded the first general
theory of chemical transformations (see ),
which was universally accepted till the
time of Lavoisier. His works, according to Haller,
number 250, the most important being Theoria Medica Vera (1707, and 1831-33), which
contains his medical theory, and Experimenta,
Observationes et Animadversiones Chymico-Physicæ
(1731), in which his chemical opinions are
set forth. An account of his opinions is found in
Lemoine, Le vitalisme et l'animisme de Stahl
(Paris, 1864). Consult also Lasègue, De Stahl et sa doctrine médicale (ib., 1846).