Chemical Caricature as a History of Science or Chemists on the Cartoonists’ Pencil

The value of caricatures for the understanding of the history of sciences, particularly chemistry, has long been recognized by general historians. The most striking and rare contemporary and ancient caricatures of some famous chemists whose names have entered the annals of chemistry have been collected in this manuscript. The purpose of this article is to show that a caricature can not only make you smile, but also throw light on the substantive content of scientific concepts, hypotheses, and discussions on the most important problems and challenges of different periods.