远在现代化学发展之前,人们对于酸碱的认识是从一些具体酸碱物质所显示的现象开始的。十七世纪后半叶,已经积累了大量酸和碱的感性认识,到了十八世纪后期,化学家才从物质本身的内部性质逐渐认识了酸碱。拉瓦西曾提出氧元素是酸的必要成分,氧的西文命名就是“酸形成者”。日本化学中氧元素即称为《酸素》。十九世纪前半叶,盐酸、氢碘酸、氢氰酸等先后相继发现,实验表明这些酸不含有氧,而含有氢,因 Far from the development of modern chemistry, people’s understanding of acid and alkali began with the phenomenon shown by some specific acid-base materials. In the second half of the seventeenth century, a large amount of perceptual knowledge of acid and alkali had been accumulated. By the end of the eighteenth century, chemists began to understand the acid and alkali from the internal nature of the material itself. Lavoisier proposed that oxygen is an essential component of acid, and the western name of oxygen is “acid generator”. The oxygen in Japanese chemistry is called “acid”. In the first half of the 19th century, hydrochloric acid, hydroiodic acid, and hydrocyanic acid were successively discovered. Experiments have shown that these acids do not contain oxygen but contain hydrogen.