THE 
 
 NATIONAL LIBRARY. 
 
 CONDUCTED HT 
 
 THE REV. G. R. GLE1G, M.A. M.R. S.L Ac. 
 
 ASSISTED BY VARIOl S EMINENT WRITERS 
 
 N fa III. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY, 
 
 V 
 
 THOMAS THOMSON, M.D. F.R.S.E. 
 
 LONDON: 
 HENRY COLBURN AND RICHARD BENTLEY, 
 
 KKW BfRLINGTOX STREET ; 
 
 BKUL4 BRADFtTE, EDINBURGH; A CL MMINC, Dl BLIN 
 
 J830. 
 
IOAN STAC!?' 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 J 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 CHEMISTRY. 
 
 THOMAS THOMSON, M.D. F.R.S.E. 
 
 . mnrmn* or cnrnxmuT TOT f mmtm or 9t** 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 VOL. 1. 
 
 LONDON: 
 HENRY COLBURN, AND RICHARD BENTLEY, 
 
 KKW BOktlWOTO't *TmiBT. 
 
 1830. 
 
 L . 144 
 
1TACK 
 
Reproduced by 
 DUOPAGE PROCESS 
 
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PREFACE. 
 
 IT may be proper, perhaps, to state here, in a very 
 few words, the objects which the author had in view 
 in drawing up the following History of Chemistry. 
 Alchymy, or the art of making gold, with which the 
 science originated, furnishes too curious a portion of 
 the aberrations of the human intellect to be passed over 
 in silence. The writings of the alchymists are so vo- 
 Itiminous and so mystical, that it would have afforded 
 materials for a very long work. But I was prevented 
 
from extending this part of the subject to any greater 
 length than I have done, by considering the small 
 quantity of information which could have been gleaned 
 from the reveries of these fanatics or impostors ; I 
 thought it sufficient to give a general view of the na- 
 ture of their pursuits : but in order to put it in the 
 power of those who feel inclined to prosecute such in- 
 vestigations, I have given a catalogue of the most 
 eminent of the alchymists and a list of their works, so 
 far as I am acquainted with them. This catalogue 
 might have been greatly extended. Indeed it would 
 'have been possible to have added several hundred 
 names. But 1 think the works which 1 have quoud 
 are more than almost any reasonable man would think 
 it worth his while to peruse ; and I can state, from ex- 
 perience, that the information gained by such a perusal 
 will very seldom repay the trouble. 
 
 The account of the chemical arts, with which the 
 ancient* were acquainted, is necessarily imperfect; 
 because all arts and trades were held in so luch con- 
 tempt by them that they did not think it worth their 
 while to make themselves acquainted with the pro- 
 
PREFACE. HI 
 
 cesses. My chief guide has been Pliny, but many of 
 his descriptions are unintelligible, obviously from his 
 ignorance of the processes which he attempts to de- 
 scribe. Thus circumstanced, I thought it better to be 
 short than to waste a great deal of paper, as some have 
 done, in hypothesis and conjecture. 
 
 The account of the Chemistry of the Arabians is 
 almost entirely limited to the works of Geber, which I 
 consider to be the first book on Chemistry that ever 
 was published, and to constitute, in every point of 
 view, an exceedingly curious performance. I was 
 much struck with the vast number of facts with which 
 he was acquainted, and which have generally been sup- 
 posed to have been discovered long after his time. I 
 have, therefore, been at some pains in endeavouring to 
 convey a notion of Geber's opinions to the readers of 
 this history; but am not sure that K have succeeded. 
 I have generally given his own words, as literally as 
 possible, and, wherever it would answer the purpose, 
 have employed the English translation of 1678. 
 
 Paracelsus gave origin to so great a revolution in me- 
 dicine and the sciences connected with it, that it would 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 have been unpardonable not to have attempted to lay 
 his opinions and views before the reader; but, after pe- 
 rusing several of his most important treatises, 1 found 
 it almost impossible to form accurate notions on the 
 subject. I have, therefore, endeavoured to state his 
 opinions in his own words as much as possible, that the 
 want of consistency and the mysticism of his opinions 
 may fall upon his own head. Should the reader rind 
 any difficulty in understanding the philosophy of Para- 
 celsus, he will be in no worse a situation than every one 
 has been who has attempted to delineate the opinions 
 of this most extraordinary man, this prince of quacks 
 and impostors. Van Helmont's merits were of a much 
 higher kind, and I have endeavoured to do him justice ; 
 though his weaknesses are so visible that it requires 
 much candour and patience to discriminate accurately 
 tatween his excellencies and his foibles. 
 
 The history of latro-chemistry forms a branch of 
 our subject scarcely less extraordinary than Alchymy 
 itself. It might have been extended to a much greater 
 length than I have done. The reason why I did not 
 enter into longer details was, that I thought the subject 
 
PRF.F.ICF. V 
 
 more intimately connected with the history of medicine 
 than of chemistry : it undoubtedly contributed to the 
 improvement of chemistry ; not, however, by the 
 opinions or the physiology of the iatro-chemists. but by 
 inducing their contemporaries and successors to apply 
 themselves to the discovery of chemical medicines. 
 
 The History of Chemistry, after a theory of combus- 
 tion had been introduced by Beccher and Stahl, be- 
 comes much more important. It now shook off the 
 trammels of alchymy, and ventured to claim its station 
 among the physical sciences. I have found t necessary 
 to treat of its progress during the eighteenth century 
 rat her succinctly, but I hope so as to be easily intelli- 
 gible. This made it necessary to omit the names of 
 many meritorious individuals, who supplied a share of 
 the contributions which the science was continually 
 receiving from all quarters. I have confined myself 
 to those who made the most prominent figure an che- 
 mical discoverers. 1 had no other choice but to follow 
 this plan, unless I had doubled the size of this little 
 work, which would have rendered it less agreeable and 
 less valuable to the general reader. 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 H 
 
 With rt>s|Mrt to the History of Chemistry during 
 that portion of the nineteenth century which is already 
 past, it was beset with several difficulties. Many of 
 the individuals, of whose labours I had occasion to 
 speak, are still actively engaged in the prosecution of 
 their useful works. Others have but just left the* 
 arena, and their friends and relations still remain to 
 appreciate their merits. In treating of this branch of 
 the science (by far the most important of all) I have 
 followed the same plan as in the history of the preceding 
 century. I have found it necessary to omit many 
 names that would undoubtedly have found a place in a 
 larger work, but which the limited extent to which 1 
 was obliged to confine myself, necessarily compelled 
 me to pass over. I have been anxious not to injure the 
 character of any one, while I have rigidly adhered to 
 truth, so far as I was acquainted with it. Should I 
 have been so unfortunate as to hurt the feelings of any 
 individual by any remarks of mine in the following 
 pages, it will give me great pain ; and the only allevia- 
 tion will be the consciousness of the total absence on 
 my part of any malignant intention. To gratify the 
 wishes of every individual may, perhaps, be impos- 
 
i- ii r i AC. 
 
 sible; but 1 can say, with truth, that my uniform 
 object ha? been to do justice to the merits of all, so far 
 as my own limited knowledge put it in my power 
 to do. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 or 
 THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 Introduction . . 
 
 CHAPTER 1. 
 
 WAlrbjmy . 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 OftWckeclkowledgpo.ecdby tUeAdett . .43 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 rbm.try of tbe Arabian. . 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Of tb. profre- * CW^trj der P.rceUi and bb ducipte. ' I It 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Of Vam Htlmont aod the Utw-Ckemtof* - * - |y * 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 * lv 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 "cVevteenth century 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Brtute 
 
HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 CIIF.MIVTRY, unlike the other sciences, sprang ori- 
 ginally from delusi m and superstition, and was a* it* 
 commencen.cnt exactly on a level with magic and 
 astrology. Even after it began to be useful to 
 man, by furnishing him with better and more power- 
 ful medicines than the ancient physicians were ac- 
 quainted with, it was long before it could shake off 
 the trammels of alchymy, which hung upon it like a 
 nightmare, cramping and blunting all its energies, 
 and exposing it to the scorn and contempt of the 
 enlightened part of mankind. It was not till about 
 the middle of the eighteenth century that it was 
 able to free itself fiom these delusions, and to ven- 
 ture abroad in all the native dignity of a useful sci- 
 ence. It was then that its utility and its importance 
 began to attract the attention of the world ; that it 
 drew within its vortex some of the greatest and most 
 active men in every country ; and that it advanced 
 towards perfection with an accelerated pace. The 
 field which it now presents to our view is vast and 
 imposing. Its paramount utility is universally ac- 
 knou lodged. It has become a necessary part of edu- 
 
 YOI* I. A 
 
2 1 \ TRODUCT 10K . 
 
 cation. It has contributed as much to the progress of 
 society, and has done as much to augment the com- 
 forts and conveniences of life, and to increase the 
 power and the resources of mankind, as all the other 
 sciences put together. 
 
 It is natural to feel a desire to be acquainted with 
 the origin and the progress of such a science ; and to 
 know something of the history and character of those 
 numerous votaries to whom it is indebted for its pro- 
 gress and improvement. The object of this little work 
 is to gratify these laudable wishes, by taking a rapid 
 view of the progress of Chemistry, from its first rude 
 and disgraceful beginnings till it has reached its pre- 
 sent state of importance and dignity. I shall divide 
 the subject into fifteen chapters. In the first I shall 
 treat of Alchyiny, which may be considered as the in- 
 auspicious commencement of the science, and which, 
 in fact, consists of little else than an account of dupes 
 and impostors; every where so full of fiction and ob- 
 scurity, that it is a hopeless and almost impossible 
 task to reach the truth. In the second chapter I shall 
 endeavour to point out the few small chemical rills, 
 which were known to the ancients. These 1 shall fol- 
 low in their progress, in the succeeding chapters, 1 11 
 at last, augmented by an infinite number of streams 
 flowing at once from a thousand diifrrcnt quarters, 
 they have swelled to the mighty rrx-r, which now rlowa 
 on majestically, wafting wealth uud information to the 
 civilued world. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 Or ALCBTMT. 
 
 THE word chemistry (xnpna t chcmcin) first occurs in 
 Suidas, a Greek writer, who is supposed to have lired 
 in the eleventh century, and to have written his 
 lexicon during: the rcijm of Alexius Comnenus.* 
 Under the word XT/"'" m h* 3 dictionary we find the 
 following passage: 
 
 " CIIF.MISTRY, the preparation of silver and gold. 
 The book* on it were sought out by Dioclesian and 
 burnt, on account of the new attempts made by the 
 Egyptians against him. H? treated them with cruelty 
 and harshness, as he sought out the books written by 
 the ancients on the chemistry ( H*/M \i7ficurc ) of gold 
 and silver, and burnt them. His object was to pre- 
 vent the Egyptians from becoming rich by the know- 
 ledge of this art, lest, emboldened by abundance of 
 wraith, they mi^ht be induced afterwards to resist the 
 Romans/*f 
 
 * The tronl XW" 1 i* M <1 to occur in frrcr.il Greek manu- 
 wripts of a much earlier <l.ilc. But of this a* I have never Imd 
 an opportunity of *rr inir them, I cannot preteml to jiidtrr. So 
 much fiction has l>cen introduced into the history of Alchymy* 
 and m> many ancient names have been treacherously drneg^d 
 into the vnrice, that we may be allowed to hesitate when no 
 evidence is presented sufficient to satisfy a reasonable man. 
 t XTJU, TJ T9v apryvptv iroi \pwrov KalaffKfvy iff T* 
 
 cavac, 9m ra 
 B2 
 
4 HISTORY OP CIICMISTUY. 
 
 Under the word &/>ac, deras (a skin}, in the lexicon, 
 occurs the following passage : " A*nac, the golden fleece, 
 which Jason and the Argonauts (utter a voyage through 
 the Black Sea to Colchis) took, together with Medea, 
 daughter of /Etes, the king. But this was not what 
 the poets represent, but a treatise written on skins 
 ((ippaoi), teaching how gold might be prepared by 
 chemistry. Probably, therefore, it was culled by 
 those who lived at that time, yolde, on account of 
 its great iniportince."* 
 
 From these two passages there can be no doubt that 
 the word chemistry was known to the Greeks in the ele- 
 venth century ; and that it signified, at that time, the 
 art of making gold and silver. It appears, further, 
 that in Suiilas's opinion, this art \vus known to the 
 Egyptians in the time of Dioclcsian ; that Dioclesian 
 was convinced of its reality; and that, to put ai end 
 to it, he collected and burnt all the chemical wr lings 
 to be found in Egypt. Nay, Suidas ailirm* Mat a 
 book, describing the art of making gold, existed at 
 the time of the Argonauts: and that the object of 
 Jasou and his followers was to get |>osscssioii i f that 
 invaluable treatise, which the poets disguised under 
 the term yultlcn Jlcccc. 
 
 The first meaning, then, of chemistry, was the art 
 of inukmtj tjol<L And this art, in the opinion of 
 Suidas, \\ as understood at least as early as one thou- 
 
 io^-Xty/iow roi/7uis antyif/wf gat ^oruc 
 nai ra Vtju X'i;uf iat \pnrou KOU atfjfvpju TINS 
 
 TUW AoiVuv ftu^aiu^ ar'supti*. 
 
 Sfpar . vr 
 /ais els T7 
 
 tai TTJK Mrj^t.ay TII^ A/ijr-u rov 
 v us iru<7j".jcwi 0<^<rac aAAa &i$\iov r)v V 
 y *ifna\vv iJwu>j S^-yivcrr^ui 3m x T J. a( 
 ot-v ui rJc x/MWffvi/j' vMpafQv auJa 8f/>as Sta 
 " 
 
or AtCttTMT. 5 
 
 sand two hundred and twenty-five years before, the 
 Christian era : for that is the period at which the Ar- 
 gonautic expedition is commonly fixed by chronolo- 
 gic*- 
 
 Though the lexicon of Suidas he the first printed 
 book in which the word Chemistry occurs, yet it is 
 paid to be found in much earlier tracts, which still 
 continue in manuscript. Thus Sraliircr informs us 
 that he perused a (reok manuscript of Zosimus, the 
 Panapolito, written in thr* fifth century, and deposited 
 in the Kincr of France's library. Olaus Borrichius 
 mentions this manuscript ; but in such terms that it 
 is difficult to know whether he had himself read it; 
 though he seems to insinuate as much.* The title 
 of this manuscript is said to be * A faithful Descrip- 
 tion of the sacred and divine Art of making Gold 
 and Silver, by Zosimi**, the Panapolitc."f In this 
 treatise, Zosimus distinguishes the art by the name 
 Xf/*, chrmia. From a passage in this manuscript, 
 quoted by Scaliirer, and given also by Olaus Borri- 
 chius, it appears that Zosimus carries the antiquity of 
 the art of making jrold and silver, much higher than 
 Suidas has ventured to do The following is a literal 
 translation of this curious passat^c: 
 
 " The sacred Scriptures inform us that there exists 
 a tribe of irenii, who muke use of women. Hermes 
 mentions this circumstance in his Physics ; and almost 
 every writing (Xoyof), whether sacred (fartpos) or apo- 
 cryphal, states the same thing. The ancient and 
 divine Scriptures inform us, that the angels, captivated 
 by women, taught them all the operations of nature. 
 Offence being taken at this, they remained out of 
 heaven, because they had taught mankind all manner 
 
 De Orta ct Progrpssn Chcmi*, p. 12. ' 
 
 f Z+xnpw rot* trararoXtrop )r^ma y/Mi^if, ntpt riyc '"pac. ** 
 Of IOC n \i-i7f rot \nv9ov ecu apjvptov 
 was a city In Egypt. 
 
HISTORY OF CIIFMTSTRY. 
 
 of evil, and things which could not be advantageous 
 to their soul*. The Scriptures inform us that the 
 giants sprang from these embraces. Chema is the 
 first of their traditions respecting these arts. The 
 book itself they called Chema; hence the an is called 
 Clicmia" 
 
 Zoainiiis is not the only Greek writer on Chemistry. 
 Olaus Borrichius has given us a list of thirty-eight 
 treatises, which he says exist in the libraries of Rome, 
 Venire.-, and Paris : and Dr. Shaw has increased this 
 list to eighty-nine.* But among these we find the 
 names of Hermes, Isis, 1 lorus, Democritus, Cleopatra, 
 Porphyry, Plato, Arc. names which undoubtedly have 
 been affixed to the writings of comparatively modern 
 and obscure authors. The style of these authors, as 
 Borrichius informs us, is barbarous. They are chiefly 
 the production of ecclesiastics, who lived between the 
 fifth and twelfth centuries. In these tracts, the art 
 of which they treat is sometimes called chemistry 
 (xi)/i<ia) ; sometimes the chemical art ( x ^<t- nca) ; 
 sometimes the holy art ; and the philosopher s stone. 
 
 It is evident from this, that between the fifth cen- 
 tury and the taking of Constantinople in the fifteenth 
 century, theGreeks believed in the possibility of making 
 gold and silver artificially ; and that the art which 
 professed to teach these processes was called by them 
 Chemistry. 
 
 These opinions passed from the Greeks to the Ara- 
 bians, when, under the califs of the family of Abas* 
 tides, they began to turn their attention to science, 
 about the beginning of the ninth century ; and when 
 the enlightened zeal of the Fatimites in Africa, and 
 the Ommiadet in Spain, encouraged the cultivation 
 of the sciences. From Spain they gradually made 
 their way into the different Christian kingdoms of Eu- 
 rope. From the eleventh to the sixteenth century, the art 
 
 Shiw't Translation of Boerha&re's Chemlf try, i. 20. 
 
OF ALCIITMY. 7 
 
 of making gold and silver was cultivated in Germany, 
 Italy, France, and England, with considerable assi- 
 duity. The cultivators of it were called Alchymists ; 
 a name obviously derived from the Greek word cAe- 
 i/iiVi, but somewhat altered by the Arabians. Many 
 alchymistical tracts were writtt n during that period. 
 A considerable number of them were collected by 
 Lazarus Zet/ner, and published at Strasburjj in 1602, 
 under the title of " Thcatrum Chemicum, pracipuos 
 Rclectorum auctnrnni tractatu* dc Chemist* et I.upidi* 
 Philosophic! Antiquitate, veritate, jure, pnrstantia, 
 et operationibus continent in pratiam verm Ghemicc 
 et Medicinae Chemico: Studiosorum (nt qui ubcrrimam 
 unde optimorum remediorum messem facere poterunt) 
 congestum et in q;atuor paries seu volumina di^es- 
 tum." This book contains one hundred and five 
 different alchymistical tracts. 
 
 In the year l(>10 another collection of alchymistical 
 tracts was published at Basil, in three volumes, under 
 the title of " Arti* Aim fora* quam Chcmam vwant vo- 
 lumina tria/* It contains forty-se* --a dilfcrent tracts. 
 In the year 1702 Mancrctus published at Geneva 
 two very lartje folio volumes, under the name of * Bib* 
 liotheca Chemica Curiosa, seu rerum ad Alchymiam 
 pertinentium thesaurus instructissimus, quo non tan- 
 turn Artis Aurifera* ac scriptorum ir. ea nobiliorum 
 Historia traditur; lapidis veritas Arjrumentis et Ex* 
 perimentis innumeris, immo ei Juris Consultorum .lu- 
 cliciis evincitur; Termini obscurioresexplicantur; Cau- 
 tiones contra Impostores ei Ditricultates in Tinctura 
 Universal! conficienda occurrentes declarantur : verum 
 etiam Tractatus omnes .Virorum Celebriorum, qui in 
 Ma<rno sudarunt Elixyre, quique ab ipso Hermete, tit 
 dicitur, Trisnie*risto, ad nostra usque iempoiade C'hry- 
 eopoea scripserunt, cum precipuis suis Commentariis, 
 concinno ordine dispositi exhibentur.** This Biblio- 
 theca contains one hundred and twenty-two alchy- 
 mistical treatises, many of tliem of considerable length* 
 
8 I1IST011T OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 Two additional volumes of the Theatrum Chemicum 
 were afterwards published ; but these 1 hare never 
 had an opportunity of seeing. 
 
 From these collections, which exhibit a prettv com* 
 jdete view of the writings of the alchymists, a tolerably 
 accurate notion may be formed of their opinions. But 
 before attempting to lay open the theories and notions 
 by which the alchymists wore guided, it will be proper 
 to state the opinions which were gradually adopted 
 respecting the origin of Alchymy, and the contrivances 
 by which these opinions were supported. 
 
 Zosimus, the Panajx>litc, in a passage quoted above 
 informs us, that the art of making gold and silver was 
 not a human invention; but was communicated to 
 mankind by angels or demons. These angels, he says, 
 fell in love with women, and were induced by their 
 charms to abandon heaven altogether, and lake up 
 their abode upon earth. Among other pieces of in- 
 formation which these spiritual beings communicated 
 to their paramours, was the sublime art of Chemistry, 
 or the fabrication of gold and silver. 
 
 It is quite unnecessary to refute this extravagant 
 opinion, obviously founded on a misunderstanding of 
 a passage in the sixth chapter of Genesis. " And it 
 came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face 
 of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, 
 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that . 
 they were fair; and they took them wives of all which 
 they chose. There were giants in the earth in those 
 clays; and also* after that, when the sons of God came 
 in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children 
 to them ; the same became mighty men, which were of 
 old, men of renown." 
 
 There is no mention whatever of angels, or of any 
 information on science communicated by them to 
 mankind. 
 
 Nor is it necessary to say much about the opinion 
 advanced by some, and rut her countenanced by Olaug 
 
or ALcnvMY. 9 
 
 Borrichius, that the art of making: gold was the inven- 
 tion of Tubal-cain, whom they represent as the same as 
 Vulcan. All the information which we have respecting 
 Tubal-cain, is simply that he was an instructor of 
 every artificer in brass and iron.* Xo allusion what- 
 ever is made to gold. And that in these early ages of 
 the world there was no occasion for making gold arti- 
 ficially, we have the same authority for believing. For 
 in the second chapter of Genesis, where the garden of 
 Eden is described, it is said, * 4 And a river went out 
 of Eden to water the garden ; and from thence it was 
 parted, and came into four heads: the name of the 
 first is Pison, that is it which encompasseth the whole 
 land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold 
 of that land is good : there is bdellium and onyx- 
 stone." 
 
 But the most generally -received opinion is, that 
 alchymy originated in Egypt ; and the honour of the 
 invention has been unanimously conferred upon 
 Hermes Trismeiristus. He is by some supposed to be 
 the same person with Chanaan, the son of Ham, 
 whose son Mizraim first occupied and peopled Egypt. 
 Plutarch informs us, that Egypt was sometimes called 
 Chcmla.^ This name is supposed to be derived from 
 Chanaan (f*J3); thence it was believed that Cha- 
 naan was the true inventor of alchymy, to which he 
 affixed his own name. Whether the Hermes (To r/c) 
 of the Greeks was the same person with Chanaar or 
 his son Mi/raim. it is impossible at this distance of 
 time to decide ; but to Hermes is assigned the inven- 
 tion of alchymy, or the art of making gold, by almost 
 the unanimous consent of the adepts. 
 
 Albertus Magnus informs us, that " Alexander the 
 Great discovered the sepulchre of Hermes, in one of 
 his journeys, full of all treasures, not metallic, but 
 golden, written on a table of zatudi, which others call 
 
 * Genesis ir. 22. f De Iside and Osiride, c. 5. 
 
10 HISTORY OP rnFMIVTll V. 
 
 emerald.' 9 This passage occurs in a tract of Albertus 
 tie tecreti* ch'inicis, which is considered as suppo- 
 sititious. Nothing is said of the source whence the in- 
 formation contained in this passage was drawn : but, 
 from the quotations produced by Kriegsmann, it 
 would appear that the existence of this emerald table 
 was alluded to by Avicenna and other Arabian writers. 
 According to them, a woman called Sarah took it 
 from the hands of the. dead body of Hermes, some 
 asres after the Hood, in a cave near Hebron. The in 
 script ion on it was in the Phoenician laniruasre. The 
 following is a literal translation of this famous inscrip- 
 tion, from the Latin version of Kriej:smann:* 
 
 1. I speak not fictitious things, but what is true and 
 most certain. 
 
 * There are two Latin translations of these tables (unless we 
 are rather to consider them as originals, for no Phoenician nor 
 Greek original exists). I shall insert them both here. 
 
 I. VERBA SKCRETORI'M HERUETIS TRISMECISTI. . 
 
 1. Vertim sine mendacto certmn et vcrivimum. 
 
 2. Quod est infcrius, est sirut quod cut stiperius, ft quod est 
 su periu* est sicul quod esl inferius ad perpetranda miracula rei 
 unius. 
 
 3. Et sicut oinnes res fuerant ab uno meditatione unius : lie 
 ouine* rc nata? fuerunt ab hac una re adaptations. 
 
 4. 1'atcr ejus est Sol, mater ejus Luna, portavit illud rentus 
 in ventre suo, nutrix ejus terra est. 
 
 5. Pater otunis thelesmi toiius mundi est hie. 
 
 6. Vis ejus inte^ra est, i versa fuerit in terrain. 
 
 7. Separahi* terrain ab igne, subtile a hpisso suariter cum 
 niairno tngenio. 
 
 ' V. Acend|t a terra in ctrlum, iterumqite deseendic in terrain, 
 et recipii vim MI pe riorum et inferiorum, sie habebis loriam 
 totius inuiidi. ideo fugiat a te otnnis oWuritaa. 
 
 9. Hie est totius fortitudinis fortitudo fort is ; quim rincit 
 omnem rein suhtilem, oniiiemque solidam penetrabit. 
 
 10. Sic munduscre.itus est. 
 
 11. I line adaptation?* erunt mirabiles, quarum modus est 
 hie. 
 
 12. Itaque vocatus sum Hermes TrUmegistus, habens tret 
 paries philosophia? totius mundi. 
 
 13. C'uui pic turn est quod dui de opera tione soils. ' 
 
OF ALCFIYMY. 11 
 
 2. What is below is like that which is above, and 
 what is above is similar to that which is below, to ac- 
 complish the miracles of one thinp. 
 
 3. And as all thinjrs were produced by the medita- 
 tion of one Beinjr, so all things were produced from 
 this one tiling by adaptation. 
 
 4. Its father is No/, its mother Luna ; the wind 
 carried it in its belly, the earth is its nurse. 
 
 .5. It is the cause of all perfection throughout the 
 whole world. 
 
 fi. Its power is perfect, if it be changed into earth. 
 
 7. Separate the earth from the fire, the subtile 
 from the ^ross, acting pnidently and with judgment. 
 
 8. Ascend with the greatest sagacity from the earth 
 
 II. DEscmrno AmrANonri* HP.RMKTIS TBISMKC.ISTI. 
 
 1. Vcre non ficte, rrrto vrriwime aio. 
 
 2. Infcriom h*c cum suprrioribus illis, istaquecnm its victSftim 
 Tires sonant, ut pmducant mn ur^m omnium mirtficfcsimam. 
 
 :\. Ac qufii|ndmnduni rtincta educta ex uno fucrr verlm I)r i 
 wniun : sic omnca qiioquc ri |>crpctuoex hac una re fcncrtntur 
 dispo.^itione Naturrr. 
 
 4. Patrem ea halx-t Solem, matrcm Lunara : b ai ; rc in utero 
 quasi crstatur, nutrittir a terra. 
 
 5. Caua omnis perfotionis rrnim parst prr unirenim hoc. 
 
 6. Ad Mimmam ipsa perfcctioncm virium pcrrcnit si redierit 
 in humum. 
 
 7. In partes trHmite humum ignem passam v attenuans densita* 
 tern niis re omnium suavissima. 
 
 8. Summa ascendc inconii nagacitate a terra in fcrlnm, indfque 
 rursum in terrani descrnde, ac vires superiorum inferionimqae 
 cojre in unum : sic poticrr gloria tolius mundi nt^uc its ab)tcUi 
 iortis homo amplius non Uabcre. 
 
 9. Istha-c jam res ipsa fortitudin^ fort lor existet; corpora 
 qnippe tarn tenuia quain solid* penetrando subi>e. 
 
 10. Atque sic qtiidem qua?cunque ntundus continet ereata ftif re. 
 
 11. Mine admiranda evadunt opf ra, quap ad eundum niodum 
 institoantur. 
 
 12. Mini vero ideo nomcn HermHui Trfcmffisti impositam 
 fuit, quod trium mundi supicntir partium doctor deprehensus 
 urn. 
 
 13. Hcc tnnl que dc chfraic* artis presUntistiino operf 
 ConiifFiindft cs9 duju* 
 
12 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 to heaven, and then again descend to the earth, and 
 unite together the powers of things superior and things 
 inferior. Thus you will possess the glory of the whole 
 world; and ail obscurity will fly far away from you. 
 
 9. This thing has more fortitude than fortitude it- 
 self; because it will overcome every subtile thing, and 
 penetrate every solid thing. 
 
 10. By it this world was formed. 
 
 11. Hence proceed wonderful things, which in this 
 wise were established. 
 
 12. For this reason I am called Hermes Trismegis- 
 tus, because I possess three parts of the philosophy of 
 the whole world. 
 
 13. What I had to say about the operation of Sol 
 is completed. 
 
 Such is a literal translation of the celebrated in- 
 scription of Hermes Trismegisti's upon the emerald 
 tablet. It is sufficiently obscure to put it in the po\vcr 
 of commentators to aflix >.ii?.ut any explanation to it 
 that they choose. The two individuals who have de- 
 voted most time to illustrate this tablet, are Kriegs- 
 mann and Gerard Dorneus, whose commentaries may 
 be seen in the Hist volume of Mangetus's Bibliotheca 
 Chemica. They both agree that it refers to the.ruii- 
 rcrsul medicine, which began to acquire celebrity 
 about the time of Paracelsus, or a little earlier. 
 
 This exposition, which appears as probable as any 
 other, betrays the time when this celebrated inscrip- 
 tion seems to have been really written. Had it been 
 taken out of the hands of the dead body of Hermes by 
 Sarah (obviously intended for the wife of Abraham) as 
 is affirmed by Avicenna, it is not pu:--::ble that Herodo- 
 tus, and all the writers of antiquity, both Pagan and 
 Christian, should have entirely overlooked it; or how 
 could Avicenna have learned what was unknown to all 
 those who lived nearest the time when the discovery 
 was supposed to have been made ? Had it been dis- 
 covered in Egypt by Alexander the Great, would it 
 
OF ALCHYMY. 13 
 
 have been unknown to Aristotle, and to all the numc-' 
 rous tribe of writers whom the Alexandrian school pro- 
 duced, not one of whom, however, make the least allu- 
 $io;i to it ? In short, it bears all the marks of a forgery 
 of the fifteenth century. And even the tract ascribed 
 to Albcrtus Magnus, in which the tablet of Hermes is 
 mentioned, and the discovery related, is probably also 
 a forgery ; and doubtless a forgery of the same in- 
 dividual who fabricated the tablet itself, in order to 
 throw a preater air of probability upon a rtory which 
 he wished to palm upon the world as true. His ob- 
 ject was in sonic measure accomplished ; for the au- 
 thenticity of the tablet was supported with much zeal 
 by Kriegsniann, and afterwards by Olaus Borrichius. 
 
 There is another tract of Hermes Trisme^istus, en- 
 titled "Tractatus Aureus de Lapidis PhysiciSecreto;" 
 on which no less e!alx>ratc commentaries have been 
 written. It professes to teach the process of making 
 the philosopher $ stone ; and, from the allusions in it, 
 to the use of this stone, as a universal medicine, was 
 probably, a forgery of the same date as the emerald 
 tablet. It would be in vain to attempt to extract any 
 thiii intelligible out of this Tractatus Aureus: it may 
 be worth while to jrive a single specimen,that the reader 
 may be able to form some idea of the nature of the style. 
 
 *' Take of moisture an ounce and a half; of meri- 
 dional redness, that is the soul of the sun, a fourth 
 part, that is half an ounce ; of yellow seyr, likewise 
 half an ounce; and of auri pigment urn, a half ounce, 
 making in all three ounces. Know that the vine of 
 wise men is extracted in threes, and its wine at last is 
 completed in thirty."* 
 
 *' Ace ipc de liumore ur.ciam nnam et mediam, et de rubore 
 mrridionali, itl est anitn* soli's, quartern partrm, id est, un- 
 ciam medium, et de Seyre ciirino, aimilit.T unriam mrdiam, 
 K de auripijrnirnti dimidium, quap snnl octo, id est uncia? tre. 
 Scitotc quod vitis 5-nientum in tribus extraliitur, cjusque vinum 
 in fine triginU pcragitur.'* 
 
14 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 . Had the opinion, that gold and silver could be ar- 
 tificially formed originated with Hermes Trismegistus, 
 or had it prevailed among the ancient Egyptians, .it 
 would certainly have been alluded to by Herodotus, 
 who spent so many years in Egypt, and was instructed 
 by the priests in all the science of the Egyptians. Had 
 chemistry been the name of a science, real or ficti- 
 tious, which existed as early as the expedition of the 
 Argonauts, and had so many treatises on it, as Suidas 
 alleges existed in Egypt before the reign of Dioclesian , 
 it could hardly have escaped the notice of Pliny, who 
 was so curious and so indefatigable in his researches, 
 and who has collected in his natural history a kind of 
 digest of all the knowledge of the ancients in every 
 department of practical science. The fact that the 
 term chemistry ( \- >;/"') never occurs in any Greek or 
 Roman writer prior to Suidas, who wrote so late as the 
 eleventh century, seems to overturn all idea of the 
 existence of that pretended science among the an- 
 cients, notwithstanding the elaborate attempts of 
 Olaus Borrichius to prove the contrary. 
 
 1 am disposed to believe, that chemistry or alchym /, 
 understanding by the term the art of makim , /r/ 
 and silver, originated among the Arabians, when 
 they began to turn their attention to medicine, after 
 the establishment of the caliphs ; or if it had previ- 
 ously been cultivated by Greeks (a* the tvritings of 
 Zosimus, the I'auapolite, if genuine, would lead us to 
 suppose), that it was taken up by the Arabians, and 
 reduced by them into regular form and order. 
 It the works of Geber be genuine, they leave little 
 doubt on this point. Gc-ber is supposed to have been 
 a physician, and to have written in the seventh cen- 
 tury. He admits, as a first principle, that metals are 
 compounds of mercury and sulphur. He talks of the 
 philosopher's stone ; professes to give the mode of pre- 
 paring it ; and teaches the way of converting the 
 liiiTcrcut mauls, known in his time, into medicines, on 
 
OF ALCIITMY. 15 
 
 whose efficacy he bestows the most ample panegyrics. 
 Thus the principles which lie at the bottom of alchvmy 
 were implicitly adopted by him. Yet I can nowhere 
 find in him any attempt to make gold artificially. His 
 chemistry was entirely devoted to the improvement of 
 medicine. Th* suSs^iient pretensions of the alehy- 
 mists to convert the baser metals into gold are no 
 where avowed by him. 1 am disposed from this to 
 suspect, that the theory of gold -making was started 
 after Geber's time, or at least that it was after the 
 seventh century, before any alchymist ventured to 
 affirm that he himself was in jwsscssion of the secret, 
 and could fabricate cold artificially at pleasure. For 
 there is a wide distance between the opinion that irold 
 may be made artificially and the affirmation that we 
 are in possession of a method by *hich this transmu- 
 tation of the baser metals into gold can be accom- 
 plished. Tiie first may be adopted and defended with 
 much plausibility and perfect honesty ; but the second 
 would require a degree of skill far exceeding that of 
 the most scientific votary of chemistry at present 
 existing. 
 
 The opinion of the alchymists was, that all the me- 
 tals are compounds; that the baser metals contain 
 tho same constituents as gold, contaminated, indeed, 
 with various impurities, but capabb, when their im- 
 purities are removed or remedied, of assuming all the 
 properties and characters of gold. The substance 
 possessing this wonderful power they distinguish by 
 the name of lapis phifasophorum < or, philosopher'* 
 stone, and they usually descrilx? it as a red powder, 
 having a peculiar smell. Few of the alchymists who 
 have left writings behind them boast of being pos- 
 sessed of the philosopher'* stone. Paracelsus, indeed, 
 affirms, that he was acquainted with the method ot 
 making it, and gives several processes, which, how* 
 ever, are not intelligible. But many affirm that they 
 
16 HISTORY OF C lirvilSTHV. 
 
 had seen the philosopher's stone ; that they had por- 
 tions of it in their possession ; and that they had seen 
 several of the inferior metals, especially lead and 
 quicksilver, converted by means of it into gold. Many 
 stories of this kind are upon record, and so well au- 
 thenticated, that we need not be surprised at their 
 having been generally credited. K will be sufficient 
 if we state one or two of these which depend upon 
 the most unexceptionable evidence. The following: 
 relation is given by Mangetus, on the authority of 
 M. Gros, a clergyman of Geneva,' of the most un- 
 exceptionable character, and at the same time a skil- 
 ful physician and expert chemist : 
 
 About the year 1650 an unknown Italian came to 
 Geneva, and took lodgings at the sign of the Green 
 Cross. After remaining there a day or two, he re- 
 quested De Luc, the landlord, to procure him a man 
 acquainted with Italian, to accompany him through 
 the town and point out those things which deserved to 
 be examined. De Luc was acquainted with M. Gros, 
 at that time about twenty years of age, and a student 
 in Geneva, and knowing his proficiency in the Italian 
 language, requested him to accompany the stranger. 
 To this proposition he willingly acceded, and attended 
 the Italian every where for the space of a fortnight. 
 The stranger now began to com plain of want of money, 
 which alarmed M. Gros not a little for at that 
 time he was very poor and he became apprehensive, 
 from the tenour of the stranger's conversation, that he 
 intended to ask the loan of money from him. But 
 instead of this, the Italian asked him if he was ac- 
 quainted with any goldsmith , whose bellows and other 
 utensils they might be permitted to use, and v.ho 
 would not refuse to supply them with the different 
 articles requisite for a particular process which he 
 wanted to perform. M. Gros named a M. Bureau, to 
 whom the Italian immediately repaired. He readily 
 
OF ALCflYMY. 17 
 
 furnished crucibles, pure tin, quicksilver, and the 
 other things required by the Italian. The goldsmith 
 left his workshop, that the Italian might be under the 
 less restraint, leaving M. Gros, with one of his own 
 workmen, as an attendant. The Italian put a quantity 
 of tin into one crucible, "and a quantity of quicksilver 
 into another. The tin was melted in the fire and the 
 mercury heated. It was then poured into the melted 
 tin, and at the same time a red powder enclosed in wax 
 was projected into the amalgam. An agitation took 
 place, and a great deal of smoke was exhaled from 
 the crucible; but this speedily subsided, and the 
 whole being poured out, formed six heavy ingots, 
 having the colour of gold. The goldsmith was called 
 in by the Italian, and requested to make a rigid exa- 
 mination of the smallest of these ingots. The gold- 
 . smith, not cor.tent with the touchstone and the appli- 
 cation cf aqua fortis, exposed the metal on the cupel 
 with lead, and fused it with antimony, but it sus- 
 tained no loss. He found it possessed of the ducti- 
 lity and specific gravity of gold ; and full of admira- 
 tion, he exclaimed that he had never worked before 
 upon gold so perfectly pure. The Italian made him a 
 present of the srnallest ingot as a reconipcnce, and 
 then, accompanied by M. Gros, he repaired to the 
 Mint, where he received from M. Bacuet, the mint- 
 master, a quantity of Spanish gold coin, equal in 
 weight to the ingots which he had brought. To M. 
 (ros he made a present of twenty pieces, on account 
 of the attention that he had paid to him ; and, after 
 paying his bill at the inn, he added fifteen pieces 
 more, to serve to entertain M. Gros and M. Bureau 
 for some days, and in the mean time he ordered a 
 supper, that he might, on his return, have the plea- 
 sure of supping with these two gentlemen. He went 
 out, but never returned, leaving behind him the 
 greatest regret and admiration. It is needless to add, 
 that M. Gros and M. Bureau continued to enjoy 
 VOL. 1. c 
 
18 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 themselves at the inn till the fifteen pieces, which the 
 stranger had left, were exhausted."* 
 
 Mangetus gives also the following relation, which he 
 states upon the authority of an English bishop, who 
 communicated it to him in the year 1685, and at the 
 same time gave him about half an ounce of the gold 
 which the alchymist had made : 
 
 A stranger, meanly dressed, went to Mr. Boyle, and 
 after con versing for some time about chtjiical pro* 
 cesses, requested him to furnish him with antimony, 
 and some other comn on metallic substances, which 
 then fortunately happened to be in Mr. Boyle's labo- 
 ratory. These were put into a crucible, wl.ich was 
 then placed in a melting-furnace. As soon as these 
 metals were fused, the stranger showed a powder to the 
 attendants, which he projected into the crucible, and 
 instantly went out, directing the servants to allow the 
 crucible to remain in the furnace till the fire went out 
 of its own accord, and promising at the same time to 
 return iu a few hours. But, as he never fulfilled this 
 promise, Boyle ordered the cover to be takeu otF the 
 crucible, and found that it contained a yellbw-coloured 
 metal, iKjssessin^ all the properties of pure gold, and 
 only a little lighter than the weight of the materials 
 originally put into the crucible. f 
 
 The following strange story is related by Hclvetius, 
 physician to the Prince of Orange, in his Vitulus Aureus: 
 I Id vet ins was a disbeliever of the philosopher's stone, 
 and the universal medicine, and even turned Sir 
 Kcnclm Digby's sympathetic powder into ridicule. 
 On the- *27th of December, Uib'6, a stranger called 
 upon him, and after conversing for some time alx>ut a 
 universal medicine, showed a yellow powder, which he 
 aitirmcd to be the philosopher s stone, and at the same 
 time five large plates of gold, which had been made 
 
 Preface to Mangetus'ft Bibliotheca Chcmica Curioaa. 
 t Ibid. 
 
Or ALCIIYMY. 19 
 
 by means of it. Helvctius earnestly entreated that he 
 would give him a little of this powder, or at least that 
 he would make a trial of its power; but the stranger 
 refused, promising however to return in six weeks. He 
 returned accordingly, and after much entreaty he gave 
 to Helvetius a piece of the stone, not larger than the 
 size of a rape-seed. When Hclvetim expressed his 
 doubt whether so small a portion would be sufficient 
 to convert four grains of lead into gold, the adept 
 broke off one half of it, and assured him that what 
 remained was more than sufficient for the purpose. 
 Helvetius, during the first conference* had concealed 
 a little of the stone below his nail. This he threw into 
 melted lead, but it was almost all driven off in smoke, 
 leaving only a vitreous earth. When he mentioned 
 this circumstance, the stranger informed him that the 
 powder must be enclosed in wax, before it be thrown 
 into the melted lead, lest it shoi.ld be injured by the 
 smoke of the lead. The stranger promised to returrt 
 next day, and show him the method of making the 
 projection ; but having failed to make his appearance, 
 Helvetius, in the presence of his wife and son, put six 
 drachms of lead into a crucible, and as soon as it was 
 melted he threw into it the fragment of philosopher's 
 stone in his possession, previously covered over with 
 wax. The crucibfe was now covered with its lid, and 
 left for a quarter of an hour in the fire, at the end of 
 which time he found the whole lead converted into 
 gold. The colour was at first a deep green ; being 
 poured into a conical vessel, it assumed a blood-red 
 colour; but when cold, it acquired the true tint of 
 gold. Being examined by a goldsmith, he considered 
 it as pure gold. He requested Porclius, who had the 
 charge of the Dutch mint, to try its value. Two 
 drachms of it being subjected to quartation* and solu- 
 tion in aqua fortis, were found to have increased in 
 weight by two scruples. This increase was doubtless 
 owing to the silver, which still remained enveloped n 
 c 2 
 
20 HISTORY OP CHLMISTRY. 
 
 the gold, after the action of the aqua fortis. To en- 
 deavour to separate the silver more completely , the 
 gold was again fused with seven times its weight of 
 antimony, and treated in the usual manner; but no 
 alteration look place in the weight.* 
 
 It would be easy to relate many other similar nar- 
 ratives ; but the three which 1 have given are the best 
 authenticated of any that 1 am acquainted with. The 
 reader wili observe, that they are all stated on the 
 authority, not of the persons who were the actors, but 
 of others to whom they related them ; and some of 
 these, as the English bishop, perhaps not very familiar 
 with chemical processes, and therefore liable to leave 
 out or mistatc some essential particulars. The evi- 
 dence, therefore, though the best that can be got, is 
 not sufficient to authenticate these wonderful stories. 
 A little latent vaaity might easily induce the narrators 
 to suppress or alter some particulars, which, if known, 
 would have stripped the statements of every thing mar- 
 vellous which they contain, and let us iuto the secret 
 of the origin of the gold, which these alchy mists 
 boasted that they hud fabricated. Whoever will read 
 the statements of Paracelsus, inspecting his knowledge 
 of the philosopher's stone, which he applied not to the 
 formation of gold but to medicine, or whoever will 
 examine his formulas for making the stone, will easily 
 satisfy himself that Paracelsus possessed iiu real know- 
 ledge on the subject.f 
 
 But to convey as precise ideas on this subject as 
 possible, it may l> worth while to state a few of the 
 methods by which the alchymists persuaded themselves 
 that they could convert the baser metals into gold. 
 
 In the year 1694 an old gentleman called upon 
 Mr. Wilsotl, at that time a chemist in London, and 
 informed him that at last, after forty years' search, he 
 
 * Brnrmann, Opusc. ir. 121. 
 
 t I allude to his Mann ale tiretlr Lapide Pkilotopkico Mr did- 
 noli. Opera I'araccbi, ii. J33. Folio edition. Geneva, 1 
 
or ALCIIYMY. 21 
 
 had met with an ample recom pence for all his trouble 
 and expenses. This he confirmed with some oaths 
 and imprecations; hut, considering his great weakness 
 and age, he looked npon himself as incapable to un- 
 dergo the fatigue* of the process. ** ! have here/' 
 says he, *' a piece of sol (yold) that I made from 
 silver, about four years ago, and I cannot trust any 
 man but you with so rare a secret. We will share, 
 equally the charges and profit, which will render us 
 wealthy enough to command the world/' The nature 
 of the process being: stated, Mr. Wilson thought it not 
 unreasonable, especially as he aimed at no peculiar 
 advantage for himself. He accordingly put it to the 
 trial in the following manner: 
 
 1. Twelve ounces of Japan copper were beat into 
 thin plates, and laid stratum super stratum with three 
 ounces of flowers of sulphur, in a crucible. It wan 
 exposed in a melting-furnace to a gentle heat, till the 
 sulphureous flames expired. When cold, the CDS tistum 
 (sulphurct of copper) was pounded, and stratified 
 again ; and this process was repeated five times. Mr, 
 Wilson does not inform us whether the powder was mixed 
 with flowers of sulphur every time that it was heated; 
 but this must have been the case, otherwise the sul- 
 phuret would have been again converted into metallic 
 copper, which would have melted into a mass. By 
 this first process, then, bisulphuret of copper was formed, 
 composed of equal weights of sulphur and copper. 
 
 2. Six pounds of iron wire were put into a large 
 glass body, and twelve pounds of muriatic acid poured 
 upon it. Six days elapsed (during which it stood in 
 a gentle heat) before the acid was saturated with the 
 iron. The solution was then decanted off, and filtered, 
 and six pounds of new muriatic acid poured on the 
 undissolved iron. This acid, after standing a sufficient 
 time, was decanted off, and filtered. Both liquids 
 were put into a large retort, and distilled by a sand- 
 heat. Towards the end, when the drops from the 
 
 I 
 
24 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 retort became yellow, the receiver was changed, and 
 the fire increased to the highest degree, in which the 
 retort was kept between four and six hours. When 
 ail was cold, the receiver was taken off, and a quan- 
 tity of flowers was found in the neck of the retort, 
 variously coloured, like the rainbow. The yellow 
 liquor in the receiver weighed ten ounces and a half; 
 the flowers (chloride of mm), two ounc.es and three 
 drams. The liquid and flowers were put into a clean 
 bottle. 
 
 3. Haifa pound of sal cnixum (sulphate of potash) 
 and a pound and a half of nitric acid were put into a 
 retort. When the salt had dissolved in the acid, ten 
 ounces of mercury (previously distilled tl rough quick- 
 lime and salt of tartar) were added. The whole being 
 distilled to dry ness, a tine yellow mass (per nitrate of 
 mercury) remained in tl * bottom of the retort. The 
 liquor was returned, with half a pound of fresh nitric 
 acid, and the distillation repeated. The distillation 
 was repeated a third time, urging this last cohobation 
 with the highest degree of fire. When all was cold, a 
 various-coloured mass was found in the bottom of the 
 retort : this mass was doubtless a mixture of sulphate 
 of potash, and pernitratc of mercury, with some oxide 
 of mercury. 
 
 4. Four ounces of fine silver were dissolved in a 
 pound of aqua fortis; to the solution was added, of 
 the bisulphuret of copper four ounces; of the mixture 
 of sulphate of potash, pernitrate of mercury, and oxide 
 of mercury one ounce and a half, and of the solution 
 of perchloride of iron two ounces and a half. When 
 these had stood in a retort twenty-four hours, the 
 liquor was decanted oh , and four ounces of nitric acid 
 were poured upon the little matter that was not dis- 
 solved. Next morning a total dissolution was obtained. 
 The whole of this dissolution was put into a retort and 
 distilled almost to dryness. The liquid was poured 
 back, and the distillation repeated three times ; the 
 
O? ALCFITMY. 23 
 
 last time the retort being urged by a very strong fire 
 till no fumes appeared, and not a drop fell. 
 
 5. The matter left in the bottom of the retort was 
 now put into a crucible, all the corrosive fumes were 
 gently evaporated, and the residue melted down with 
 a fluxing powder. 
 
 This process was expected to yield five ounces of 
 pure gold; but on examination the silver was the same 
 (except the loss of half a pennyweight) as when dis- 
 solved in the aqua fortis: there wore indeed some grains 
 among the scoria, which appeared like gold, and v/ould 
 not dissolve in aqua fortis. Xo doubt they consisted 
 of peroxide of iron, or, perhaps, persulphuret of iron.* 
 
 Mr. Wilson's alchymistical friend, not satisfied with 
 this first failure, insisted upon a repetition of the pro- 
 cess, with some alteration in the method and tho addi- 
 tion of a certain quantity of gold. The whole was 
 accordingly gone through airain; but it is unnecessary 
 to say that no gold was obtained, or at least, the two 
 drams of gold employed had increased in weight by 
 onjy two scruples and thirteen grains; this addition 
 was doubtless owing to a little silver from which it had 
 not been freed. f 
 
 I shall now give a process for making the philoso- 
 pher's stone, which was considered by Mangctus as of 
 great value, and on that account was given by him in 
 the preface to his Bibliotheca Chemica. 
 
 1. Prepare a quantity of spirit of wine, so free from 
 water that it is wholly combustible, and so volatile that 
 when a drop of it is let fall it evaporate* before it 
 reaches the ground ; this constitutes the first men- 
 struum. 
 
 2. Take pure mercury, revived in the usual manner 
 from cinnabar, put it into a glass vessel with common 
 salt and distilled vinegar ; agitate violently, and when 
 the vinegar acquires a black colour pour it off and add 
 
 WOstm's Chemirtrjr, p. 375. f Ibid., p. 379. 
 
24 IIISTOHY or CIITMISTRY. 
 
 new vinegar; agitate again, and continue these re- 
 peated agitations and additions till the vinegar ceases 
 to acquire a black colour from the mercury : the mer 
 cury is now quite pure and very brilliant. 
 
 -. Take of this mercury tour parts; of sublimed 
 mercury* 1 (incrcurti Mctcorcsitti), prepared with your 
 own hands, eight parts; triturate them together in a 
 wooden mortar with a \ux>dcn [>e>tle, till all the grains 
 of running mercury disappear. This profess is tedious 
 and rather ditlir ult. 
 
 4. The mixture thus prepared is to W put into an 
 uludel, or a sand-bath, and exposed to a subliming 
 heat, whif h i^ to be gradually raised till the whole 
 ftiihlimcs. Collect the sublimed matter, put it again 
 into the alndcl. and sublime a seeond time; this pro- 
 cess must he repeated five times. Thus a \ cry sweet 
 and crystallized sublimate is obtained : it constitutes 
 the salt of wise men (sal sapient urn), and possesses 
 wonderful iiropcrties.f 
 
 5. ( Irind it in a wooden mortar, and reduce it to 
 powder; put it into a glass retort, and pour upon it 
 the spirit of wine (No. 1 ) till it stands about three 
 finger-breadths above the jowder ; seal the retort 
 hermetically, and expose it to a very gentle heat for 
 seventy-four hours, shaking it several times a-dav ; 
 then distil with a gentle heat and the spirit of wine 
 w;ill pass over, together with spirit of mercury. Keep 
 this liquid in a well-stopped bottle, lest it should 
 fvajHtratc. Afore spirit of wine is to be poured II|K>II 
 the residual salt, and after digestion it must be dis- 
 tilled oil* as In-fore ; and this profess must he repeated 
 till the whole salt is dissolved, and distilled over with 
 the spirit of wine. You have now performed a jjreat 
 work. The mercury is now rendered in some measure 
 volatile, and it will gradually become fit to receive the 
 tincture of gold and silver. Now return thanks to 
 
 Probably corrotire sublimate. t Probably calomel. 
 
or 
 
 . 
 
 God, who has hitherto crowned your wonderful work 
 with success; nor is this trreat work involved in Cim- 
 merian darkness, but clearer than the sun; though 
 preceding writers have imposed upon us with parables, 
 hieroglyphics, fables, and enigmas. 
 
 6\ Take this mercurial spirit, which contains our 
 magical steel in its belly, put it into a jrlas retort, to 
 which a receiver must be well and carefully luted: 
 draw off the spirit by a very gentle heat, there will 
 remain in the bottom of the retort the quintessence or 
 ?oul of mercury ; this is to be sublimed by applying: a 
 stronger hrat to the retort that it may become volatile, 
 as all the philosophers express themselves 
 
 Si fixnm Mlras faciv*|iio rolare snlutum, 
 Et volucrum figas faciet te rivcre tutmn. 
 
 This is our luna, our fountain, in which the king and 
 queen may bathe. Preserve this precious quintessence 
 of mercury, which is very volatile, in a well-shut ves- 
 sel for further use. 
 
 8. Let us now proceed to the operation of common 
 gold, which we shall communicate clearly and dis- 
 tinctly, without digression or obscurity; that from vul- 
 gar gold we may obtain our philosophical gold, just as 
 from common mercury we obtained, by the preceding 
 processes, philosophical mercury. 
 
 In the name of God, then, t?.ke common gold, pu- 
 rified in the usual way by antimony, convert it irito 
 small grains, which must be washed with salt and vine- 
 gar, till it be quite pure. Take one part of this gold, 
 and pour on it three parts of the quintessence of mer- 
 cury ; as philosophers reckon from seven to ten, so we 
 also reckon our number as philosophical, and we begin 
 with three and one; let them be married together like 
 husband and wife, to produce children of their own 
 kind, and you will see the common gold sink and 
 plainly dissolve. Now the marriage is consummated ; 
 now two things are converted into one : thus the phi- 
 
26 ii rsroR Y or CHEMISTRY* 
 
 losophical sulphur is at hand, as the philosophers say, 
 the sulphur being dissolved the stone is at hand. 
 Take then, in the name of God, our philosophical ves- 
 sel, in which the king and queen embrace each other 
 as in a bedchamber, and leave it till the water is con- 
 verted into earth, then peace is concluded between 
 the water and fire, then the elements have no longer 
 any thing contrary to each other; because, when the 
 elements are converted into earth they no longer op* 
 pose each other; for in earth all elements are at rest. 
 For the philosophers say, ** When you shall have seen 
 the water coagulate itself, think that your know led ire 
 in true, and that your operations arc tritely philoso- 
 phical." The gold is now no longer common, but 
 ours is philosophical, on account of our processes: at 
 first exceedingly fixed ; then exceedingly volatile, and 
 finally exceedingly fixed ; and the whole science de- 
 pends upon the change of the elements. The gold at 
 first was a metal, now it is a sulphur, capable of con- 
 verting all metals into its own sulphur. Now our 
 tincture is wholly converted into sulphur, which pos- 
 sesses the energy of curing all diseases : this is our 
 universal medicine against all the most deplorable 
 diseases of the human body ; therefore, return infinite 
 thanks to Almighty God for all the good things which 
 ho has bestowed upon us. 
 
 9. In this great work of ours, two modes of fer- 
 menting and projecting are wanting, without which the 
 uninitiated will not easily follow our process. The 
 mode of fermenting is as follows : Take of our sulphur 
 'above described one part, and project it upon three 
 parts of very pure gold fused in a fuuuire; in a mo- 
 ment you will sec* the gold, by the force of the sulphur, 
 converted into a red sulphur of an inferior quality to 
 the first sulphur; take one part of this, and projtct it 
 upon three parts of fused gold, the whole will be again 
 converted into a sulphur, or a friable mass; mixing 
 one part of tltia with three parts of gold, you will have 
 
OF ALCIIYMY. 27 
 
 a malleable and extensible metal. If you find it so, 
 well ; if not add other sulphur and it will again pass into 
 sulphur. Now the sulphur will be sufficiently ferment- 
 ed, or our medicine will be brought into a metallic 
 nature. 
 
 10. The mode of projecting is this : Take of the fer- 
 mented sulphur one part, and project it upon ten parts 
 of mercury, heated in a crucible, and you will have a 
 perfect metal ; if its colour is not sufficiently deep, 
 fuse it again, and add more fermented sulphur, and 
 thus it will acquire colour. If it becomes frangible, 
 add a sufficient quantity of mercury and it will be 
 perfect. 
 
 Thus, friend, you have a description of the universal 
 medicine, not only for curing diseases and prolonging 
 life, but also for transmuting all metals into ^old. 
 Give therefore thanks to Almighty God, who, taking 
 pity on human calamities, has at last revealed this 
 inestimable treasure, and made it known for the com- 
 mon benefit of all.* 
 
 Such is the formula .(slightly abridged) of Carolui 
 Musitanus, by which the philosopher's stone/according 
 to him, may be formed. Compared with the formulas 
 of most of the alchymists, it is sufficiently plain. 
 What the sulllmcH mercury is does not appear; from 
 the process descried we should be apt to consider it 
 as corrosive sublimate ; on that supposition, the snl 
 sapient um formed in No. 5, would be calomel : the 
 only objection to this supposition is the process de- 
 scribed in No. 5; for calomel is not soluble in alcohol. 
 The philosopher's stone prepared by this elaborate 
 process could hardly have bcrn any thin? else than an 
 amalgam of gold ; it could not have contained chlo- 
 ride of gold, because such a preparation, instead of 
 acting medicinally, would have proved a most virulent 
 poison. There is* no doubt that amalgam of gold, if 
 
 ' Manreti Bibliothec* Clifmica Prafmtio. 
 
28 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 projected into melted lead or tin, and afterwards cu- 
 pe Hated, would leave a portion of gold all the gold of 
 course that existed previously in the amalgam. It 
 might 1 1 ten- fore, have IMH-II employed by im|K>stor to 
 persuade the ignorant that it was really the philoso- 
 pher's stone ; but the alchy mists who prepared the 
 amalgam could not be ignorant that it contained gold. 
 
 There is another process given in the same preface 
 of a very different nature, but too long to be tran- 
 scribed here, and the nature of the process u not suf- 
 ficiently intelligible to render an account of it of much 
 consequence.* 
 
 The preceding observations will give the reader some 
 notion of the nature of the pursuits which occupied the 
 alchymists : their sole object was the preparation of a^ 
 substance to which they gave the name of the philoso-*" 
 pherY stone, which possessed the double property of 
 converting the baser metals into gold, and of curing all 
 diseases, and of preserving human life to an indefinite 
 extent. The experiments of Wilson, and the formula 
 of Musitanus, which have been just inserted, will give 
 the reader some notion of the way in which they at- 
 tempted to manufacture this most precious substance. 
 Being quite ignorant of the properties of bodies, and 
 of their action on each other, their processes were 
 guided by no scientific analogies, and one part of the 
 labour not unfrequently counteracted another; it would 
 be a waste of time, therefore, to attempt to analyze their 
 numerous processes, even though such an attempt 
 could be attended with success. But in most cases, 
 from the unintelligible terms in which their books are 
 
 * Whoever wishes to enter more particularly into the pro- 
 cesses for making the philosopher's stone contrived by the al- 
 chymi&ts, will find a .rood deal of infonuntion on the subject in 
 Stahl'k Fundaments Chemise, vol. i. p. 211) , in his chapter De 
 iapiilf philojsophorum : and Junker's Conspectus Cheiuke, vol. 
 i. p. 04, in hU luhula 28, De traiumHtatiottf metalhrum irMirer- 
 /'; and tabula 29, De hatumutatiunt wetalhrui* jtarticulari. 
 
OF ALCIITMY. 29 
 
 written, it is impossible to divine the nature of the 
 processes by which they endeavoured to manufacture 
 the philosopher's stone, or the nature of the sub- 
 ot..nccs which they obtained.* 
 
 In consequence of the universality of the* opinion 
 that gold could be made by art, there was a set of 
 impostors who went about pretending that they were 
 in possession of the philosopher's stone, and offering 
 to communicate the secret of making* it for a suit- 
 able reward. Nothing is more astonishing than that 
 persons should be found credulous enough to be the 
 dupes of such impostors. The very circumstance of 
 their claiming a reward was a sufficient proof that 
 they were ignorant of the secret which they pretended 
 to reveal; for what motive could a man have for ask- 
 ing a reward who was in possession of a method of 
 creating gold at pleasure? To such a person money 
 could be no object, as he could procure it in any 
 quantity. Yet, strange as it may appear, they met 
 with abundance of dupes credulous enough to believe 
 their asseverations, and to supply them with money 
 to enable them to perform the wished-for processes. 
 The object of these impostors was either to pocket the 
 money thus furnished, or they made use of it to pur- 
 chase various substances from which they extracted 
 oils, acids, or similar products, which they were 
 enabled to sell at a profit. To keep the dupes, who 
 thus supplied them with the means of carrying on 
 these processes, in good spirits, it was necessary to 
 show them occasionally small quantities of the baser 
 metals converted into gold; this they performed in 
 various ways. M. Geoffrey, senior, who had an op- 
 portunity of witnessing many of their performances, 
 
 * Kirrher, in his Mundu* Subtcrraneus, has an article on the 
 philosopher's stone, in which he examines the procewes of the 
 alchymi9ts, points out their absurdity, and proves by irrefrag- 
 able" argument* that no such .ul*Unce had ever been* obtained. 
 Those who are curious about aicbymistical processes may con* 
 suit that work. 
 
30 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 has given us an account of a number of their tricks. It 
 may be worth while to state a few by way of specimen. 
 
 Sometimes they made use of crucibles with a false 
 bottom ; at the real bottom they put a quantity of 
 oxide of gold or silver, this was covered with a portion 
 of powdered crucible, glued together by a little 
 gummed water or a little wax ; the materials being put 
 into this crucible, and heat applied, the false bottom 
 disappears, the oxide of gold or silver is reduced, and 
 at the end of the process is found at the bottom of 
 the crucible, and considered as the product of the 
 operation. 
 
 Sometimes they make a hole in a piece of charcoal 
 and fill it with oxide of gold or silver, and stop up 
 the mouth with a little wax; or they soak charcoal in 
 solutions of these metals; or they stir the mixtures in 
 the crucible with hollow rods containing oxide of gold 
 or silver within, and the bottom shut with wax : by these 
 means the gold or silver wanted is introduced during the 
 process, and considered as a product of the operation. 
 
 Sometimes they have a solution of silver in nitric 
 acid, or of gold in aqua rcgia, or an amalgam of gold 
 or silver, which being? adroitly introduced, furnishes 
 the requisite quantity of metal. A common exhibition 
 was to dip nails into a liquid, and take them out halt'con- 
 verted into gold. The nails consisted of one-half gold, 
 neatly soldered to the iron, and covered with something 
 to conceal the colour, which the liquid removed. 
 Sometimes they had metals one-half gold the other 
 half silver, soldered together,and the gold side whitened 
 with mercury ; the gold half was dipped into the trans- 
 muting liquid and then the metal heated; the mercury 
 was dissipated, and the gold half of the metal ap- 
 peared.* 
 
 As the ulchymists were assiduous workmen as they 
 mixed all the metals, salts, c. with which they were 
 
 Mem. Paris, 1722, p. 61. 
 
OF ALCIITMT. 31 
 
 acquainted, in various ways with each other, and sub- 
 jected such mixtures to the action of heat in close 
 vessels, their labours were occasionally repaid by the 
 discovery of new substances, possessed of much greater 
 activity than any with which they were previously 
 acquainted. In this way they were led to the dis- 
 covery of sulphuric, nitric, and muriatic acids. These, 
 when known, were made to act upon the metals ; solu- 
 tions of the metals were obtained, and this gradually 
 led to ihe knowledge of various metalline salts and 
 preparations, which were introduced with considerable 
 advantage into medicine. Thus the alchymists, by 
 their absurd pursuits, gradually formed a oolleclion of 
 facts, which led ultimately to the establishment of 
 scientific chemistry. On this account it will be proper 
 to notice, in this place, such of them as appeared in 
 Europe during: the darker ages, and acquired the 
 highest reputation either on account of their skill as 
 physicians, or their celebrity as chemists. * 
 
 1. The first alchymist who deserves notice is Alber- 
 tus Magnus, or Albert Groot, a German, who was 
 born, it is supposed, in the year 1193, at Bollstaedt, 
 and died in the year l'28'2.f When very young he is 
 said to have been so remarkable for his dulncss, that 
 he became the jest of his acquaintances. He studied 
 the sciences at Padua, and afterwards taught at 
 Cologne, and finally in Paris. He travelled through 
 all Germany PS Provincial of the order of Dominican 
 Monks, visited Home, and was made bishop of Hatis* 
 bon : but his passion for science induced him to give 
 up his bishopric, and return to a cloister at Cologne, 
 where he continued till his death. 
 
 Albert us was acquainted with all the sciences rul- 
 
 * The original author, whom all who hare friren any account 
 of the alrhymists hare followed, is Olaus Bnrrichius, in his 
 Conspectus Scriptonim Chemiconim Celehriornm. He does not 
 inform us from what sources his information was derived. 
 
 t SprcogcT s History of Medicine, ir. 368. 
 
32 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 tivaied in his time. He was at once a theologian, a 
 physician , and a man of the world : he was an astro- 
 nomer and an alchymist, and even dipped into i tagic 
 and necromancy. His works are very voluminous. 
 They were collected by Petr. Jam my, and published 
 at Ley den in twenty-one folio volumes, in 1651. His 
 principal alchymistical tracts are the following : 
 
 1. De Rebus Metuliicis et Mtneralibus. 
 
 2. De Alchymia. 
 
 3. Secretorum Tractatus. 
 
 4. Breve Compendium de Ortu Mctallorum. 
 
 5. Concordantia Philosophorum de Lapide. 
 
 6. Compositum de Com posit is. 
 
 7 Liber octo Cupitum de Piiilosophorum Lapide. 
 
 Most of these tracts have been inserted in the 
 Theatrum Chemicum. They are in general plain and 
 intelligible. In his treatise De Alchymia, for example, 
 he gives a distinct account of all the chemical sub- 
 stances known in his time, and of the manner of 
 obtaining them. He mentions also the apparatus then 
 employed by chemists, and the various processes which 
 they had occasion to perform. I may notice the most 
 remarkable facts and opinions which 1 have observed 
 in turning over these treatises. 
 
 He was of opinion that all metals are composed of 
 sulphur and mercury; and endeavoured to account 
 for the diversity of metals partly by the difference in 
 the purity, and partly by the diticrcnce in the propor- 
 tions of the. suljihiir and mercury of -which they arc 
 composed. He thought that water existed also as a 
 constituent of all metals. 
 
 He was acquainted with the water-bath, employed 
 alembics for distillation, and aludels for sublimation; 
 and he was in the habit of employing various lutes, 
 thV composition of which he describes. 
 
 He mentions alum and caustic alkali, and seems 
 to have known the alkaline basis of cream of tartar. 
 He knew the method of purifying the precious metals 
 
OF ALCIIYMT. 33 
 
 by means of lead and of icrold, by cementation; and 
 likewise the method of trying the purity of gold, and 
 of (1 Ytin<niifhing pure from impure pold. 
 
 He mentions red lead, metallic arsenic, and liver of 
 sulphur. He was acquainted with green vitriol and 
 iron pyrites. He knew that arsenic renders copper 
 white, and that sulphur attacks all the metals except 
 gold. 
 
 It is said by some that he was acquainted with gun- 
 powder; but nothing indicating any such knowledge 
 occurs in any of his writings that 1 have had an oppor- 
 tunity of perusing.* 
 
 2. Albertus is said to have had for a pupil, while 
 he taught in Paris, the celebrated Thomas Aquinas, a 
 Dominican, who studied at Bologna, Hore, and 
 Naples, and distinguished himself still more in divi- 
 nity and scholastic philosophy than in alchymy. He 
 wrot % 
 
 1. Thesaunun Alchymim Secret issimum. 
 
 2. Secreta Alchymm* Magnalia. 
 
 3. De Esse et Essentia Mincralitim; 
 
 and perhaps some other works, whi^h I have not seen. 
 
 These works, so far as 1 have perused them, are 
 exceedingly obscure, and in various places unintelli- 
 gible. Some of the terms still employed by modern 
 chemists occur, for the first time, in the writings of 
 Thomas Aquinas. Thus the term amnA/crm, still em- 
 ployed to denote a compound of mercury with another 
 metal, occurs in them, and 1 have not observed it in 
 any earlier author. 
 
 ']. Soon after All)ertus Magnus, flourished Roger 
 Bacon, by far the most illustrious, the l>cst informed, 
 and the most philosophical of all the alchymists. He 
 was born in 1214, in the county of Somerset. After 
 studying in Oxford, and afterwards in Paris, he became 
 a cordelier* friar; and, devoting himself to philosophical 
 
 * It is turinus that OUus Rorrirliiiw omits Albertus Magnus 
 in the list of ale h ymistical write is thai be has given. 
 VOL. I. l> 
 
34 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 investigations, his discoveries, notwithstanding the 
 pains which he took to conceal them, made such a 
 noise, that he was accused of magic, aud his brethren 
 in consequence threw him into prison. lie died, it is 
 said, in the year 1*284, though Sprengel fixes the year 
 of his death to be 1285. 
 
 His writings display a degree of knowledge and 
 extent of thought scarcely credible, if we consider the 
 .time when he wrote, the darkest period of the dark 
 ages. In his smalt treatise De Mirabili Potestate Artis 
 et Nature*, he begins by pointing out the absurdity of 
 believing in magic, necromancy, charms, or any of those 
 similar opinions which were at that time universally 
 prevalent. He points out the various ways in which 
 mankind are deceived by jugglers, ventriloquists, Arc. ; 
 mentions the advantages which physicians may derive 
 from acting on the imaginations of their patients by 
 means of charms, amulets, and infallible remedies : 
 he affirms that many of those things which are consi- 
 dered as supernatural, are merely so because mankind 
 in general are unacquainted with natural philosophy. 
 To illustrate this he mentions a great number of natural 
 phenomena, which had been reckoned miraculous ; and 
 concludes with several secrets of his own, "which he 
 utlinns to be still more extraordinary imitations of some 
 of the most singular processes of nature. These he 
 delivers in the enigmatical style of the times ; induced, 
 as he tells us, partly by the conduct of other philoso- 
 phers, partly by the propriety of the thing, and partly 
 by the danger of speaking too plainly. 
 
 From an attentive perusal of his works, many of 
 which have IK-MI printed, it will be seen that Bacon 
 was a great linguist, being familiar with Latin, Greek, 
 Hebrew, and Arabic; and that he had perused the 
 most important books ut that time existing in all these 
 languages. He was also u grammarian ; he was well 
 versed iu the theory and practice of perspective; he 
 understood the use of convex and coucave glasses, and 
 
or ALCHYHT. 35 
 
 the art of making them. The'-caiflfra obscura, burn- 
 ing-glasses, and the powers of the telescope, were 
 known to him. He was well versed in geography and 
 astronomy. He knew the great error in the Julian 
 calendar, assigned the cause, and proposed the remedy. 
 He understood chronology well ; he was a skilful phy- 
 sician, and an able mathematician, logician, meta- 
 physician, and theologist ; but it is as a chemist that 
 he claims our attention here. The following is a list 
 of his chemical writings, as given by Gmelin, the 
 whole of which I have never had an opportunity of 
 seeing : 
 
 1. Speculum Alchymiae.* 
 
 2. Epistola de Secretis Operibus Artis et Naturae el 
 de Nullitate Magirc. 
 
 3. DC Mirabili Potcstate Artis et Nature. 
 
 4. Medulla Alchymiie. 
 
 5. De Arte Chemise. 
 
 6. Breviorium Alchymioe. 
 
 7. Documcnta Alchymiae. 
 
 8. De Alrhymistaruni Artibus. 
 
 9. De Secretis. 
 
 10. De Rebus Mctallicis. 
 
 1 1. De Sculpturis Lapidum. 
 
 12. De Philosophorum Lapide. 
 
 13. Opus Majus, or Alchymia Major. 
 
 14. Brcviarium dc Dono Dei. 
 
 15. Vcrbum abbrcviatum dc Lconc Viridi, 
 
 16. Sccrctum Secrcorum. 
 
 17. Tractatus Trium Verborum. 
 
 18. Speculum Secretorum. 
 
 A number of these were collected together, and pub- 
 lished at Frankfort in 1603, under the title of" Rogcri 
 Baconis Angli de Arte Chemise Scripta," in a small 
 duodecimo volume. The Opus Majus was published 
 in London in 1733, by Dr. Jcbb, in a folio volume. 
 
 * Thi* tract and tbe next, which is of considerable length, 
 will be found in Mangel us'* Bibliothec* Chemica Curiosa, L 613. 
 D2 
 
36 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 Several of his tracts still continue in manuscript in 
 the Harleian and Bodleian libraries at Oxford. He 
 considered the metals as compound of mercury and 
 sulphur. Gmelin affirms that he was aware of the 
 peculiar nature of manganese, aud that he was ac- 
 quainted with bismuth ; but after perusing the whole 
 of the Speculum Alcliyiimv, the third chapter of which 
 he quotes as containing the facts on which he founds 
 his opinion, 1 cannot find any certain allusion either 
 to manganese or bismuth. The term muyncsia indeed 
 occurs, but nothing is said respecting its nature : and 
 long after the time of Paracelsus, bismuth (hist mat um) 
 was considered as an impure kind of lead. That he 
 was acquainted with the composition and properties of 
 yunjHuntir admits of no doubt. In the sixth chapter 
 of his epistle De Secretis Ojx?ribus Art is et Natural et 
 de N uliitate Magice, the following passage occurs : 
 
 * For sounds like thunder, and coruscations like 
 lightning, may be made in the air, and they may be 
 rendered even more horrible than those of nature her- 
 self. A small quantity of matter, properly manufac- 
 tured, not larger than the human thumb, may be made 
 to produce a horrible noise and coruscation. And this 
 may be done many ways, by which a city or an army 
 may be destroyed, as was the case when Gideon and 
 his men broke their pitchers and exhibited their lamps, 
 tire issuing out of them with inestimable noise, de- 
 stroyed an infinite number of the army of the Midian- 
 iics." And in the eleventh chapter of the same epistle 
 occurs the following passage: * Mix together salt-' 
 pet re, luru vopo vir con utriet, and sulphur, and you 
 will make thunder and lightning, if YOU know the 
 method of mixing them/' Here all the ingredients of 
 gunpowder arc mentioned except charcoal, which is 
 doubtless concealed under the barbarous terms luru 
 vojto vir con utrttt. 
 
 But though Bacon was acquainted with gunpowder, 
 we have uo evidence that he was ihe iuvcutor. How 
 
or AT.CIIYMT. 37 
 
 far the celebrated Greek fire, concerning which so 
 much has been written, was connected with gunpowder, 
 it is impossible to say ; but there is pood evidence to 
 prove that gunpowder was known and used in China 
 before the commeiu'cnu-nt of the Christian era; and 
 Lord Baron is of opinion that the thunder and light- 
 ning: and magic stated by the Marcdonian* to have 
 been exhibited in Oxyd rakes, when it was l>esieged by 
 Alexander the Great, was nothing else than pin- 
 powder. Now as there is pretty good evidenc? that 
 the use of gunpowder had lx?cn introduced into Spain 
 by the Moors, at least as early as the year 1343, and 
 as Roger Bacon was acquainted with Arabic, it i by 
 no means unlikely that he miirht have become ac- 
 quainted with the mode of making the composition, 
 and with its most remarkable projicrties, by perusing 
 some Arabian writer, with whom we are at present 
 unacquainted. Barbour, in his life of Bruce, informs 
 us that pins were first employed by the English at the 
 battle of Werrwater, which was fought in 1327, about 
 forty years after the death of Bacon. 
 
 Two novelties that day they MW, 
 
 Thai fnrouth in Scotland had been nene ; 
 
 Timber* for helmes was the ane 
 
 That they thought then of great beautie, 
 
 And also wonder for to wre. 
 
 The olher rraty* were of war 
 
 That they before heard never air. 
 
 In another part of the same 1>ook we have the 
 phrase gynnys for crakys, showing that the terra 
 crakys was used to denote a gun or irusket of some 
 form or other. It is curious that the English would 
 seem to have been the first European nation that em- 
 ployed gunpowder in war : they used it in the battle 
 of Crecy, fought in 1346V when* it was unknown to the 
 French, and it is supposed to have contributed ma-* 
 tcrially to the brilliant victory which was obtained. 
 
38 HISTORY OF CIItMlSTRY. 
 
 4. Raymond Lull y is said to have been a scholar 
 and a friend of Roger Bacon. He was a most vo- 
 luminous writer, and acquired as high a reputation as 
 any of the aichymists. According to Mutius he was 
 born in Majorca in the year 1235. His father was 
 seneschal to King James the First of Arragon. 
 In his younger days he went into the army ; but 
 afterwards held a situation in the court of his sove* 
 reign. Devoting himself to science he soon acquired 
 a competent knowledge of Latin and Arabic. After 
 studying in Paris he got the degree of doctor conferred 
 upon him. He entered into the order of Minorites, 
 and induced King James to establish a cloister of that 
 order in Minorca. He afterwards travelled through 
 Italy, Germany, England, Portugal, Cyprus, Armenia 
 and Palestine. He is said by Mutius to have died in 
 the year 1315, and to have been buried in Majorca. 
 The following epitaph is given by Olaus Borrichius as 
 engraven on his tomb : ' 
 
 Raymundus Lttlli, cujus pia dogmata null! 
 
 Stint odiosa riro, jacet hie in manuore miro 
 
 1 1 ic M . et CC. Cum P. ccrpit sine M'nsibus ess*. ; 
 
 MCCC in these lines denote 1300, and P whieh 
 is the l.'ith letter of the alphabet denotes 15, so that 
 if this epitaph be genuine it follows that his death 
 took place in the year 1315. 
 
 It seems scarcely necessary to notice the story that 
 Raymond Lull y made a present to Edward, King of Eng- 
 land, of six millions of pieces of gold, to enable him to 
 make war on the Saracens, which sum that monarch em- 
 ployed, contrary to the intentions of the donor, in his 
 French wars. This story cannot apply to Edward III., 
 because in 1315, at the time of Raymond's death, that 
 monarch was only tliree years of age. It can scarcely 
 apply to Edward II., who ascended the throne in 
 J-iO.5: but who had no opportunity of making War, 
 either on the Saracens or French, being totally occu- 
 pied in opposing the intrigues of his queen and re- 
 
or ALCHYMY. 39 
 
 bellious subjects, to whom he ultimately fell a sacrifice. 
 Edward the First made war both upon the Saracens 
 and the French, and lived during the time of Ray- 
 mond: but his wars with the Saracens were finished 
 before he ascended the throne, and during the whole of 
 his reirn he was too much occupied with his projected 
 conquest of Scotland, to pay much serious attention 
 to any French war. whatever. The story, therefore, 
 cannot apply to any of the three Edwards, and cannot 
 be true. Raymond Lully is said to have been stoned 
 to death in Africa for preaching Christianity in the 
 year 1.11,3. Others will have it that he was alive in 
 England in the year LTJ2, at which time his age 
 would have been V>7. 
 
 The following table exhibits a list of bin numerous 
 writings, most of which ar? to be found in the Thentrum 
 Clu'inicum, the Artis Aurifertr, or the Biblotheca 
 Chemica. 
 
 1. Praxis Unhorsalis Magni Opens. 
 
 2. Clavicula. 
 
 3. Tlieoria et Practica. 
 
 4. Compendium Animoe Transmutationis Artis Me- 
 tallonim. 
 
 5. Ultimum Tcstamentum. Of this work, which 
 professes to $ive the whole doctrine of alchy in y, there 
 is an English translation. 
 
 6. ESucidatio Testament!. 
 
 7. Potestas Divitiorum cum Expositione Testa* 
 menti Hermetic. 
 
 8. Compendium Artis Magicce, quoad Compost* 
 tionem Lapidis. 
 
 9. De Lapide et Oleo Philosophonim. 
 
 10. Modus accipiendi Aurum Potabile. 
 
 11. Compendium A Ichymice et Naturalis Philo- 
 
 12. Lapidarium. 
 
 13. Lux M e re u riorum. 
 
 14. Experimenta. 
 
40 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 15. Ars Compendiosa vel Vademecum. 
 
 16. De Accurtatione Lapidis. 
 
 Several other tracts besides these are named by 
 Gmelin; but 1 have never seen any of them. I have 
 attempted several times to read over the works of 
 Raymond Lully, particularly his Last Will and Tes- 
 tament ,- which is considered the most important of 
 them all. Hut they are all so obscure, and tilled with 
 sm 1 1 unintelligible jargon, that 1 have found it im- 
 |Mjille to uiiderstaii(i them. In this respect they 
 form a wonderful contrast with the works of Alhertus 
 Magnus and Roger Bacon, which are comparatively 
 plain and intelligible. For an account, therefore, of 
 the chemical substance* with which he was ac- 
 quainted, 1 am obliged to dc|>cnd on (imclin; though 
 J put no meat confidence in his accuracy. 
 
 Like his predecessor*, he was of opinion that all 
 the metal* are compounds of sulphur and mercury. 
 But he seems first to have introduced those hicro- 
 glyphical figures or symbols, which appear in such 
 profusion in the English translation of his Last Will 
 and Testament, and which he doubtless intended to 
 illustrate his positions. Though what other purpose 
 they could serve, than to induce the reader to consider 
 his statements as allegorical, it is not easy to conjec- 
 ture. Perhaps they may have been designed to im- 
 pose upon his contemporaries by an air of something: 
 very profound and inexplicable. For that he possessed 
 a good deal of charlatanry is pretty evident, from the 
 slit: litest glance at his }>erlurinaiiccs. 
 
 He was acquainted with cream of tartar, which he 
 distilled : the residue he burnt, and observed that tLe 
 alkali extracted deliquesced when exposed to the air. 
 He was, acquainted with nitric acid, which he ob- 
 tained by distilling a mixture of saltpetre and green 
 vitriol. He mentions its power of dissolving, not 
 merely mercury, but likewise other metals. He could 
 form aqua regia by adding sal ammoniac or common 
 
Or ALCIITMT. 4i 
 
 salt to nitric acid, and he was aware of the property 
 which it had of dissolving L r old. 
 
 Spirit of wine was well known to him, and distin- 
 guished by him by the names of aqua vihe ardens and 
 argcnttim vivuni vegetable. He knew the method of 
 rendering it stronger by an admixture of dry carbonate 
 of JMitash, and of preparing vegetable tincture* by 
 means of it. He mentions alum from Ilocca, marcasitc, 
 white and red mercurial precipitate. He knew the 
 volatile alkali and its coagulation* by means of alco- 
 hol. He was acquainted with cupfllated silver, and 
 first obtained rosemary oil by distilling the plant with 
 water. He employed a mixture of Hour and white of 
 egg sprc-ad upon a linen cloth to cement cracked 
 glass vessels, and used other lutes for similar pur- 
 poses.* 
 
 .5. Arnoldns de Villa Nova is said to have been 
 born at Villeneuve, a village of Provence, about the 
 year 1*40. Glaus Borrichius assures ns, that in his 
 time his posterity lived in the neighbourhood of Avig- 
 non ; that he was acquainted with them, and that 
 they were by no means destitute of chemical know- 
 ledge. He is said to have been educated at Barcelona, 
 under John Casamila, a celebrated professor of medi- 
 cine. This place he wasoblired to leave, in consequence 
 of foretelling the death of Peter of Arragon. He went 
 to Paris, and likewise travelled through Italy. He 
 afterwards taught publicly in the University of Mont- 
 pclier. His reputation as a physician became so 
 preat, that his attendance was solicited in dangerous 
 cases by several kings, and even by the pope himself. 
 He was skilled in all the sciences of his time, and was 
 hesijes a proficient in Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic. 
 When at Paris he studied astrology, and calculating 
 the age of the world, he found that it was to termi- 
 nate in the year 1336. The theologians of Paris ex* 
 
 ' . Graciin's Gcschitte dcr Chf mic, i. 74 
 
42 HISTORY Of CHOI 1ST RY. 
 
 claimed against this and several other of his opinions, 
 and condemned our astrologer as a heretic. This 
 obliged him to leave France ; hut the pope protected 
 him. He died in the year 131.'), oil his way to visit 
 Pope Clement V. who lay sick at Avignon. The fol- 
 lowing table exhibits a pretty full list of his works : 
 
 1. Antitlotorium. 
 
 2. De Yini*. 
 
 3. De A<|uis Laxativi*. 
 
 4. Kusaiius Philosophorum. 
 
 5. Lumen Novum. 
 ti. De Siiiillis. 
 
 7. Flos Floruni. 
 
 8. Epistohc super Alchymia ad Regcm Neapoli- 
 tan um. 
 
 9. Liber Perfection!* Magisterii. 
 
 10. Succosu Carmina. 
 
 11. Questiuncs de Arte Transmutationis Metal- 
 lorum. 
 
 1*2. Testamentum. 
 
 13. Lumen Luminum. 
 
 14. Praclica. 
 
 15. S|HTuliun Alrhymur. 
 
 16. Carmen. 
 
 17. Quest iones ;ul Donifacium. 
 
 18. Scmita Semihr. 
 
 19. De I -i pith* Philosophorum. 
 -0. De Sanguine Humano. 
 
 21. De Spiritu Vini, Vino Antimonii et Gemmorum 
 Viribus. 
 
 Perhaps the most curious of all these works is the 
 Rosarium, which is intended as a complete compeud 
 of all the alchymy of his time. The first part of it 
 on the theory of the art is plain enough ; but the se- 
 cond part on the practice, which is subdivided into 
 thirty- two chapters, and which professes to teach the 
 art of making the philosopher's stone, is in many 
 places quite unintelligible to me. 
 
OF ALCHYMY. 43 
 
 He considered, like his predecessors, mercury as a 
 constituent of metals, and he professed a knowledge 
 of the philosopher's stone, which he could increase at 
 pleasure. Gold and gold-water was, in his opinion, 
 one of the most precious of medicines. He employed 
 mercury in medicine. He seems to designate bismuth 
 under the name marcnsitc. He was in the habit of 
 preparing oil of turpentine, oil of rosemary, and spirit 
 of rosemary, which afterwards liccame famous under 
 the name of Hungary-water. These distillations 
 were made in a glazed earthen vessel with a glass top 
 and helm. 
 
 His works were published at Venice in a single 
 folio volume, in the year 1505. There were seven 
 subsequent editions, the last of which appeared at 
 Strasburg in 1613. 
 
 6. John Isaac Hollandus and his countryman of the 
 same name, were either two brothers or a father and 
 . son ; it is uncertain which. For very few circum- 
 stances respecting these two laborious and meritorious 
 men have been handed down to posterity. They were 
 born in the village of Stolk in Holland, it is supposed 
 in the 13th century. They certainly were after Ar- 
 noldus de Villa Nova, because they refer to him in 
 their writings. They wrote many treatises on che- 
 mistry, remarkable, considering the time when they 
 wrote, for clearness and precision, describing their pro- 
 cesses with accuracy, and even giving figures of the 
 instruments which they employed. This makes their 
 books intelligible, and they deserve attention because 
 they show that various processes, generally supposed 
 of a more modern date were known to them. Their 
 treatises are written partly in Latin and partly in Ger- 
 man. The following list contains the names of most 
 of them : 
 
 1. Opera Vegetabilia ad ejus alia Opera Intelli- 
 genda Necessaria. 
 
44 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 2. Opera Mineralia seu de Lapide Philosophico 
 Libri duo. 
 
 3. Tractat vom stein der Weisen. 
 
 4. Fragmenta Quu*dam Chemica. 
 
 5. De Triplice Ordine Elixiris et Lapidis Theorem. 
 (>. Tractatus de Salibus et Oleis Metallorum. 
 
 7. Frairuit ntum de Opere Philosophorum. 
 
 8. Rariores ('hernia? Opcrationcs. 
 
 9. Opus Sat urni. 
 
 10. De Spiritu Uriiue. 
 
 11. Hand der Philosopher. 
 
 Olaus Borrichius complains that their opera mine- 
 ralla abound with processes; but that they are ambi- 
 guous, and such that nothing certain can be deduced 
 from them even after much labour. Hence they draw 
 on the unwary tyro from labour to labour. 1 am 
 disposed myself to draw a different conclusion, from 
 what I have read of that elaborate work. It is true 
 that the processes which profess to make the philo- 
 sopher's stone, are fallacious, and do not lead to the 
 manufacture of gold, as the author intended, and ex- 
 pected : but it is a great deal when alchymistical 
 processes are delivered in such intelligible language 
 that you know the substances employed. This enables 
 us easily to see the results in almost every case, and 
 to know the new compounds which were formed during 
 a vain search for the philosopher's stone. Had the 
 other ale hy mists written as plainly, the absurdity of 
 their researches would have been sooner discovered, 
 and thus a useless or pernicious investigation would 
 have sooner terminated. 
 
 7. Basil Valentine is said to have been born about 
 the year 1 394, and is, perhaps, the most celebrated of 
 all the alchy mists, if we except Paracelsus. He was 
 a Benedictine monk, at Erford, in Saxony. If we 
 believe Olaus Borrichius, his writings were enclosed 
 in the wall of a church at Erford, and were discovered 
 
OF ALCIIYMY. 45 
 
 long after his death, in consequence of the wall having 
 been driven down by a thunderbolt. But this story is 
 not well authenticated, and is utterly improbable. 
 Much of his time seems to have been taken up in the 
 preparation of chemical medicines. It was he that 
 first introduced antimony into medicine ; and it is 
 said, though on no good authority, that he first tried 
 the effects of antimou*al medicines upon the monks of 
 his convent, upon whom it acted with such violence 
 that he was induced to distinguish the mineral from 
 which these medicines had been extracted, by the 
 name of anlinioinc (hostile to monks). What shows 
 the improbability of this story is, that the works of 
 Basil Valentine, and in particular his Cumis trinm- 
 phalis Antimonii, were written in the German lan- 
 guage. Now the German name for antimony is not 
 antimoinCi but spclssylass. The Currus triiimphalis 
 Antimonii was translated into Latin by Kcrkringius, 
 who published it, with an excellent commentary, at 
 Amsterdam, in 1(571. 
 
 Basil Valentine writes with almost as much virulence 
 against the physicians of his time, as Paracelsus him- 
 self did afterwards. As no particulars of his life have 
 been handed clown to posterity, I shall satisfy myself 
 with giving: a catalogue of his writings, and then 
 pointing out the most striking chemical substances 
 with which he was acquainted. 
 
 The books which have appeared under the name of 
 Basil Valentine, arc very numerous ; but how many 
 of them were really written by him, and how many 
 arc supposititious, is extremely doubtful. The follow- 
 ing are the principal : 
 
 1. Philosophic Occulta. 
 
 2. Tractat von naturlichen und ubematurlichen 
 Dingen ; auch von der ersten tinctur, Wurzel und 
 Geiste der Mctallen. 
 
 3. Von dern gros&en stein der Uhralten. 
 
46 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY* 
 
 4. Vier tractatlein vom stein der Weisen. 
 
 5. Kurzer anhaiig und klare repetition oderWkder* 
 holunge voin grosen stein der Uhralten. 
 
 6. De prinia Muteria Lapidis Philosophic!. 
 
 7. Azuth Philosophorum seu Aurcliae occuitm de 
 Muteria Lapidi* Philosophorum. 
 
 8. Apocalypsis Chemica. 
 
 9. Claves 12 Philosophise. 
 
 10. Proctica. 
 
 11. Opus pru?clarum ad utrumque, quod pro Testa* 
 men to dedit Filio suo adopt ivo. 
 
 12. LeUtes Testament. 
 
 13. De Microcosmo. 
 
 14. Von der grosen Heimiichkeit der Welt und ihrer 
 Arzney. 
 
 15. Von der Wissenschaft der sieben Pianeten. 
 
 16. OrTenbahrung der verborgenen HandgruTe. 
 
 17. Couclusiones or Schlussreden. 
 
 18. Dialo^us Fratris Aiberti cum Spiritu. 
 
 19. De Sui plum- et fermento Philosophorum. 
 
 20. Halioraphia. 
 
 21. Triumph wagen Antimonli. 
 2*2. Kinder Weg zur. \\ahrheit. 
 23. IJfht der Natur. 
 
 The only one of these works that I have read with 
 care, is Kerkrin^ius's translation and commentary on 
 the Currtts triumphalis Antimonii. It is an excellent 
 book, written with clearness and precision, and con- 
 tains every thing respecting antimony that was known 
 before the commencement of the 19th century. How 
 much of this is owing to Kerkringiiis 1 cannot say, as 
 1 have never had an opportunity of seeing a copy of 
 the original German work of Basil Valentine. 
 
 Basil Valentine, like Isaac Hollandus, was of opi- 
 nion that the metals are compounds of salt, sulphur, 
 and mercury. The philosopher's stone was composed 
 of the same ingredients., lie utli fined, that there 
 
OF ALCIIYMY. 47 
 
 a great similarity between the mode of purifying gold 
 and curing the diseases of men, and t f iat antimony 
 answers best for both, lie was acqi ainted with 
 arsenic, k :ew many of its properties, and mentions 
 the red compound which it forms with sulphur. Zinc 
 seems to have been known to him, and he mentions 
 bismuth, both under its own name, and under that of 
 innrcasitc. He was aware that manganese \\as em- 
 ployed to render srl ass colourless. He mentions nitrate 
 of mercury, alludes to corrosive sublimate, and seems 
 to have known the red oxide of mercury. It would be 
 needless to specify the preparations of antimony with 
 which he was acquainted ; scarcely one was unknown 
 to him which, even at present, exists in the European 
 Pharmacopoeias. Many of the preparations of lead 
 were also familiar to him. He was aware that lead 
 gives a sweet taste to vinegar. He knew surar of 
 lead, litharge, yellow oxide of lead, white carbonate 
 of lead ; and mentions that this last preparation was 
 often adulterated in hi* time. He knew the method 
 of making green vitriol, and the double chloride of 
 iron and ammonia. He was aware that iron could be 
 precipitated from its solution by potash, and that iron 
 has the property of throwing down copper. He was 
 aware that tin sometimes contains iron, and ascribed 
 the brittlencss of Hungarian iron to copper. He knew 
 that oxides of copper gave a tureen colour to glass; 
 that Hungarian silver contained gold; that gold is 
 precipitated from aqua reu:ia by mercury, in the state 
 of an amaltram. He mentions fulminating gold. But 
 the important facts contained in his works arc so 
 numerous, while we are so uncertain about the genu- 
 ineness of the writings themselves, that it will scarcely 
 be worth while to proceed further with the catalogue. 
 
 Thus I have brought the history of alchymy to the 
 time of Paracelsus, when it was doomed to undergo a 
 new and important change. It will be better, there* 
 
48 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 fore, not to pursue the history of alchymy further, but 
 to take up the history of true chemistry ; and in the 
 first place to endeavour to determine what chemical 
 facts were known to the Ancients, and how far the 
 science had proceeded to develop itself before the time 
 of Paracelsus. 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE AXClCHTS. 49 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 OP THR CHEMICAL KNOWLEDGE POSSESSED IT THE 
 ANCIENTS. 
 
 NOTWITHSTANDING the assertions of Olaus Borri- 
 fhius, and various olher writers who followed him on 
 the same side, nothing is more certain than that the 
 ancients have left no chemical writings behind them, 
 and that no evidence whatever exists to prove that the 
 science of chemistry was known to them. Scientific 
 chemistry, on the contrary, took its orijin from the col- 
 lection and comparison of the chemical facts, made 
 known by the practice and improvement of those 
 branches of manufactures which can only be conducted 
 by chemical processes. Thus the smelting of ores, and 
 the reduction of the metals which they contain, is a 
 chemical process ; because it requires, for its success, 
 the separation of certain bodies which exist in the ore 
 chemically combined with the metals ; and it cannot be 
 done, except by the application or mixture of a new 
 substance, having an athnity for these substances, and 
 capable, in consequence, of separating them from the 
 metal, and thus reducing the metal to a state of 
 puritv. The manufacture of glass, of soap, of leather, 
 are all chemical, because they consist of processes, by 
 means of which bodies, having an affinity for each 
 other, are made to unite in chemical combination. 
 Now I shall in this chapter point out the principal 
 chemical manufactures that were known to the ancients, 
 
 VOL. i. c 
 
50 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 that we may see how much they contributed towards 
 laying the foundation of the science. The chief sources 
 of our information on this subject are the writings of 
 the Greeks and Romans. Unfortunately the arts and 
 manufactures stood in a very different degree of esti- 
 mation among the ancients from what they do among 
 the moderns, Their artists and manufacturers were 
 chiefly slaves* The citizens of Greece and Rome de- 
 voted themselves to politic* or war. Such of them 
 as turned their attention to learning confined them- 
 selves to oratory, which was the most fashionable 
 . and the most important study, or to history, or poetry. 
 The only scientific pursuits which ever engaged their 
 attention, were politics, ethics, and mathematics. For, 
 unless Archimedes is to be considered as an exception, 
 scarcely any of the numerous brunches of physics and 
 mechanical philosophy, which constitute so great a 
 portion of modern science, even attracted the atten- 
 tion of the ancients. 
 
 In consequence of the contemptible light in whicE ^ 
 all mechanical employments were viewed by the an- ' 
 cicnts, we look in vain in any of their writings for 
 accurate details respecting the processes which they 
 followed. The only exception to this general neglect 
 and contempt f r all the arts and trades, is Pliny the 
 Elder, whose object, in his natural history, was to 
 collect into one focus, every thing that was known at 
 the period when he lived. His work displays prodi- 
 gious reading, and a vast fund of erudition. It is to 
 him that we are chiefly indebted for the knowledge of 
 the chemical arts which were practised by the ancients* 
 But the low estimation in which these arts were held, 
 appears evident from the wonderful want of informa- 
 tion which Pliny so frequently displays, and the 
 erroneous statements which he has recorded respecting 
 these processes. Still a great deal may be drawn from 
 the information which has been collected and trans- 
 mitted to us by this indefatigable natural historian. 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE AN'CIEXTS. 61 
 
 I. The ancients were acquainted with SF.VF.X 
 METAL*; namely, gold, silver, mercury, copper, iron, 
 tin, and lead. They knew and employed various pre- 
 parations of zinc, and antimony, and arsenic ; though 
 we have no evidence that these bodies were known to 
 them in the metallic state. 
 
 I . Gold is spoken of in the second chapter of Gene 
 sis as existing and familiarly known before the flood. 
 
 "The name of the first is Pison ; that i> it which 
 encompasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there 
 is gold. And the gold of that land is good : there is 
 bdellium and the onyx-stone." The Hebrew word for 
 gold, 3JfT (zcb) signifies to be clear, to shine; alluding, 
 doubtless, to the brilliancy of that metal. The term 
 gold occurs frequently in the writings of Moses, and 
 the metal must have been in common use among the 
 Egyptians, when that legislator led the children of 
 Israel out of Egypt.* Gold is found in the earth almost 
 always in a native state. There can be no doubt that 
 if was much more abundant on the surface of the earth, 
 and in the beds of rivers in the early periods of so- 
 ciety, than it is at present: indeed this is obvious, 
 from the account which Pliny gives of the numerous 
 places in Asia and Greece, and other European coun- 
 tries, where gold was found in his time. 
 
 Gold, therefore, could hardly fail to attract the at- 
 tention of the very first inhabitant* of the globe ; its 
 beauty, its malleability, its indestructibility, would 
 give it value : accident would soon discover the pos- 
 sibility of melting it by heat, and thus of reducing the 
 grains or small pieces of it found on the surface of the 
 earth into one large mass. It would be speedily made 
 into ornaments and utensils of various kinds, and 
 thus gradually would come into common use. This' 
 we find to have occurred in America, when itVas dis- 
 
 Exodus xl. 2 MT. 11, 12, 13, 17, IS, 24, 25, 26-xxriii. 
 8 -juuui. 2, &C. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 covered by Columbus. The inhabitants of the tropical 
 parts of that vast continent were familiarly acquainted 
 with gold ; and in Mexico and Peru it existed in great 
 abundance ; indeed the natives of these countries 
 seem to have been acquainted with no other metal, or 
 at least no other metal was brought into such general 
 use. except silver, which in Peru was, it is true, still 
 more common than gold. 
 
 Gold, then, was probably the first metal with which 
 man became acquainted ; and that knowledge must 
 have preceded the commencement of history, since it 
 is mentioned as a common and familiar substance in 
 the Book of Genesis, the oldest hook in existence, of 
 the authenticity of which we possess sufficient evidence. 
 The period of leading the children of Israel out of 
 Egypt by Moses, is generally fixed to have been one 
 thousand six hundred and forty-eight years before 
 the commencement of the Christian era*. So early, 
 then, we are certain, that not only gold, but the 
 other six malleable metals known to the ancients, were 
 familiar to the inhabitants of Egypt. The Greeks 
 uscribe the discovery of gold to the earliest of their 
 heroes. According to Pliny, it was discovered on 
 Mount Pangwus by Cadmus, the Phoenician: but 
 Cudmti&'s voyage into Greece was nearly coeval wiih 
 the exit of the Israelites out of Egypt, at which time 
 we learn from Moses that gold was in common use 
 in Egypt. All that can be meant, thin, is, that Cad- 
 mus first discovered gold in Greece ; not that he made 
 mankind first acquainted .with it. Others say that 
 Thoas and Eaclis, or Sol, the son of Ocean us, first 
 found gold in Panchaia. Thoas was a contemporary 
 of the heroes of the Trojan war, or at least was posterior 
 to the Argonautic expedition, and consequently long 
 posterior to Moses and the departure of the children 
 of Israel from Egypt. 
 
 '2. Silver also was not only familiarly known to the 
 Fgryptians iu the time of Moses, but, as we learn from 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE AXCIENT*. 53 
 
 Genesis, was coined into money before Joseph was set 
 over the land of Egypt by Pharaoh, which happened one 
 thousand eiirht hundred and seventy-two years before 
 the commencement of the Christian era, ami conse- 
 quently two hundred and twenty-four years before the 
 departure of the children of Israel out of Egypt. 
 
 44 And Joseph gathered up all the money that was 
 found in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, 
 for the corn which they bought ; and Joseph brought 
 the money into Pharaoh's house.* The Hebrew word 
 *)DD (ta'/wr/j), translated money, signifies silver, and 
 was so called from its pale colour. Silver occurs in 
 many other passages of the writings of Moses, f- The 
 Greeks inform us, that Erichthonius the -Athenian, or 
 Ccacus, were the discoverers of silver; but both of 
 these individuals were long posterior to the time of 
 Joseph. 
 
 Silver, like gold, occurs very frequently in the 
 metallic state. This, no doubt, was a still more frequent 
 occurrence in the early ages of the world ; it would 
 therefore attract the attention of mankind as early as 
 gold, ami for the same reason. It is very ductile, 
 very beautiful, and much more easily fused than 
 gold : it would be therefore more easily reduced into 
 masses, and formed into different utensils and orna* 
 ments than even gold itself. The ores of it which occur 
 in the earth are heavy, and would therefore draw the 
 attention of even rude men to them: they have, most 
 of them at least, the appearance of being metallic, and 
 the most common of them may be reduced to the state 
 of metallic silver, simply by keeping them a sufficient 
 time in fusion. Accordingly we find that the Peru- 
 vians, before they were overrun by the Spaniards, had 
 made themselves acquainted with the mode of digging 
 out and smelting the ores of silver which occur in 
 
 * Genesis xlrii. 14. * 
 
 f For example. Exodus zL 2 xxvi. 19, 21 xxrii. 10, 11, 
 I?, Ac. 
 
54 HISTORY OF CIIFMI&TRT. 
 
 their country, and t hut many of their most common 
 utensils were made of that metal. 
 
 Stiver and gold approached each other nearer in 
 value among the ancients than at present : an ounce 
 of fine gold was worth from ten to twelve ounces of fine 
 silver, the variation dc|>ending upon the accidental 
 rd.it inn of the supply of both metals. But after the 
 discovery of America, the quantity of silver found in 
 that continent, especially in Mexico, was so great, 
 compared with that of the gold found, that silver 
 became considerably cheaper; so that an ounce of 
 fine gold came to be equivalent to about fourteen 
 ounces and a half of fine silver. Of course these 
 relative values have fluctuated a little according to 
 the abundance of the supply of silver. Though the 
 revolution in the Spanish American colonies has con 
 sidcrably diminished the supply of silver from the 
 mines, that deficiency seems to have been supplied by 
 other ways, and thus the relative proportion -between 
 the value of gold and silver has continued nearly un- 
 altered. 
 
 3. That copper must have been known in the earliest 
 ages of society, is sufficiently evident. It occurs fre- 
 quently native, and could not fail to attract the atten- 
 tion of mankind, from its colour, weight, and mallea- 
 bility. It would not lie difficult to fuse it even in the 
 rudest ages : and when melted into masses, as it is 
 malleable and ductile, it would not require much skill 
 to convert it into useful and ornamental utensils. The 
 Hebrew word f\WR}(fi'cheshet) translated brass , ob- 
 viously means copper. We have the authority of the 
 Book of Genesis to satisfy us that copper was known 
 before the flood, and probably as early as either silver 
 or gold. 
 
 " And Zillah, she also bore Tubal-cain, an instruc- 
 tor of every artificer w brass (cojtpsr) and iron."* 
 
 Genesis ir. 22. 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE AXCIEXTS. 65 
 
 The word copper occurs in many other passages of 
 the writings of Moses.* That the Hebrew word trans- 
 lated brass must have meant .copper is obvious, from 
 the following passage : * 4 Out of whose hills thou 
 mayest dig brass. "f Brass does not exist in the earth, 
 nor any ore of it, it is always made artificially; it 
 must therefore have been copper, or an ore of copper, 
 that was alluded to by Moses. 
 
 Copper must have been discovered and brought into 
 common use long before iron or steel ; for Homer re- 
 presents his heroes of the Trojan war as armed with 
 swords, Arc. of copper. Copper itself is too soft to be 
 made into cutting instrument*; but the addition of a 
 little tin gives it the requisite hardness. Now we learn 
 from the analyses of Klaproth, that the copper swords 
 of the ancients were actually hardened by the addition 
 of tin.J 
 
 Copper was the metal in common use in the early 
 part of the Roman commonwealth. Romulus coined 
 copper money alone. Numa established a college of 
 workers in copper (ararionimfabrum)^ 
 
 The Latin word <PS sometimes signifies copper, and 
 sometimes brass. It is plain from what Pliny says on 
 the subject, that he did not know the difference between 
 copper and brass ; he says, that an ore of <K* occurs 
 ir Cyprus, called chalcitis, where <r* was first disco- 
 vered. Here <r* obviously means copper. In another 
 place he says, that tr* is obtained from a mineral called 
 carlmia. N T oW from the account of cadmia by Pliny 
 and Dioscorides, there cannot be a doubt that it is the 
 ore to which the moderns have given the name of 
 calamine, by means of which brass is made. It is 
 sometimes a silicate and sometimes a carbonate of 
 of zinc ; for both of these ores are confounded together 
 
 For example, Exodus xxriL 2, 3, 4, 6, 10, 11, 17, 18, 19 
 Xzx. 18, &c. Numbers xxi. 9. 
 fDcut.TiU.9. :ikitrag*,ri.81. Plinii HiiU Nat xir. 1. 
 
56 IIISTUE V OF CUEMUTRT. 
 
 under the name of cadmia, and both are employed in 
 the manufacture of brass. 
 
 Suiinus says, that <e# was first made at Chalcis, a 
 town in Euboea. Hence the Greek name, xoXroc 
 (chalkos), by which coppef was distinguished. 
 
 The proper name tor brass, by which is meant an 
 alloy of copper and zinc, was n uric ha U tun, or gulden, 
 or yellow copper. Pliny says, that long before hi$ 
 time, the ore of aurichalcurn was exhausted, so that 
 no more of that beautiful alloy was made. Are we to 
 conclude from this, that there once existed an ore con- 
 sisting of calamine and ore of copper, mixed or 
 united together > After the exhaustion of the auri- 
 chalcum mine, the salustiunnm became the most fa- 
 mous ; but it soon gave place to the liciunum, a cop- 
 per-mine in Gaul, named after Li via, the wife of 
 Augustus. Botli these mines were exhausted in the 
 time of Pliny. The fs ma nan* m, or copper of Cor- 
 dova, was the most celebrated in his time. This last 
 <r*, he MI\\S, absorbs most cadmia, and acquires the 
 greatest resemblance to aurichalcum. We see from 
 this, that in Pliny's time brass was made artificially, 
 and by a process similar to that still followed by the 
 moderns. 
 
 The most celebrated alloy of copper among the 
 ancients, was the </vr corinthium, or Corinthian cop- 
 per, formed accidentally, as Pliny informs us, during 
 the burning of Corinth by Mummius in the year 608, 
 after the building of Home, or one hundred and forty- 
 five years before the commencement of the Christian 
 era. There were four kinds of it, of which Pliny gives 
 the following description ; not, however, very intelligi- 
 ble : 
 
 1. White. It resembled silver much in its lustre, 
 and contained an excess of that metal. 
 
 '2. Red. In this kind there is an excess of gold. 
 
 3. In the third kind, gold, silver, and copper are 
 mixed in equal proportions. 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE AXCIESTS. 57 
 
 4. The fourth kind is called hepatizon, from its 
 having a liver colour. It is this colour which gives it 
 its value.* 
 
 Copper was put by the ancients to almost all the 
 uses to which it is put by the moderns. One of the 
 great sources of consumption was bronze statues, 
 which were first introduced into Rome after the con- 
 quest of Asia Minor. Before that time, the statues of 
 the Romans were made of wood or stoneware. Pliny 
 jrives various formulas for making bronze for statues. 
 Of these it may be worth while to put down the most 
 material. - 
 
 1. To new copper add a third part of old copper. To 
 every hundred pounds of this mixture, twelve pounds 
 and a half of tin f- arc added, and the whole melted 
 together. 
 
 2. Another kind of bronze for statues was formed, 
 by melting together 
 
 lOOlbs. copper, 
 lOlhs. lead, 
 51bs. tin. 
 
 3. Their copper-pots for boiling consisted of lOOlbs. 
 of copper, melted with three or four pounds of tin. 
 
 The four celebrated statues of horses which, during 
 the reign of Thcodosius II. were trans|x>rted from 
 Chio to Constantinople; and, when Constantinople 
 was taken and plundered by the Crusaders and Vene- 
 tians in 1*204, were sent by Martin Zeno and set up 
 by the dojre. Peter Ziani, in the portal of St. Mark ; 
 were in 1798, transported by the French to Paris ; and 
 finally, after the overthrow of Buonaparte, and the 
 restoration of the Bourbons in 1815, returned to 
 
 Plinii Hist. Nat xxxir. 2. 
 
 t Pliny's phrase is plumbum eryrntorinm. Bat that the ad* 
 dition was tin, and consequently that plumbum argentorium 
 meant tin, we have the evidence of Klaprotb, who analyzed 
 several of these bronze statues, and found them composed of 
 copper, lead, and tin. 
 
8 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY* 
 
 Venice and pla *ed upon their ancient pedestals* Hie 
 metal of which these horses had been made was exa- 
 mined by Klaproth, and found by him composed of 
 
 Copper, 993 
 
 Tin, 7 
 
 1000* 
 
 Klaproth also analyzed an ancient bronze statue in 
 one of the German cabinets, and found it composed of 
 Copper, 916 
 Tin, 75 
 Lead, 9 
 
 lOOOf 
 
 Several other old brass and bronze pieces of metal, 
 very ancient, but found in Germany, were also ana* 
 lyzed by Klaproth. The result of his analyses was as 
 follows : 
 
 The metal of which the altar of Krodo was made 
 consisted of 
 
 Copper, 69 
 Zinc, 18 
 Lead, 13 
 
 loo: 
 
 The emperor's chair, which had in the eleventh cen- 
 tury been transported from Harzburg to Goslar, where 
 it still remains, was found to be composed of 
 
 Copper, 92*5 
 
 Tin, 5 
 
 Lead, 2-5 
 
 10(H 
 
 Another piece of metal, which enclosed the high altar 
 in a church in Germany, was composed of. 
 
 Beitrage, vi. 89. 
 
 f Beitrajce, vi. 118. The statue in question was known by the 
 name of " The Statue of PiUtriehs," at Sondenhausen. 
 ; Ibid., p. 127. Ibid,, p. 132. 
 
CHEMISTRY OP THE ASCIESTS, 59 
 
 Copper, 75 
 Tin, 12-5 
 
 Lead, 12-5 
 
 100* 
 
 These analyses, though none of them corresponds 
 exactly with the proportions given by Pliny, confirms 
 sufficiently his general statement, that the bronze of 
 the ancients employed for statues was copper, alloyed 
 with lead and tin. 
 
 Some of the bronze statues cast by the ancients were 
 of enormous dimensions, and show decisively the great 
 prepress which had been made by them in the art of 
 working and casting metals. The addition of the lead 
 and tin would not only add greatly to the hardness of 
 the alloy, but would at the same time render it more 
 easily fusible. The bronze statue of Apollo, placed in 
 the capitol at the time of Pliny, was forty-five feet 
 high, and cost 500 talents, equivalent to about 50,000 
 of our money. It was brought from Apollonia, in 
 Pontus, by Lucullus. The famous statue of the sun 
 at Rhodes was the work of Chares, a disciple of Ly- 
 sippus ; it was ninety feet high, was twelve years in 
 making, and cost 300 talents (about 30,000). It 
 was made out of the ensnnes of war left by Demetrius 
 when he raised the siege of Rhodes. After standing 
 fifty-six years, it was overgrown by an earthquake. 
 It lay on the ground 900 years, and was sold by 
 Man via, king of the Saracens, to a merchant, who 
 loaded 900 camels with the fragments of it. 
 
 Copper was introduced into medicine at rather an 
 early period of society, and various medicinal pre- 
 parations of it are described by Dioscorides and Pliny. 
 It remains for us to notice the most remarkable of 
 these. Pliny mentions an institution, to which he 
 gives the name of Scplasia ; the object of which was, 
 
 Ibid., p. 134. 
 
60 HISTORY OF CIICMISTfcY. 
 
 to prepare medicines for the use of medical men. It 
 seems, therefore, to have been similar to our apothe- 
 caries* shops of the present day. Pliny reprobates the 
 conduct of the persons who had the charge of these 
 Seplasix* in his tune. They were in the habit of adul- 
 terating medicines to such a degree, that nothing good 
 or genuine could be procured from them.* 
 
 Both the oxides of copper were known to the an- 
 cients, though they were not very accurately distin- 
 guished from each other : they were known by the 
 names flu* tens and scoria t/'ris, or squama ifrit. 
 They were obtained by heating bars of copper red-hot 
 and letting them cool, exposed to the air. What fell 
 off during the cooling was theyiW, what was driven 
 off by blows of a hammer was the *</ua/nu or scoria 
 aris. It is obvious, that all these substances were 
 nearly of the same nature, aud that they were in 
 reality mixtures of the black and red ox ides of copper. 
 
 Stomoma seems also to have been an oxide of cop- 
 per, which was gradually formed upon the surface of 
 the metal, when it was kept in a state of fusion. 
 
 These oxides of copper were used as external ap- 
 plications in cases of jnilvpi of the nose, diseases of 
 the anus, ear, mouth, &c. f seemingly as escharotics. 
 
 JEri/yo, verdigris, was a subacetate of copper, 
 doubtless often mixed with subacetate of zinc, as not 
 only copper but brass also was used for preparing it. 
 The mode of preparing this substance was similar to 
 the process still followed. Whether verdigris was 
 employed as a paint by the ancients does not appear ; 
 for Pliny takes no notice of any such use of it. 
 
 Chalcdntum, called also atramentum sut&rium, 
 was probably a mixture of sulphate of copper and 
 sulphate of iron. Pliny's account of the mode of pro- 
 curing it is too imperfect to enable us to form precise 
 ideas concerning it ; but it was crystallized on strings, 
 
 * Plinii Hist. Nat xxxir. 11. 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE AXCIE3TS. 61 
 
 which were extended for the purpose in the solution : 
 its colour was blue, and it was transparent like ^lass. 
 This description mi^ht apply to sulphate of copper; 
 but as the substance was used for blackening leather, 
 and on that account was called atrunientttm sutorium, 
 it is obvious that it must have contained also sulphate 
 of iron. 
 
 Chalcitis was the name for an ore of copper. The 
 account pven of it by Pliny agrees best with copper 
 pyrites, which is now" known to be a att/phur suit, 
 composed of one atom of sulphide of copper (the 
 acid) united to one atom of sulphide of iron (the 
 base). Pliny informs us, that it is a mixture of cop- 
 per, misy, and snry : its colour is that of honey. By 
 ace, he says, it changes into sory. 1 think it most 
 probable that native sory, of which Pliny speaks, was 
 sulphuret of copper, and artificial sory sulphate of 
 copper. The native sory i* said to constitute black 
 veins in chalcitis. Plinv's description of misy (/iiat>) 
 best agrees with copper pyrites. Dioscorides describes 
 it as hard, as having the colour of cold, and as shin* 
 ing; like a star.* All this agrees pretty well with cop- 
 per pyrites. 
 
 Scolcca (so called because it assumed the shape of 
 a worm) was forme \ by trituratinjr alumen, carbonate of 
 soda, and white vinegar, till the matter became reen. 
 It was probably a nrxture of sulphate of soda, acetate 
 of soda, acetate of alumina, and acetate of copper, 
 probably with more or less oxide of copper, Arc., de- 
 pending upon the proportions of the respective con- 
 stituent* employed. 
 
 Such are the preparations of copper, employed by 
 the ancients. They were only used as external applica- 
 tions, partly as escharotics, and partly to induce 
 ulcers to put on a healthy appearance. It does not 
 appear that copper was ever used by the ancients as 
 an internal remedy. 
 
 Lib*, c. 117. 
 
62 BISTORT OF CHF.MISTET. 
 
 4. Though ZIMC in the metallic state was unknown 
 to the ancients, yet as they knew some of its ores, 
 and employed preparations of it in medicine, and 
 were in the habit of alloying copper with it, and con* 
 verting it into brass, it will be proper to state here 
 what was known to them concerning it. 
 
 Pliny nowhere makes us acquainted with the pro- 
 cess by which copper was converted into brass, nor 
 does he seem to have beenacquaintedwith.it; but 
 from several facts incidentally mentioned by him, it 
 is obvious that their process was similar to that which 
 is followed at present by modern brass-makers. The 
 copper in grains is mixed with a certain quantity of 
 calamine (cadmia) and charcoal, and exposed for some 
 time to a moderate heat in a covered crucible. The 
 calamine is reduced to the metallic state, and imbibed 
 by the copper grains. When the copper is thus con- 
 verted into brass, the temperature is raised sufficiently 
 high to melt the whole ; it is then poured out and cast 
 into a slab or ingot. 
 
 The Cadmia employed by the ancients in medicine 
 was not calamine, but oxide of zinc, which sublimed 
 during the fusion of brass in an open vessel. It was 
 distinguished by a variety of names, according to the 
 state in which it was obtained : the lighter portion was 
 called capuitis. Botryitis was the name of the por- 
 tion in the interior of the chimney : the name was de- 
 rived from some resemblance which it was supposed 
 to have to a bunch of grapes. It had two colours, 
 ash and red. The red variety was reckoned best. This 
 red colour it might derive from some copper mixed 
 with it, but more probably from iron ; for a small 
 quantity of oxide of iron is sufficient to give oxide of 
 zinc a rather beautiful red colour. The portion col- 
 lected on the sides of the furnace was calfedp/act/ii: 
 it constituted a crust, and was distinguished by dif- 
 ferent names, according to its colour ; onychitis when 
 it was blue externally, but spotted internally : ostra- 
 
CHEMI5THY OF THE AtfCIESTS. 63 
 
 citis, when it was black and dirty-looking. This last 
 variety was considered as an excellent application to 
 wounds. The best cadmia in Pliny's time was fur- 
 nished by the furnaces of the Isle of Cyprus : it was 
 used as an external application in ulcers, inflamma- 
 tions, eruptions, &c., so that its use in medicine was 
 pretty much the same as at present. Sulphate and 
 acetate of zinc were unknown to the ancients. No at- 
 tempt seems to have been made by them to introduce 
 any preparations of zinc as internal medicines. 
 
 Pompholyx was the name given to oxide of zinc, 
 sublimed by the combustion of the zinc which exists in 
 brass. Spodos seems to have been a mixture of oxides 
 of zinc and copper. There were different varieties of 
 it distinguished by various names.* 
 
 5. Iron exists very rarely in the earth in a metallic 
 state, but most commonly in the state of an oxide ; 
 and the processes necessary to extract metallic iron 
 from these ores are much more complicated, and re- 
 quire much greater skill, than the reduction of gold, 
 silver, or copper from their respective ores. This 
 would lead us to expect that iron would have been 
 much longer in being discovered than the three metals 
 jvhose names have been just given. But we learn from 
 the Book of Genesis that iron, like copper and gold, 
 was known before the flood, Tubal-cain beins: repre- 
 sented as an artificer in copper and iron.f' The He- 
 brew word for iron, ^na (farezel), is said to be de- 
 rived from in (bcr) bright, ^u (nfzcl), to melt; 
 and would lead one to the suspicion, that it referred 
 to c'/./ iron rather than r.iallcablc iron. It is possible 
 that in these early times native iron may have existed 
 as well as native gold, silver, and copper; and in this 
 way Tubal-cain may have become acquainted with the 
 existence and properties of this metal. In the time 
 of Moses, who was learned in all the wisdom of the 
 
 See Fima Hist. >Y.. xxxir. 13. '* f Geaetif jr. 22. ' 
 
64 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 Egyptians, iron must have been in common use in 
 Egypt : for he mentions furnaces for working iron ;* 
 ores from which it was extracted ;f and tells us that 
 swords {, knives, || axes, \ and tools for cutting stones, f 
 were then made of that metal. Now iron in its pure 
 metallic state is too soft to be applied to these uses: 
 it is obvious, therefore, that in Moses's time, not 
 only iron but steel also must have been in common 
 use in Egypt. From this we see how much further 
 advanced the Egyptians were than the Greeks in the 
 knowledge of the manufacture of this most important 
 metal : for during the Trojan war, which was several 
 centuries after the time of Moses, Homer represents 
 his heroes as armed with swords of copper, hardened 
 by tin, and as never using any weapons of iron what- 
 ever. Nay, in such estimation was it held, that 
 Achilles, when he celebrated games in honour of Pa- 
 trocles, proposes a ball of iron as one of his most va- 
 luable prizes.** 
 
 " Then hurtd the hero, thundering on the. ground, 
 A ma.v of iron (an enormous round), 
 Whose weight and size the circling Greeks admire, 
 Rude from the furnace and but shaped by fire. 
 This mighty quoit /Ktion wont to rear, 
 And froui his whirling arm dlsmUs'd in air; 
 The giant by Achilles slain, he stow'd 
 . Amoiur his spoils this memorable load. 
 For this he bids those nervous artists vie 
 That teach the disk to sound along the sky. . 
 
 Let him whose might cau hurl this bowl, arise ; 
 Who farthest hurls it, takes it us bis prize : 
 !f he be one enrich'd with larrr domain 
 ' Of downs for flocks and arable for grain, 
 Small Mock of iron need* that man provide, 
 
 * (Its hinds and strain* whole years shall be supplied 
 From hence : nor ask the neighbouring city's aid 
 For ploughshares, wheels, and all the rural trade." 
 
 Deut. iv. 20. f Deut. viii. 9. J Numbers wxr. f*. 
 I! Lerit. i. 17. Deut. xriu. 5. f Deut, i*riL 5. 
 
 Hud, Ub. u. 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE AN'CIESTS. 6,5 
 
 The mass of iron was large enough to supply a 
 shepherd or a ploughman with iron for five years. 
 This circumstance is a sufficient proof of the high esti- 
 mation in which iron was held during the time of 
 Homer. Were a modern poet to represent his hero 
 as holding out a large lump of iron as a prize, and 
 were he to represent this prize as eagerly contended 
 for by kings and princes, it would appear to us per- 
 fectly ridiculous. 
 
 Hesiod informs us, that the knowledge of iron was 
 brought over from Phrygia to Greece by the Dactyli, 
 who settled in Crete during the reign of Minos I. t 
 about 1431 years before the commencement of the 
 Christian era, and consequently about sixty years 
 before the departure of the children of Israel from 
 Egypt: and it does not appear, that in Homer's 
 time, which was alxmt five hundred years later, the art 
 of sincltinsr iron had been so much improved, as to 
 enable men to apply it to the common purposes of 
 life, as had long before been done by the Egyptians. 
 The general opinion of the ancients was, that the me- 
 thod of smelting iron ore had been brought to perfec- 
 tion by the Chalyl>es, a small nation situated near the 
 Black Sea,* and that the name chalybs, occasionally 
 used for steel, was derived from that people. 
 
 Pliny informs us, that the ores of iron are scattered 
 very profusely almost every where : that they exist in 
 Elba; that there was a mountain in Cantabria com* 
 posed entirely of iron ore; and that the earth in Cap- 
 padocia, when watered from a certain river, is convert- 
 ed into iron.f lie gives no account of the mode of 
 smelting iron ores ; nor does he appear to have been 
 acquainted with the processes; for he says that iron 
 is reduced from its ore precisely in the same way as 
 copper is. Now we know, that the processes for 
 smelting copper and iron are quite different, and 
 
 * Xenophon's Anabasis, r. 5. f Plinii Hist. Nat. xxxir. 14. 
 
 , VOL. i. r 
 
66 HISTORY 0V CHEKIiTET. 
 
 founded upon different principles. He says v that in 
 his time many different kinds of iron existed, and 
 they were stricture, in Latin a string enda ode. 
 
 That steel was well known and in common use when 
 Pliny wrote is obvious from many considerations ; but 
 he seems to have had no notion of what constituted 
 the difference between iron and steel, or of the me- 
 thod employed to convert iron into steel. In his opi- 
 nion it depended upon the nature of the water, and 
 consisted in heating iron red-hot, and plunging it, 
 while in that state, into certain wUers. The waters 
 at Bilbilis and Turiasso, in Spain, and at Coraum, 
 in Italy, possessed this extraordinary virtue. The 
 best steel in Pliny's time came from China ; the next 
 best, in point of quality, was manufactured in 
 Parthia. 
 
 It would appear, that at Noricum steel was manu- 
 factured directly from the ore of iron. This process 
 was perfecly practicable, and it is said still to be prac- 
 tised in certain cases. 
 
 The ancients were acquainted with the method of 
 rendering iron, or rather steel, magnetic ; as appears 
 from a passage in the fourteenth chapter of the thirty- 
 fourth book of Pliny. Magnetic iron was distinguished 
 by the name of ferruta, tiium. 
 
 When iron is dabbed over with alumen and vinegar 
 it becomes like copper, according to Pliny. Cerussa, 
 gypsum, and liquid pitch, keep it from rusting. Pliny 
 was of opinion that a method of preventing iron from 
 rusting hud been once known, but had been lost be- 
 fore his time. The iron chains of an old bridge over 
 the Euphrates had not rusted in Pliny's time ; but a 
 few new links, which had been added to supply the 
 place of some that had decayed, were become rusty. 
 
 It would appear from Pliny, that the ancients made 
 use of something very like tractors ; for he says that 
 pain in the side is relieved by holding near it the 
 poiut of a dagger thai ha* wounded a man. Water 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE AXCIttfTS. 67 
 
 in which red-hot iron had been plunged was recom- 
 mended as a cure for the dysentery ; and the actual 
 cautery with red-hot iron, Pliny informs us, prevents 
 hydrophobia, when a person has been bitten by a mad 
 dop:. 
 
 Rust of iron and scales of iron were used by the 
 ancients as astringent medicines. 
 
 6. Tin^also, must have been in common use in the 
 time of Moses ; for it is mentioned without any ob- 
 servation as one of the common metals.* And from 
 the way in which it is spoken of by Isaiah and Eze- 
 kiel, it is obvious that it was considered as of far in- 
 ferior value to silver and gold. Now tin, though the 
 ores of it where it does occur are usually abundant, 
 is rather a scarce metal : that is to say, there are but 
 few spots on the face of the earth where it is known 
 to exist. Cornwall, Spain, in the mountains of Gal- 
 licia, and the mountains which separate Saxony and 
 Bohemia, are the only countries in Europe where tin 
 occurs abundantly. The last of these localities has 
 not been known for five centuries. It was from Spain 
 and from Britain that the ancients were supplied with 
 tin; for no mines of tin exist, or have ever been 
 known to exist, in Africa or Asia, except in the East 
 Indies. The Phoenicians were the first nation which 
 caried on a great trade by sea. There is evidence 
 that at a very early period they traded with Spain 
 and with Britain, and that from these countries they 
 drew their supplies of tin. It was doubtless the Phoe- 
 nicians that supplied the Egyptians with this metal. 
 They had imbibed strongly a spirit of monopoly ; and 
 to secure the whole trade of tin they carefully con- 
 cealed the source from which they drew that metal* 
 Hence, doubtless, the reason why the Grecian geogra- 
 phers, who derived their information from the Phoe- 
 nicians, represented the Insults Cassiterides, or tin 
 
 N umbers xxxL 22, ' 
 
68 HISTORY or CHEMISTRY. 
 
 islands, as a set of islands lying off the north coast 
 of Spain. We know that in fact the Scilly islands, 
 in these early ages, yielded tin, though doubtless the 
 great supply was drawn from the neighbouring pro- 
 vince of Cornwall. It was probably from these islands 
 that the Greek name for tin was derived (ca<r*ir<poc). 
 Even Pliny informs us, that in his time tin was ob- 
 tained from the Cassiterides, and from Lusitania 
 and Gallicia. It occurs, he says, in grains in alluvial 
 soil, from which it is obtained by washing. It is in 
 black grains, the metallic nature of which is only re- 
 cognisable by the great weight. This is a pretty ac- 
 curate description of stream tin, which we know for- 
 merly constituted the only ore of that metal wrought 
 in Cornwall. He says that the ore occurs also along 
 with grains of gold ; that it is separated from the soil 
 by washing along with the grains of gold, and after- 
 wards smelted separately. 
 
 Pliny gives no particulars about the mode of re- 
 ducing the ore of tin to the metallic state ; nor is it at 
 all likely that he was acquainted with the process. 
 
 The Latin term for tin was plumbum album. .S'/a/i- 
 iium is also used by Pliny ; but it is impossible to 
 understand the account which he gives of it. There 
 is, he says, an ore consisting of lead, united to silver. 
 When this ore is smelted, the first metal that flows 
 out is stannttm. What Hows next is silver. What 
 remains in the furnace is galena. This being -smelted, 
 yields lead. 
 
 Were we to admit the existence of an ore composed 
 of lead and silver, it is obvious that no such products 
 could be obtained by simply smelting it. 
 
 Cassiteros, or tin, is mentioned by Homer; and, 
 from the way in which the metal is said by him to 
 have been used, it is obvious that in his time it bore a 
 much higher price, and, consequently, was more valued 
 than at present. In his description of the breastplate 
 of Agamemnon, he says that it contained tea bunds 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE ASCIEXTS. 69 
 
 of steel, twelve of gold, and twenty of tin 
 And in the twenty-third book of the Iliad (line 561), 
 Achilles describes a copper breastplate surrounded 
 with shining tin (fam-ou ra(r<rir*poio). Pliny informs 
 us, that in his time tin was adulterated by adding to 
 it about one-third of white copper. A pound of tin, 
 when Pliny lived, cost ten denarii. Now, if we reckon 
 a denarius at 7 J/7., with Dr. Arhuthnot, this would make 
 a Roman pound of tin to cost (.. />'/. But, as tho 
 Roman pound was only equal to three-fourths of our 
 avoirdupois |>ound, it i< plain that in the time of Pliny 
 an avoirdupois pound of tin was worth 85. 7[</., which 
 is almost seven times the price of tin in the present 
 day. 
 
 Tin, in the time of Pliny, was used for covering the 
 inside of copper vessels, as it is at this day. And, no 
 doubt, the process still followed is of the same nature 
 as the process used by the ancients for tinning copper. 
 Pliny remarks, with surprise, that copper thus tinned 
 docs not increase in weight. Now Bayen ascertained 
 that a copper pan, nine inches in diameter, and three 
 inches three lines in depth, when tinned, only ac- 
 quired an additional weight of twenty-one grains. 
 These measures and weights are Frcncn. When we 
 convert them into English, we have a copper pan 9*59 
 inches in diameter, and 3*46 inches deep, which, when 
 tinned, increased in weight 17-23 troy grains. Now 
 the surface of the copper pan, thus tinned, was 17(5*468 
 square inches. Hence it follows, that a square inch 
 of copper, when tinned, increases in weight only 0*097 
 jr.rains. This increase is so small, that we may excuse 
 Pliny, who probabjy had never seen the increase of 
 weight determined, except by means of a rude Roman 
 statcra, for concluding that there was no increase of 
 weight whatever. 
 
 Tin was employed by the ancients for mirrors : but 
 
 Iliad xi. 25. 
 
70 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 mirrors of silver were gradually substituted: and these 
 in Pliny's time had become so common, that they were 
 even employed by female servants or slaves. 
 
 That Pliny's knowledge of the properties of tin 
 was very limited, and far from accurate, is ob- 
 vious from his assertion that tin is less fusible than 
 silver.* It is true that the ancients had no measure 
 to determine the different degrees of heat; but as 
 tin melts at a heat under redness, while silver re- 
 quires a bright red heat to bring it into fusion, a single 
 comparative trial would have shown him which was 
 most fusible. This trial, it is obvious, had never been 
 made by him. 
 
 The ancients seem to have been ignorant of the 
 method of tinning iron. At least, no reference to 
 tin plate is made by Pliny, or by any other ancient 
 author, that I have had an opportunity of consult- 
 ing. 
 
 It would appear from Pliny, that both copper and 
 brass were tinned by the Gauls at an early period. 
 Tinned brass was called ara coctilia, and was so beau* 
 tiful that it almost passed for silver. Plating (or 
 covering the metal with plates of silver), was gradually 
 substituted for tinninir; and finally yildiny took the 
 place of plating. The trappings of horses, chariots, 
 &c., were thus ornamented. Pliny nowhere gives a 
 description of the process of plating ; but there can 
 be little doubt that it was similar to that at present 
 practised. Gilding was accomplished by laying an 
 amalgam of gold on the copper or brass, its at pre- 
 sent. 
 
 7. Lead appears also to have been in common use 
 among the Egyptians, at the time of Moses, t It was 
 distinguished among the Romans by the name of plum- 
 bum nit/rum. In Pliny's time the lead-mines existed 
 chiefly in Spain and Britain. In Britain lead was so 
 
 Lib. xxxir. e. 17. f Numbers zzzl 22. 
 
CHEMISTRY OP THE AXCIESTS. 71 
 
 abundant, that it was prohibited to extract above a 
 certain quantity in a year. The mines lay on the 
 surface of the earth. Derbyshire was the county in 
 which lead ores were chiefly wrought by the Romans. 
 The rich mines in the north of England seem to have 
 been unknown to them. 
 
 Pliny was of opinion that if a lead-mine, after being 
 exhausted, be shut up for some time, the ore will be 
 again renewed. 
 
 In the time of Pliny leaden pipes were commonly used 
 for conveying water. The vulgar notion that the an- 
 cients did not know that water will always rise in pipes 
 as high as the source from which it proceeds, and that 
 it was this ignorance which led to the formation of 
 aqueducts, is quite unfounded. Nobody can read 
 Pliny without seeing that this important fact was well 
 known in his time. 
 
 Sheet lead was also used in the time of Pliny, and 
 applied to the same purposes as at present. But lead 
 was much higher priced among the ancients than it is 
 at present. Pliny informs us that its price was to 
 that of tin as 7 to 10. Hence it must have sold at 
 the rate of 65. Oje/. per pound. The present price of 
 lead does not much exceed three halfpence the pound. 
 It is therefore only l-48th part of the price which it 
 bore in the time of Pliny. This difference must be 
 chiefly owing to the improvements made by the mo- 
 derns in working the mines and smelting the ores of 
 lead. 
 
 Tin, in Pliny** time, was used as a solder for lead. 
 For this purpose it is well adapted, as it is 90 much 
 easier smelted than lead. But when he says that lead 
 is used also as a solder for tin, his meaning is not so 
 clear. Probably he means an alloy of lead and tin, 
 which, fusing at a lower point than tin, may be used 
 to solder that metal. The addition of some bismuth 
 reduces the fusing point materially ; but that metal 
 was unknown to the ancients. 
 
72 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 Argentarium is an alloy of equal parts of lead and 
 tin. Tcrtiarium, of two parts lead and one part tin. 
 It was used as a solder. 
 
 Some preparations of lead were used by the ancients 
 in medicine, as we know from the description of them 
 given us by Dioscorides and Pliny. These preparations 
 consisted chit-fly of protoxide of lead and lead reduced 
 to powder, and partially oxidized by triturating it 
 with water in a mortar. They were applied to ulcers, 
 and employed externally as astringents. 
 
 MolyMena was also employed in medicine. Pliny 
 says it was the same as galena. From his description 
 it is obvious that it was lithartje ; for it was in scales, 
 and was more valued the nearer its colour approached 
 to that of gold. It was employed, as it still is, for 
 making Blasters. Pliny gives us the process for 
 making the plaster employed by the Roman surgeons. 
 It was made by heating together 
 
 3 Ibs. molybUcna or litharge, 
 J 11). wax, 
 
 3 heminrc, or 11- pint, of olive oil. 
 This process is very nearly the same as the one at pre- 
 sent followed by apothecaries for making adhesive 
 plaster. 
 
 Psimmythium, or cerussa, was the same as our white 
 lead. It was made by exposing lead in sheets to the 
 fumes of vinegar. It would seem probable from Pliny's 
 account, though it is confused and inaccurate, that 
 the ancients were in the habit of dissolving cerussa in 
 vinegar, and thus making an impure acetate of lead. 
 
 Cerussa was used in medicine. It constituted also 
 a common white paint. At one time, Pliny says, it 
 was found native ; but in his time all that was used 
 was prepared artificially. 
 
 Cerussa iista seems to have been nearly the same as 
 our red lead. It was formed accidentally from cerussa 
 during the burning of the Pyrirus.. The colour was 
 purple. It was imitated at Rome by burning si I it 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE ANCIENTS. 73 
 
 marmarosus, which was probably a variety of some of 
 our ochres. 
 
 8. Besides the metals above enumerated, the an- 
 cients were also acquainted with quicksilver. Nothing 
 is known about the first discovery of this metal; though 
 it obviously precedes the commencement of history. 
 I am not aware that the term occurs in the writings of 
 Moses. We have therefore no evidence that it was 
 known to the Egyptians at that early period ; nor do 
 I find any allusion to it in the works of Herodotus. 
 But this is not surprising, as that author confines him- 
 self chiefly to subjects connected with history. Dios- 
 corides and Pliny lx)th mention it as common in their 
 time. Dioacorid'cs gives a method of obtaining it by 
 sublimation from cinnabar. It is remarkable, because 
 it constitutes the first example of a process which ulti- 
 mately led to distillation.* 
 
 Cinnabar is also described by Thcophrastus. The 
 term minium was applied to it also, till in consequence 
 of the adulteration of cinnabar with red lead, the 
 term minium came at last to IK* restricted to that pre- 
 paration of lead. Theophrastus describes an artificial 
 cinnabar, which came from the country al>ovc Kphestis. 
 It was a shining red-coloured sand, which was col- 
 lected and reduced to a fine powder by pounding it in 
 vessels of stone. We do not know what it was. The 
 native cinnabar was found in Spain, and was used 
 chiefly as a paint. Dioscorides employs minium as 
 the name for what we at present call cinnabar, or bisul- 
 phuret of mercury. His cinnabar was a red paint 
 from Africa, produced in such small quantity that 
 painters could scarcely procure enough of it to answer 
 their purposes. 
 
 Mercury is described by Pliny as existing native in 
 the mines of Spain, and Dioscorides gives the process 
 for extracting it from cinnabar. It was employed in 
 
 Dioscorides, lib. r. c. 110. 
 
74 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 gilding precisely as it is by the moderns* Pliny was 
 aware of its great specific gravity, and of the readiness 
 with which it dissolves gold. The amalgam was squeezed 
 through leather, which separated most of the quicksilver. 
 When the solid amalgam remaining was heated, the 
 mercury was driven off and pure gold remained. 
 
 It is obvious from what Dioscorides says, that the 
 properties of mercury were very imperfectly known to 
 him. He says that it may be kept in vessels of glass, 
 or of lead, or of tin, or of silver.* Now it is well 
 known that it dissolves lead, tin, and silver with so 
 much rapidity, that vessels of these metals, were mer- 
 cury put into them, would be speedily destroyed. 
 Pliny's account of quicksilver is rather obscure. It 
 seems doubtful whether he was aware that native crr- 
 ycntum rivitm and the hydrargyrum extracted from 
 cinnabar were the same. 
 
 Cinnabar was occasionally used as an external 
 medicine; but Pliny disapproves of it, assuring his 
 readers that quicksilver and all its preparations are 
 virulent poisons. No other mercurial preparations 
 except cinnabar and the amalgam of mercury seem 
 to have been known to the ancients, f 
 
 9. The ancients were unacquainted with the metal 
 to which we at present give the name of antimony ; 
 but .several of the ores of that metal, and of the pro- 
 ducts of these ores were not altogether unknown to 
 them. From the account of stimuli and stibium, by 
 Dioscorides; and Pliny, $ there can be little doubt that 
 these names were applied to the mineral now called 
 sulphur ct of antimony or crude antimony. It is found 
 most commonly, Pliny says, among the ores of silver, 
 
 Lib. v.c.l 10. 
 
 f The ancienU were in the habit of extracting mercury from 
 cinnabar, by a kind of imperfect distillation. The natire mer- 
 cury they called art; tut urn riruiM, that from cinnabar kydrar- 
 yyrux. See Plinii Hist. Nat. xxxui. 8. 
 
 ; Lib. T. c. 99. i Lib. mill, c. 6. 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE AKCIEKTS. 75 
 
 and consist* of two kinds, the male and the female ; 
 the latter of which is most valued. 
 
 This pigment was known at a very early period, 
 and employed by the Asiatic ladies in painting their 
 eyelashes, or rather the inside* of their eyelashes, 
 black. Thus it is said of Jezebel, that when Jehu 
 came to Jezreel she painted her face. The original 
 is, she put her eyes in fulphvret of antimony.* A 
 similar expression occurs in Ezekiel, " For whom 
 thou didst wash thyself, paintedst thy eyes*' literally, 
 put thy eyes in sulphuret of antimony.} This custom 
 of painting the eyes black with antimony was trans- 
 ferred from Asia to Greece, and while the Moors oc- 
 cupied Spain it was employed by the Spanish ladies 
 also. It is curious that the term alcohol, at present 
 confined to spirit of trine, was originally applied to 
 the powder of sulphuret of antimony.! The ancients 
 were in the habit of roasting sulphuret of antimony, 
 and thus converting it into an impure oxide. This 
 preparation was also called stimmiand stibium. It was 
 employed in medicine as an external application, and 
 was conceived to act chictiy as an astringent; Dios- 
 coridcs describes the method of preparing it. We 
 sec, from Pliny's account of stibium, that he did not 
 distinguish between sulphuret of antimony and oxide 
 of antimony. 
 
 9. Some of the compounds of arsenic were also 
 known to the ancients ; though they were neither ac- 
 quainted with this substance in the metallic state, nor 
 with its oxide ; the poisonous nature of which is so 
 violent that had it been known to them it could not 
 have been omitted by Dioscorides and Pliny. 
 
 2 Kings ix. 30. 
 
 f Chap. 23. r. 40, the Vulgate has it 1 0ri0i&* rove tytfoXpovC 
 trov. 
 
 I Hart manni Praxis Clif miatrica, p. 598 
 f Hi nii Hist Nat. ***"?. 6. 
 
76 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 The word ffavfa^axn (sandaracke) occur* in Aristotle, 
 and the term <&ppwxo* (arrenicho*) in Theophrastus.^ 
 Dioscorides uses likewise the same name with Aristotle. 
 It was applied to u scarlet-coloured mineral, which oc- 
 curs native, and is now known by the name of rcnlyar. 
 It is a compound of arsenic and sulphur. It was em- 
 ployed in medicine both externally and internally, and 
 is recommended by Dioscorides, as an excellent re- 
 medy for an inveterate cough. 
 
 AurijiiyincntuHi ami arsi nicum were names given to 
 the native yellow sulphurct of 'arsenic. It \va$ used 
 in the same way, and considered by Dioscorides and 
 Pliny as of the* same nature with realgar. But there 
 is no reason for supposing that the ancients were ac- 
 quainted with the compositions of either of these 
 bodies ; far less that they had any suspicion of the 
 existence of the metal to which we at present give the 
 name of arsenic. 
 
 Such is a sketch of the facts known to the ancients 
 respecting metals. They knew the six malleable 
 metals which are still in common use, and applied 
 them to most of the purposes to which the moderns 
 apply them. Scarcely any information has been left us 
 of the methods employed by them to reduce these 
 metals from their ores. But unless the ores were 
 of a much sampler nature than the modern ores of 
 these metals, of which we have no evidence* the 
 smelting processes with which the ancients were fami- 
 liar, could scarcely have been contrived without a 
 knowledge of the substances united uith the different 
 nu tals in their ores, aud of the means by which these 
 foreign bodies could be separated, and the metals iso- 
 lated from all impurities. This doubtless implied a 
 certain quantity of chcnm-al knowledge, which having 
 been handed down to the moderns, served as a founda- 
 tion upon which the modern science of chemistry was 
 
 , c. 71, 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE ANCItXTS. 77 
 
 gradually reared : at the same time it will be admitted 
 that this foundation was very slender, and would of 
 itself have led to little. Most of the oxides, sul- 
 phurets, Arc., and almost all the salts into which these 
 metallic bodies enter, were unknown to the ancients. 
 Besides the working in metals there were some other 
 branches of industry practiced by the ancients, so in- 
 timately connected with chemical science, that it 
 would be improper to pass them over in silence. The 
 most important of these are the following : 
 
 ii. couu'R* USFD BY PAINTERS. 
 
 It is well known that the ancient Grecian artists 
 carried the art of painting to the highest degree of 
 perfection, and that their paintings were admired and 
 sought after by the -most eminent and accomplished 
 men of antiquity ; and Pliny gives us a catalogue of 
 a irreat number of first-rate pictures, and a historical 
 account of a vast many celebrated painters of anti- 
 quity. In his own time, he says, the art of painting 
 liud lost its importance, statues and tablets having 
 came in place of pictures. 
 
 Two kinds of colours were employed by the an- 
 cients ; namely, the florid and the austere. The florid 
 colours, as enumerated by Piiny, were minium, arme- 
 Hium, cinnabcris, chrysocolla, purpurissum, and in- 
 dicum purpnrissum. 
 
 The word minium as used by Pliny means red 
 lead ; though Dioscorides employs it for bisulphuret 
 of mercury or cinnabar. 
 
 Arnicnium was obviously an ochre, probably of a 
 yellow or orange colour. 
 
 Cinnabcris was bisulphuret of mercury, which is 
 known to have a scarlet colour. Dioscorides employs 
 it to denote a vegetable red colour, probably similar to 
 the resiu at presen. called dragons blood. 
 
 C'hrysvcollu waa a green-coloured paint, and from 
 
78 BISTORT OF CHEMISTRY, 
 
 Pliny's description of it, could have been nothing else 
 than carbonate of copper or malachite. 
 
 , Purpuris$um was a hike, as is obvious from the 
 account of its formation given by Pliny. The colour- 
 ing matter is not specified, but from the term used 
 there can be little doubt that it was the liquor from the 
 shellfish that yielded the celebrated purple dye of 
 the Tynans. 
 
 In /lie urn purpurissum was probably indigo. This 
 might be implied from the account of it given by 
 Pliny. 
 
 The austere colours used by the ancient painters 
 were of two kinds, native and artificial. The native 
 were sinopis, rubrica, para Ionium, melinum, eretria, 
 uuripiymtHtum. The artificial were, ochra, cerusna 
 u*7a, sunduracha, sandy x, syricum, atramcntum. 
 
 Sinopis is the red substance now known by the 
 name of reddle, and used for marking. On that ac- 
 count it is sometimes called red chalk. It was found 
 in Pontus, in the Balearian islands, and in Egypt. 
 The price was three denarii, or Is. l\\d. the pound 
 weight. The most famous variety of sinopis was 
 from the isle of 1 jcmnos ; it was sold sealed and 
 stamped : hence it was called sphrayis. It was em- 
 ployed to adulterate minium. In medicine it was 
 used to appease inflammation, and as an antidote to 
 poison. 
 
 Ochre is merely sinopis heated in a covered vessel. 
 The higher the temperature to which it has been ex- 
 posed the better it is. 
 
 Ltucophorum is a compound of 
 
 (i Ihs. sinopis of Pontus, 
 lOlhs. sin's, 
 2 Ibs. nu-J.inum, 
 
 triturated together for thirzy days. It was used to 
 make gold adhere to wood. 
 
 Rubrlca from the name, was probably a red ochre. 
 
 Paratonium was a white colour, so called from a 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE AKCIEKTS. 79 
 
 place in Egypt, where it was found. It was obtained 
 also in the island of Crete, and in Cyrene. It was 
 f aid to he a combination of the froth of the sea con- 
 solidated with mud. It consisted probably of car- 
 bonate of lime. Six pounds of it cost only one 
 denarius. 
 
 Melinum was also a white-coloured powder found 
 in Mclos and Samos in veins. It was most probably 
 a carbonate of lime. 
 
 Eretria was named from the place where it was 
 found. Pliny gives its medieal properties, but docs 
 not inform us of its colour. It is impossible to say 
 what it was. 
 
 Auripigmentum was yellow sulphuret of arsenic. 
 It was probably but little used as a pigment by the 
 ancient painters. 
 
 Cerussa vsta was red lead. 
 
 Sandaracha was red sulphuret of arsenic. The 
 pound of sandaracha cost 5 as. : it was imitated by 
 red lead. Both it and ochra were found in the island 
 Topazos in the Red Sea. 
 
 Sandy x was made by torrefying equal parts of true 
 sandaracha and sinopis. It cost half the price of san- 
 daracha. Virgil mistook this pigment for a plant, as is 
 obvious from the following line : 
 
 . Sponte sua sandix, paaccntes restiet agnos.* 
 
 Riricvm is made by mixing sinopis and sandy x. 
 
 Atramrntum was obviously from Pliny's account of 
 it lamp-black. He mentions ivory-black as an in- 
 vention of Apelles: it was called clcphantinnm. 
 There was a native atramcntum, which had the colour 
 of sulphur, and got a black colour artificially. It is 
 not unlikely that it contained sulphate of iron, and 
 that it got its black colour from the admixture of some 
 astringent substance. 
 
 BocoI.ir.L43. 
 
80 HISTORY OF CIIEMISTfcY. 
 
 The ink of the ancients was lamp-black mixed with 
 water, containing gum or glue dissolved in it. Atra- 
 mcntum indicum was the same as our China ink. 
 
 The purpurissum was a high-priced pigment. It 
 was made by putting crcta aryentaria (a species of 
 white clay) into the caldrons containing the ingre- 
 dients for dying purple. The creta imbibed the purple 
 colour and became purpurissum. The first portion of 
 crcta put in constituted the finest and highest-priced 
 pigment. The portions put in afterwards became 
 successively worse, and were, of consequence lower 
 priced. We see, from this description, that it was a 
 lake similar to our modern cochineal lakes.* 
 
 That the purpurissum indicum was indigo is ob- 
 vious from the statement of Pliny, that when thrown 
 upon hot coals it gives out a beautiful purple tiame. 
 This constitutes the character of indigo. Its price in 
 Pliny's time was ten denarii, or six shillings and five- 
 ponce halfpenny the Roman pound ; which is equiva- 
 lent to 8s. l\d. the avcirdupo s. 
 
 Though few or none of the ancient pictures have 
 been preserved, yet several specimens of the colours 
 used by them still remain in Koine and in the ruins of 
 Herculaneum. Among others the fresco paintings, 
 in the baths of Titus, still remain ; and as these were 
 made for a Roman emperor, we might expect to find 
 the most beautiful and costly colours employed in 
 them. These paints, and some others, were examined 
 by Sir Humphrey Davy, in 1813, while he was in 
 Rome. From his researches we derive some pretty 
 accurate information respecting the colours employed 
 by the painters of Greece and Rome. 
 
 1. l<td paints. Three diiierent kinds of red were 
 found in a chamber opened in 1811, in the baths of 
 Titus, namely, a bright orange red, a dull red, and a 
 brown red. The bright orange red was minium, or 
 
 * Flinii Hut. Nat. xrxr. 6. 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE ANCIEXTS. 81 
 
 red lead; the other two were merely two varieties of 
 iron ochres. Another still brighter red was observed 
 on the walls ; it proved, on examination, to be rermi- 
 linn or cinnabar. 
 
 2. Yelloic pfiints. All the yellows examined by 
 Davy proved to be iron ochres, sometimes mixed with 
 a little red lead. Orpiment was undoubtedly em- 
 ployed, as is obvious from what Pliny says on the 
 subject : but Davy found no traces of it among the 
 yellow colours which he examined. A very deep 
 yellow, approaching orange, which covered a piece of 
 stucco in the ruins near the monument of Caius Ces- 
 tins, proved to be protoxide of lead, or massicot, 
 mixed with some 'red lead. The yellows in the Aldo- 
 hrandini pictures were all ochres, and so were those 
 in the pictures on the walls of the houses at Pompeii. 
 
 3. Blue paints. Different shades of blurs are used 
 in the different apartments of the baths of Titus, which 
 arc darker or lighter, as they contain more or less 
 carbonate of lime with which the blue pigment had been 
 mixed by the painter. This blue pigment turned out, 
 on examination, to be a frit composed of alkali and 
 silica, fused together with a certain quantity of oxide of 
 copper. This was the colour called jrt**cTdl*ait0*J 
 by the Greeks, and cffrnlcum by the Romans. Vitru- 
 vius ives the method of preparing: it by heating 
 strondy together sand, carbonate of soda, and filings 
 of copper. Davy found that fifteen parts by weight 
 of anhydrous carbonate of soda, twenty parts of pow- 
 dered opaque flints, and three parts of copper filings, 
 strongly heated together for two hours, pave a sub- 
 stance exactly similar to the blue pigment of the 
 ancients, and which, when powdered, produced a fine 
 deep blue colour. This cceruleum has the advantage 
 of remaining unaltered even when the painting is 
 exposed to the actions of the air and sun* 
 
 There is reason to suspect, from what Vitruviu* and 
 Pliny say, that glass rendered blue by means of co- 
 VOL. i. G 
 
82 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 bait constituted the basis of some of the blue pigments 
 of the ancients ; but all those examined by Davy con- 
 sisted of glass tinged blue by copper, without any 
 trace of cobalt whatever. 
 
 4. Green paints. All the green paints examined by 
 Davy proved to be carbonates of copper, more or less 
 mixed with carbonate of lime. 1 have already men* 
 tioned that verdigris was known to the ancients. It 
 was no doubt employed by them as a pigment, though 
 it is not probable that the acetic acid would be able 
 to withstand the action of the atmosphere for a couple 
 of thousand years. 
 
 5. Purple paints. Davy ascertained that the colour- 
 ing matter of the ancient purple was combustible. It 
 did not give out the smell of ammonia, at least per- 
 ceptibly. There is little doubt that it was the purpu- 
 rissum of the ancients, or a clay coloured by means 
 of the purple of the buccinum employed by the Syrians 
 in the celebrated purple dye. 
 
 6. Black and brown paints. The black paints were 
 lamp-black : the browns were some of them ochres and 
 some of them oxides of manganese. 
 
 7. \Yhite paints. All the ancient white paints ex- 
 amined by Davy were carbonates of lime.* We know 
 from Pliny that white lead was employed by the 
 ancients as a pigment ; but it might probably become 
 altered in its nature by long-continued exposure to 
 the weather. 
 
 III. C. LASS. 
 
 It is admitted by some that the word which in our 
 English Bible is translated crystal, means glass, in 
 the following passage of Job : * 4 The gold and the 
 crystal cannot equal it."t Now although the exact 
 thin* when Job was written is not known, it is admitted 
 on all hands to be one of the oldest of the books con 
 
 Plat Trana. 1814, p. 97. f Job xxriii. 17 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE AKCttKTS. 83 
 
 tained in the Old Testament. There are strong rea- 
 sons for believing that it existed before the time of 
 Moses ; and some go so far as to affirm that there are 
 several allusions to it in the writings of Moses. If 
 therefore glass were known when the Book .of Job was 
 written, it is obvious that the discovery of it preceded 
 the commencement of history. But even though the 
 word used in Job should not refer to glass, there can 
 be no doubt that it was known at a very early period ; 
 for glass beads are frequently found on the Egyptian 
 mummies, and they are known to have been embalmed 
 at avery remote period. The first Greek author who uses 
 the word glass (vaXoc, hyalos) is Aristophanes. In his 
 comedy of The Clouds, act ii. scene 1, in the ridicu- 
 lous dialogue between Socrates and Strepsiades, the 
 Later announces a method which had occurred to him 
 to pay his debts. " You know," says he, "the beautiful 
 transparent stone used for kindling fire/* " Do you 
 mean glass (rov SoXor, ton hyalon) 7 ." replied Socrates. "I 
 do,'* was the answer. He then describes how he would 
 destroy the writings by means of it, and thus defraud 
 his creditors. Now this comedy was acted about four 
 hundred and twenty-three year* before the boirinnintr 
 of the Christian era. The story related by Pliny, re- 
 specting the discovery of this beautiful and important 
 substance, is well known. Some Phoenician m?rchants, 
 in a ship loaded with carbonate of soda from Egypt, 
 stopped, and went ashore on the banks of the river 
 Bclus: having nothing to support their kettles while 
 ttay were dressing their food, they employed lumps of 
 carbonate of soda for that purpose. The fire was 
 strong enough to fuse some of this soda, and to unite 
 it with the tine sand of the river Bclus : the conse- 
 quence of this was the formation of glass.* Whether 
 this story be entitled to credit or not, it is clear that 
 
 Plinii Hist. Nat. xxrri. 26, 
 G 2 
 
84 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 the discovery must have originated in some such acci- 
 dent. Pliny's account of the manufacture of glass, like 
 his account of every other manufacture, is very imper- 
 fect : but we see from it that in his time they were in 
 the habit of making coloured glasses ; that colourless 
 glasses were most highly prized, and that glass was 
 rendered colourless then as it is at present, by the 
 addition of a certain quantity of oxide of manganese. 
 Colourless glass was very high priced in Pliny's time. 
 He relates, that for two moderate-sized colourless 
 drinking-glasses the Emperor Nero paid 6000 sistertii, 
 which is equivalent to *<i5/. of our money. 
 
 Pliny relates the story of the man who brought a 
 vessel of malleable glass to the Emperor Tiberius, and 
 who, after dimpling it by dashing it against the floor, 
 restored it to its original shape and beauty by means 
 of a hammer ; Tiberius, as a reward for this important 
 discovery, ordered the artist to be executed, in order, 
 as he alleged, to prevent gold and silver from becom- 
 ing useless. But though Pliny relates this story, it is 
 evident that he does not give credit to it ; nor does it 
 deserve credit. We can assign no reason why mal- 
 leable substances may not be transparent ; but all of 
 them hitherto known are opaque. Chloride of silver, 
 chloride of lead and iron constitute no exception, for 
 they are not malleable, though by peculiar contrivances 
 they may be extended ; and their transparency is very 
 imperfect. 
 
 Many specimens of the coloured glasses made by 
 the ancients still remain, particularly the beads em- 
 ployed as ornaments to the Egyptian mummies. Of 
 these ancient glasses several have been examined che- 
 mically by K la prot h, Ilatchett, and some other indi- 
 viduals, in order to ascertain the substances employed 
 to give colour to the glass. The following are the 
 facts that have been ascertained : 
 
 1 . Red glass. This glass was opaque, and of a 
 
or riir. ASCIF.XTS. 8.t 
 
 lively copper-red colour. It was probably the kind of 
 
 red glass to which Pliny gave the name of htpmatinon. 
 
 Klaproth analyzed it, and obtained from 100 grains 
 
 of it the following constituents : 
 
 Silica ....... 71 
 
 Oxide of lead . . . . . 10 
 
 Oxide of copper .... 7*5 
 
 Oxide of iron . . . . . 1 
 
 Alumina ...... 2*5 
 
 Lime T5 
 
 93*5 
 
 No doubt the deficiency was owing to the presence of 
 an alkali. From this analysis we see that the colour- 
 ing matter of this glass was red oxide of copper. 
 
 2. Green glass. The colour was light verdigris- 
 prcen, and the glass, like the preceding, was opaque. 
 The constituents from 100 grains were, 
 
 Silica 65 
 
 Black oxide of copper . .10 
 
 Oxide of lead 7-5 
 
 Oxide of iron ..... 3*5 
 
 Lime 6-5 
 
 Alumina ...... 5*5 
 
 98-Of 
 
 Thus it appears that both the red and green glass are 
 composed of the same ingredients, though in different 
 proportions. Both owe their colour to copper. The 
 red glass is coloured by the red oxide of that metal ; 
 the green by the black oxide, which forms green- 
 coloured compounds, with various acids, particularly 
 with carbonic acid and with silica. 
 
 3. Blue glass. The variety analyzed by Klaproth 
 had a sapphire-blue colour, and was only translucent 
 
 Bettrage, vi 140. f Ibid, p. 142. 
 
66 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 on the edges. The constituents from 100 grains of it 
 
 were, 
 
 Silica ... . . . . . .81- 5 
 
 Oxide of iron . , , 9* 5 
 
 Alumina . . . . . 1* 5 
 
 Oxide of copper * . . .0-5 
 
 Lime . . . . . , . 0-25 
 
 93-25* 
 
 From this analysis it appears that the colouring matter 
 of this glass was oxide of iron : it was therefore ana* 
 logous to the lapis lazuli, or ultramarine, in its nature. 
 
 Davy, as has been formerly noticed, found another 
 blue glass, or frit, coloured by means of copper ; and 
 he showed that the blue paint of the ancients was 
 often made from this glass, simply by grinding it to 
 powder. 
 
 Klaproth could find no cobalt in the blue glass 
 which he examined ; but Davy found the transparent 
 blue glass vessels, which are along with the vases, in 
 tin- tombs of Magna Grtecia, tinged with cobalt ; and 
 he found cobalt in all the transparent ancient blue 
 glasses with which Mr. Millingen supplied him. The 
 mere fusion of these glasses with alkali, and subse- 
 quent digestion of the product with muriatic acid, was 
 sufficient to produce a sympathetic ink from them, f 
 The transparent blue beads which occasionally adorn 
 the Egyptian mummies have also been examined, and 
 found coloured by cobalt. The opaque glass beads 
 are all tinged by means of oxide of copper. It is 
 probable from this that all the transparent blue glasses 
 of the ancients were coloured by cobalt ; yet we find 
 no allusion to cobalt in any of the ancient authors. 
 Thcophrastus says that copper (gaXxoc,cAa/c0j) was used 
 to give glass a tine colour. Is it not likely that the im- 
 
 * Bcitrtge, p. 144. f Phil Trans. 1815, p. 109. 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE AKCIEST*. 87 
 
 pure oxide of cobalt, in the state in which they used 
 it, was confounded by them with xa\K<>c(chalcos) ? 
 
 IV. VASA MVRR1IINA. 
 
 The Romans obtained from the east, and particu- 
 larly from Egypt, a set of vessels which they distin- 
 guished by the name of rasa murrhina, and which 
 were held by them in very high estimation. They 
 were never larger than to be capable of containing 
 from about thirty-six to forty cubic inches. One of 
 the largest size cost, in the time of Pliny, about 7000/. 
 Nero actually gave for one 3000/. They Wgan to be 
 known in Rome about the latter days of the republic. 
 The first six ever seen in Rome were sent by Pom|>cy 
 from the treasures of Mithridates. They were depo* 
 sited in the temple of Jupiter in the capitol. Augus- 
 tus, after the battle of Actium, brought one of these 
 vessels from Egypt, and dedicated it also to the gods. 
 In Nero's time they l>Ciran to be used by private per- 
 sons; and were so much coveted that Pctronius, the 
 favourite of that tyrant, being ordered for execution, 
 and conceiving that his death was owing to a wish of 
 Nero to get possession of a vessel of this kind which 
 he had, broke the vessel in pieces in order to prevent 
 Nero from gaining his object. 
 
 There appear to have been two kinds of these vasa 
 murrhina ; those that came from Asia, and those that 
 were made in Egypt. The latter were much more 
 common, and much lower priced than the former, as 
 appears from various passages in Martial and Pro- 
 pertius. 
 
 Many attempts have been made, and much learning 
 displayed by the moderns to determine the nature of 
 these celebrated vessels ; but in general these attempts 
 were made by individuals too little acquainted with 
 chemistry and with natural history in general to qualify 
 them for researches of so difficult a nature. Some 
 will hare it that they consisted of a kind of gum ; 
 
88 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY* 
 
 others that they were made of glass ; others, of a par- 
 ticular kind of shell. Cardan and Scaliger assure us 
 that they were jwrcelain vessels; and this opinion was 
 adopted likewise by Whitaker, who supported it with 
 his usual violence and arrogance. Many conceive 
 them to have been made of some precious stone, some 
 that they were of obsidian ; Count de Veltheim thinks 
 that they were made of the Chinese ayalmatolite, or 
 Jiyure stone ; and Dr. Hager conceives that they were 
 made from the Chinese stone yu. Bruckmann was* of 
 opinion that these vessels were made of sardonyx, and 
 the Abbe \Ymckclmann joins him in the same con- 
 clusion. 
 
 Pliny informs us that these vasa murrhina were 
 formed from a species of stone dug out of the earth in 
 Parthia, and especially in Carimania, and also in other 
 places but little known.* They must have been very 
 abundant at Rome in the time of Nero; for Pliny 
 informs us that a man of consular rank, famous for 
 his collection of vasa murrhina, having died, Nero 
 forcibly deprived his children of these vessels, and they 
 were so numerous that they rilled the whole inside of 
 a theatre, which Nero hoped to have seen filled with 
 Romans when he came to it to siii in public. 
 
 It is clear that the value of these vessels depended 
 on Uieir si/e. Small vessels bore but a small price, while 
 that of large vessels was very high; this shows us that 
 it must have been difficult to procure a block of the 
 stone out of which they were cut, of a size sufficiently 
 great to make a largo vessel. 
 
 These vessels were so soft that an impression might 
 be made upon them with the teeth; for Pliny relates 
 the story of a man of consular rank, who drank out of 
 one, and was so enamoured with it that he bit pieces 
 out of the lip of the cup ; ' 4 Potavit ex eo ante hos 
 annos consul uris, ob amorem abraso ejus margine." 
 
 Plimi Hist. Nat xxxrii. 2. 
 
CHEMISTRY OF TIIF, ANCIEXTS. 89 
 
 And what is singular, the value of the cup, so far from 
 bcinp: injured bv this abrasure, was augmented : " ut 
 tarnon injuria ilia pretium augeret ; ncque est hodie 
 mnrrhini altcrius pnrstantior indicatura."* It is clear 
 from this that the matter of those vessels was neither 
 rock crystal, airate,nor any precious stone whatever, all 
 of which are too hard to admit of an impression from 
 the teeth of a man. 
 
 The lustre was vitreous to such a degree that the 
 name ritrum murrhinum was given to the artificial 
 fabric, in Eirypt. 
 
 The splendour was not very great, for Pliny ob- 
 serves, " Splendor his sine vinous nitorque verius 
 quam splendor." 
 
 The colours, from their depth and richness, were what 
 pave these vessels their value and excited admiration. 
 The principal colours were purple and white, disposed 
 in undulating bands, and usually separated by a third 
 band, in which the two colours being mixed, assumed 
 the tint of flame : *' Sed in prctio varietas colorum, 
 suoinde circumagentibus se maculis in purpuram can- 
 doremque, et tertium ex utroquc ignescentem, velut 
 per transitum colons, purpura rubesccntc, aut lacte 
 candcscente." 
 
 Perfect transparency was considered as a defect, 
 they were merely translucent; this we learn not merely 
 from Plioy, but from the following epigram of Martial : 
 
 Nos bibimus vitro, tu tnurra, Ponticf : quare ? 
 Prodat penpicuus DC duo Tina calix . 
 
 Some specimens, and they were the most valued, ex- 
 hibited a play of colour like the rainbow: Pliny says 
 they were very commonly spotted with " sales, verrucae- 
 que non eminentes, sed nt in corpore etiam plerumque 
 sessiles.** This, no doubt, refers to foreign bodies, 
 such as grains of pyrites, antimony, galena, &c., 
 
 Plinit Hist Nat nzriL 2. 
 
00 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 which were often scattered through the substances 
 of which the vessels were made. 
 
 Such are all the facts respecting the rasa murrhina 
 to be found in the writing? of the ancients ; they all 
 apply to fluor spar, and to nothing else; but to it 
 they apply so accurately as to leave little doubt that 
 they were in reality vessels of fluor spar, similar to 
 those, at present made in Derbyshire.* 
 
 The artificial vusu murrhina made at Thebes, in 
 Egypt* were doubtless of plass, coloured to imU 
 tate Huor spar as inurli as possible, and having* the 
 semi-transparency which distinguishes that mineral. 
 The imitations beinjr imperfect, those factitious vessels 
 were not much prized nor sought after by the Romans, 
 they were rattier distributed among the Arabians and 
 Ethiopians, who were supplied with glass from Egypt. 
 
 Rock crystal is compared by Pliny with the stone 
 from which the vasa murrhinu were made; the former, 
 in his opinion, had been coagulated by cold, the latter 
 by heat. Though the ancients, as we have seen, were, 
 acquainted with the method of colouring glass, yet 
 they prized colourless glass highest on account of its 
 resemblance to rock crystal ; cups of it, in Pliny's 
 time, had supplanted those of silver and gold ; Nero 
 gave for a crystal cup 160,000 sistcrtii, or (i5l. 
 
 V. DYKING AND CALICO-PRINTING. 
 
 Very little has been handed down by the ancients 
 respecting the processes of dyeing. It is evident, from 
 Pliny, that they were acquainted with madder, and 
 that preparations of iron were used in the black dyes. 
 The most celebrated dye of all, the purple, was dis- 
 
 This opinion WAS fir*; formed by Baron Born, and lUted 
 in his Catalogue of Minerals in M. E. Raab's collection, i. 356. 
 But the evidences in favour of it have been brought forward 
 with great clearne** ami force by M. Roziere. Sec Jour, de 
 Mia. UULVI. Ittf. 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THB AXCIEXT*. 91 
 
 covered by the Tynans about fifteen centuries before 
 the Christian era. This colour was given by various 
 kinds of shellfish which inhabit the Mediterranean. 
 Pliny divides thorn into two genera; the first, compre- 
 hending the smaller species, he called buccinum, from 
 their resemblance to a hunting-horn ; the second, in- 
 cluded those called purpvra : Fabius Columna thinks 
 that these were distinguished also by the name of 
 murex, 
 
 These shellfish yielded liquor of different shade* of 
 colour ; they were often mixed in various proportions 
 to produce particular shades of colour. One, or at 
 most two drops of this liquor were obtained from each 
 tish, by extracting and opening a little reservoir placed 
 in the throat. To avoid this trouble* the smaller spe- 
 cies were generally bruised whole, in a mortar; this 
 w.is also frequently done with the lanre, though the 
 other liquids of the fish must have in some degree in- 
 jured the colour. The liquor, when extracted, was 
 mixed with a considerable quantity of salt to keep it 
 from putrifyinff; it was then diluted with five or six 
 times as much water, and kept moderately hot in 
 leaden or tin vessels, for eight or ten days, during 
 which the liquor was often skimmed to separate all 
 the impurities. After this, the wool to be dyed t 
 being first well washed, was immersed and kept therein 
 for five hours; then taken out, cooled, and again im- 
 mersed, and continued in the liquor till all the colour 
 was exhausted.* 
 
 To produce particular shades of colour, carbonate 
 of soda, urine, and a marine plant called f*cn$ 9 were 
 occasionally added : one of these colours was ft very 
 dark reddish violet " Nigrantis rostc colore subV 
 Iucens."f But the most esteemed, and that in which 
 the Tynans particularly excelled, resembled coagulat- 
 
 Plinii Hirt. Nat. ix. 38. f Ibid., ix. 3$. 
 
92 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 ed blood" bus ei sum in a in colore sanguinis con* 
 creti, nigrtcans aspect u, idemque suspect u reful- 
 gens."* 
 
 Pliny says that the Tyrians first dyed their wool in 
 the liquor of the purpura, and afterwards in that of 
 the buccinum ; and it is obvious from Moses that this 
 purple was known to the Egyptians in his time. f Wool 
 which had received this double Tynan dye (dia bapha) 
 was so very costly that, in the reign of Augustus, it 
 sold for about 367. the |x>und. But lest this should 
 not be sufficient to exclude all from the use of it but 
 those invested with the very highest dignities of the 
 state, laws were made inflicting severe penalties, and 
 even death, upon all who should presume to wear it 
 under the dignity of an emperor. The art of dyeing 
 this colour came at length to be practised by a few in- 
 dividuals only, appointed by the emperors, and having 
 been interrupted about the be^iuuiti^ of the twelfth 
 century all knowledge of it dieilaway,awl during several 
 ages tliis celebrated dye was considered and lamented 
 as an irrecoverable loss.J 'How it was afterwards 
 recovered and made known by Mr. Cole, of Bristol, 
 M. Jussieu, M. Reaumur, and M. Duhamel, would 
 lead us too far from our present object, were we to 
 relate it: those who are interested in the subject will 
 find an historical detail in Bancroft's work on Perma- 
 nent Colours, just referred to. 
 
 There is reason to suspect that the Hebrew word trans* 
 latedyfrie linen in the Old Testament, and so celebrated 
 as a production of Egypt, was in reality cotton, and not 
 linen. From a curious passage in Pliny, there is 
 reason to believe that the Egyptians in his time, and 
 probably long before, were acquainted with the method 
 of calico-printing, such as is still practised in India 
 
 * Plinii Hist. Nat. is. c. 38. f Exodus xxr. 4. 
 
 I See Bancroft on Permanent Colours, I 79. . 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE AKCIEKTS. 93 
 
 and the cast. The following is a literal translation of 
 the passage in question: 
 
 "There exists in Egypt a wonderful method of dyeing. 
 The white cloth is stained in various places, not with 
 dye stuffs, but with substances which have the pro- 
 perty of absorbing (fixing) colours, these applications 
 are not visible upon the cloth ; but when they are dipped 
 into a hot caldron of the dye they are drawn out an 
 instant after dyed. The remarkable circumstance is, 
 that though there be only one dye in the vat, yet dif- 
 ferent colours appear upon the cloth; nor can the 
 colour be afterwards removed/** 
 
 It is evident enough that these substances applied 
 were different mordants which served to fix the dye 
 upon the cloth; the nature of these mordants cannot 
 he discovered, as nothing specific seems to have been 
 known to Pliny. The modern mordants are solutions 
 of alumina; of the oxide of tin, oxide of iron, oxide of 
 lead, Arc.: and doubtless these, or something equi- 
 valent to these, were the substances employed by the 
 ancients. The purple dye required no mordant, it fixed 
 itself to the cloth inconsequence of the chemical . 
 affinity which existed between them. Whether in- 
 digo was used by the ancients as a dye does not ap- 
 pear, but there can be no doubt, at least, that its use 
 M-as known to the Indians at a very remote period. 
 
 From these facts, few as they are, there can be little / 
 doubt that dyeing, and even calico-printing, had made 
 considerable progress among the ancients ; and this 
 could not have taken place without a considerable 
 knowledge of colouring matters, and of the mordants 
 by which these colouring matters were fixed. These 
 facts, however, were probably but imperfectly under- 
 stood, and could not be the means of furnishing the 
 ancients with any accurate chemical knowledge. 
 
 * Puna Hist. Nat. nxr/ 1 1 , 
 
94 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 VI. SOAP. 
 
 Soap, which constitutes so important and indis- 
 pensable an article in the domestic economy of the 
 moderns, was quite unknown to the ancient inhabitants 
 of Asia, and even of Greece. No allusion to it occurs 
 in the Old Testament. In Homer, we find Nausicaa, 
 the daughter of the King of the Pheeacians, using 
 nothing but water to wash her nuptial garments: 
 
 They seek the cisterns where Phcacian dames 
 
 Wash their fair garments in the limped streams ; * 
 
 Where gathering into depth from falling rills, 
 
 The lucid wave a spacious hason fills. 
 
 The mules unharness'd range beside the main, 
 
 Or crop the verdant herbage of the plain. 
 
 Then emulous the royal rubes they lave, 
 
 And plunge the ventures in the cleansing wave. *" 
 
 Odyttey, rl L 99. 
 
 We find, in some of the comic poets, that the Greeks 
 were in the habit of adding wood-ashes to water to 
 make it a better detergent. Wood-ashes contain a 
 certain portion of carbonate of potash, which of course 
 would answer us a determent; though, from its caustic 
 qualities, it would be injurious to the hands of the 
 washerwomen. There is no evidence that carbonate 
 of soda, the nitrum of the ancients, was ever used as 
 a determent; this is the more surprising, because we 
 know from Pliny that it was employed in dyeing, and 
 .one cannot see how a solution of it could be employed 
 by the dyers in their processes without discovering that 
 it acted powerfully as a detergent. 
 
 The word soap (sapo) occurs first in Pliny. He in- 
 forms us that it was an invention of the Gauls, who 
 employed it to render their hair shining; that it was 
 a compound of wood-ashes and tallow, that there were 
 two kinds of it, hard and $<*/"/ (spissus it liquidus); 
 and that the best kind was made of the ashes of the 
 beech and the fat of goats. Among the Germans 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE ASCIESTS. 95 
 
 it was more employed by the men than the women.* 
 It is curious that no allusion whatever is made by 
 Pliny to the use of soap as a determent; shall we con- 
 clude from this that the most important of all the uses 
 of soap was unknown to the ancients? 
 
 It was employed by the ancients as a pomatum ; 
 and, during the early part of the government of the 
 emperors, it was imported into Rome from Germany, 
 as a pomatum for the young Roman beaus. Beck- 
 mann is of opinion that the Latin word sapo is de- 
 rived from the old German word sepe. a word still 
 employed by the common people of Scotland, f- 
 
 It is well known that the state of soap depends upon 
 the alkali employed in making it. Soda constitutes a 
 hard soap, and potash a soft soap. The ancients be- 
 in^ ignorant of the difference between the two alka- 
 lies, and using wood-ashes in the preparation of it* 
 doubtless formed soft soap. The addition of some 
 common salt, during the boiling of the soap, would 
 convert the soft into hard soap. As Pliny informs us 
 that the ancients were acquainted both with hard and 
 soft soap, it is clear that they must have followed some 
 such process. 
 
 VII. STAUCII. 
 
 The manufacture of starch was known to the an- 
 cients. Pliny informs us that it was made from wheat 
 and from $ilign, which was probably a variety or sub- 
 species of wheat. The invention of starch is ascrittcd 
 by Pliny to the inhabitants of the island of Chio, where 
 in his time the best starch was still made. Pliny's de- 
 scription of the method employed by .the ancients of 
 
 * riinii Hist. Nat. xxviii. 12. The passage of Pliny i*'s 
 follows : " Prodest et sapo ; Gallnrnm hoc inrrntnni pit il.imli* 
 rnpillis ex srro et cinere. Opt mm* fosrino et eaprino, iluobns 
 mod is, spissus rt liquidiis : uterine aj>ud Gennanos majore.in 
 usu riris qu*m fcminis.*' 
 
 f Hist, of inventions, iii. 239. 
 
96 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 making starch is tolerably exact. Next to the Chian 
 starch that of Crete was most celebrated ; and next 
 to it was the Egyptian. The qualities of starch were 
 judged of by the weight; the lightest being always 
 reckoned the best. 
 
 VIII. BEER. 
 
 That the ancients were acquainted with wine is 
 universally known. This knowledge must have been 
 nearly coeval with the origin of society ; for we are 
 informed in Genesis that Noah, after the flood, 
 planted a vineyard, and made wine, and got in* 
 toxicated by drinking the liquid which he had manu- 
 factured.* Beer also is a very old manufacture. It 
 was in common use among the Egyptians in the time 
 of Herodus, who informs us that they made use of a 
 kind of wine made from barley, because no vines 
 grew in their country.! Tacitus informs us, that in 
 his time it was the drink of the Germans.; Pliny in- 
 forms us that it was made by the Gauls, and by other 
 nations. He gives it the name of cerevisia or cervisia; 
 the name obviously alluding to the grain from which 
 it was made. 
 
 But though the ancients seem acquainted with both 
 wine and beer, there is no evidence of their having 
 ever subjected these liquids to distillation, and of 
 having collected the products. This would have fur- 
 nished them with ardent spirits or alcohol, of which 
 there is every reason to believe they were entirely ig- 
 norant. Indeed, the method employed by Dioscorides 
 to obtain mercury from cinnabar, is a sufficient proof 
 that the true process of distillation was unknown to 
 them. He mixed cinnabar with iron filings, put the 
 
 Ones is it. 20. 
 
 f-'Ouy c" >* KpiOtuv invoitj^ii'fftcia^pioyrai' 6u yap cr^i ie?i 
 iv ry \<*>py a^uriXoi. Euterpe chap. 77. 
 
 * De Moribus Germancrum, c. 23. " Potui humor ex hordeo 
 aut fruniento in quandam sinulitudiuem vim corrupt!!*." 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE A^CIE^TS. 97 
 
 mixture into a pot, to the top of which a cover of stone- 
 ware was luted. Heat was applied to the pot, and 
 when the process was at an end, the mercury was 
 found adhering to the inside of the cover. Had they 
 been aware of the method of distilling the quicksilver 
 ore into a receiver, this imperfect mode of collecting 
 only a small portion of the quicksilver, separated from 
 the cinnabar, would never have been practised. Be- 
 sides, there is not the smallest allusion to ardent spirits, 
 either in the writings of the poets, historians, natu- 
 ralists, or medical men of ancient Greece ; a cir- 
 cumstance not to be accounted for had ardent spirits 
 been known, and applied even to one-tenth of the 
 uses to which they are put by the moderns. 
 
 IX. STONEWARE. 
 
 The manufacture of stoneware vessels wa* known at 
 a very early period of society. Frequent allusions to 
 the potterV wheel occur in the Old Testament, showing 
 that the manufacture must have been familiar to the 
 Jewish nation. The porcelain of the Chinese boasts 
 of a very high antiquity indeed. We cannot doubt 
 that the processes of the ancients were similar to those of 
 the moderns, though I am not aware of any tolerably ac- 
 curate account of them in any ancient author what- 
 ever. 
 
 Moulds of plaster of Paris were used by the ancients 
 to take casts precisely as at present.* 
 
 The sand of Puzzoli was used by the Romans, as 
 it is by the moderns, to form a mortar capable of 
 hardening under water. 
 
 Pliny gives us some idea of the Roman bricks, which 
 are known to have been of an excellent quality. There 
 were three sizes of bricks used bv the Romans. 
 
 1. Lydian, which were 1| foot long and 1 foot 
 broad. 
 
 FlinU Hist. Nat xar. 12. 
 
 VOL. 1. II 
 
98 HISTOEY or 
 
 2. Tetradoron, which was a square of 16 inches 
 each side. 
 
 3. Pentadoron, which was a square, each side of 
 which was 20 inches long. 
 
 Duron signifies the palm of the hand : of course it 
 was equivalent to 4 inches. 
 
 X ~PRECIOCS STONES AND MINERALS. 
 
 Pliny has given a pretty detailed description of the 
 precious stones of the ancients ; but it is not very easy 
 to determine the specific minerals to which he al- 
 ludes. 
 
 1 . The description of the diamond is tolerably pre- 
 cise. It was found in Ethiopia, India, Arabia, and 
 Macedonia. But the Macedonian diamond, as well 
 as the adumas cyprius and siderites, were obviously 
 not diamonds, but soft stones. 
 
 2. The emerald of the ancients (smaraydus) must 
 have varied in its nature. It was a green, transparent, 
 hard stone ; and, as colour was the criterion by which 
 the ancients distinguished minerals and divided them 
 into species, it is obvious that very different minerals 
 must have been confounded together, under the name 
 of emerald. Sapphire, ht l r> I, doubtless fluor spar when 
 green, and probably even serpentine, nephrite, and 
 some ores of copper, seem to have occasionally got the 
 same name. There is no reason to believe that the 
 emerald of the moderns was known before the disco- 
 very of America. At least it has been only found in 
 modem times in America. Home of the emeralds de- 
 scribed by Pliny as losing their c&ipur by exposure to 
 the sun, must have been rluor spars. There is a re- 
 markably deep and leatitiful green rluor spar, met 
 with some years ago in the county of Durham, in one 
 of the Weredale mines that possesses this property. 
 The emeralds of the ancients were of such a size (13J 
 feet, large enough to be cut into a pillar), that we can 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE AKCIESTS. 99 
 
 consider them in no other light than as a species of 
 rock. 
 
 3. Topaz of the ancients had a preen colour, which is 
 never the case with the modern topaz. It was found in 
 the island Topazios, in the Red Sea.* It is generally 
 supposed to have been the chrysolite of the moderns. 
 But Pliny mentions a statue of it six feet long. Now 
 chrysolite never occurs in such large masses. Bruce 
 mentions a green substance in an emerald island in the 
 Red Sea, not harder than glass. Might not this be 
 the emerald of the ancients ? 
 
 4. Calais, from the locality and colour was pro- 
 bably the Persian turquoise, as it is generally sup* 
 posed to be. 
 
 5. Whether the prasius and chrysoprasius of Pliny 
 were the modern stones to which these names are given, 
 we have no means of determining. It. is generally 
 supposed that they are, and we have no e vide rice to 
 the contrary. 
 
 6. The chrysolite of Pliny is supposed to be our 
 topaz : but we have no other evidence of this than 
 the opinion of M. Du Terns. 
 
 7. Asteria of Pliny is supposed by Saussure to be 
 our sapphire. The lustre described by Pliny agrees 
 with this opinion. The stone is said to have been very 
 hard and colourless. 
 
 8. Opnlus seems to have been our opal. It is called, 
 Pliny says, ptpdcros by many, on account of its beauty. 
 The Indians called it fanycnon. 
 
 9. Obsidian was the same as the mineral to which 
 we give that name. It was so called Ixvausc a Roman 
 named Obsidianus first brought it from Ksrypt. I have 
 a piece of obsidian, which the late Mr. Salt brought 
 from the locality specified by Pliny, and which possesses 
 all the characters of that mineral in its purest state. 
 
 The word topazo is Mid by Pliny to signify, in the language 
 Of the Troglodytes, lo if e *. 
 
 II 2 
 
100 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 10. Sarda was the name of came Han, so called be- 
 cause it was first found near Sard is. The sardonyx 
 was also another name for carncUan. 
 
 11. Onyx was a name sometimes given to a rock, 
 gypsum; sometimes it was a light-coloured chalcedony. 
 The Latin name for chalcedony was carchedonius, so 
 called because Carthage was the place where this 
 mineral was exposed to sale. The Greek name for 
 Carthage was Kapxtfuv (carchcdon). 
 
 12. Carbunculus was the gurnet; and anthrax was 
 a name for another variety of the same mineral. 
 
 13. The oriental amethyst of Pliny was probably a 
 sapphire. The fourth species of amethyst described by 
 Pliny, seems to have been our amethyst. Pliny derives 
 the name from and (u) ^vOtj (my the), tri/ie, because it 
 has not quite the colour of wine. But the common 
 derivation is from a and uvOvv. to intoxicate, because 
 it was used as an amulet to prevent intoxication. 
 
 . 14. The sapphire is described by Pliny as always 
 opaque, and as until for engraving on. We do not 
 know what it was. 
 
 15. The hyacinth of Pliny is equally unknown. 
 From its name it was obviously of a blue colour. Our 
 hyacinth has a reddish-brown colour, and a great deal 
 of hardness and lustre. 
 
 16. The cyan us of Pliny may have been our cy unite. 
 
 17. Astr'ws agrees very well, as far as the description 
 of Pliny goes, with the variety of felspar called adu- 
 latia. 
 
 18. Bclioculus seems to have been our catseye. 
 
 19. Lye It nit cs was a violet-coloured stone, which 
 became electric by heat. Unless it was a blue tour" 
 malm, \ do not know what it could be. 
 
 JO. The jasper of the ancients was probably the 
 same as ours. 
 
 21. Molochites may have been our malachite. The 
 name comes from the Greek word jwXoxj, mallow, or 
 marshmallow. 
 
CHEMISTRY OP THE ANCIENTS. 101 
 
 22. Pliny considers amber as the juice of a tree 
 concreted into a solid fonn. The largest piece of it 
 that he had ever seen weighed l.'l Ibs. Roman weight, 
 which is nearly equivalent to 9^ Ihs. avoirdupois, 7n- 
 dian amber, of which he speaks, was probably CO/HI/, 
 or some transparent resin. It may be dyed, he says, 
 by means of anchusa and the fut of kids. 
 
 23. Lapis spccularis was foliated sulphate of lime, 
 or selenite. 
 
 24. Pyrites had the same meaning amonjj the an- 
 cients that it has among the moderns ; at least as far 
 as iron pyrites or bisulphuret of iron is concerned. 
 Pliny descrilxs two kind of pyrites ; namely, the 
 white (arsenical pyrites), and the yellow (iron py- 
 rites). It was used for striking fire with steel, in order . 
 to kindle tinder. Hence the name pyrites OTjfircstonc. 
 
 25. Gayates, from the account given of it by 
 Pliny, was obviously pit-coal or jet. 
 
 26. Marble had the same meaning among the an- 
 cients that it has among the moderns. It was sawed 
 by the ancients into slabs, and the action of the saw 
 was facilitated by a sand brought for the purpose from 
 Ethiopia and the isle of Naxos. It is obvious that 
 this sand was powdered corundum, or emery. 
 
 27. Crcta was a name applied by the ancients not 
 only to chalk, but to 7n"/c clay. 
 
 28. Melinum was an oxide of Iron. Pliny gives a 
 list of one hundred and fifty-one species of stones in 
 the order of the alphabet. Very few of the minerals 
 contained in this list can be made out. He gives 
 also a list of fifty-two species of stones, whose names 
 are derived from a fancied resemblance which the 
 stones are supposed to bear to certain parts of animals. 
 Of these, also, very few can be made out. 
 
 XI. MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 The ancients seem to have been ignorant of the na- 
 ture and properties of air, and of ail gaseous bodies. 
 
102 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 Pliny's account of air consists of a single sentence : 
 "Aer densatur nubibus; furit procellis." a Air is 
 condensed in clouds, it rages in storms." Nor is his 
 description of water much more complete, since it con* 
 sists only of the following phrases : " Aqua? subeunt 
 in imbres, rigescunt in grand! ties, tumescunt in flue* 
 tus, pnrcipitantur in torrentes."* '* Water falls in 
 showers, congeals in hail, swells in waves, and rushes 
 down in torrents.*' In the thirty-eighth chapter of the 
 second book, indeed, he professes to treat of air ; but 
 the chapter contains merely an enumeration of me- 
 teorological phenomena, without once touching upon 
 the nature and pro|>crties of air. 
 
 Pliny, with all the philosophers of antiquity, admit* 
 ted the existence of the four elements, fire, air, water, 
 and earth ; but though he enumerates these in the fifth 
 chapter of his first book, he never attempts to explain 
 their nature or properties. Earth, among the ancients, 
 had two meanings, namely* the planet on which we 
 live, and the soil upon which vegetables grow. These 
 two meaning* still exist in common language. The 
 meaning afterwards given to the /rrm, earth, by the 
 chemists, did not exist in the days of Pliny, or, at 
 least, was unknown to him ; a sufficient proof that 
 chemistry, in his time, had made no progress as a 
 science ; for some notions respecting the properties and 
 constituents of those supposed four elements must have 
 constituted the very foundation of scientific chemistry. 
 
 The ancients were acquainted with none of the acids 
 which at present constitute so numerous a tribe, ex- 
 tept riiir r/nr, or acetic acid ; and even this acid w;.s 
 not known to them in a state of purity. They knew 
 none of the saline bases, except lime, soda, and potash, 
 and these very imperfectly. Of course the whole 
 tribe of salts was unknown to them, except a very few, 
 which they found ready formed in the earth, or which 
 
 Flinti Hit Nat ii. 63. 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE AXCIENT*. 103 
 
 they succeeded in forming by the action of vinegar on 
 lead and copper. Hence all that extensive and most 
 important branch of chemistry, consisting: of the com- 
 binations of the acids and bases, on which scientific 
 chemistry mainly depends, must have been unknown 
 to them. 
 
 Sulphur occurring native in lar^e quantities, and 
 brin remarkable for its easy combustibility, and its 
 disagreeable smell when burning, was known in the 
 very earliest ages. Pliny describes four kinds of sul- 
 phur, differing from each other, probably, merely in 
 their purity- These were 
 
 1. Sulphur vivum, or apyron. It was dug out of the 
 earth solid, and was doubtless pure, or nearly so. 
 It alone was used in medicine. 
 
 2. Gleba used only by fullers. 
 
 3. Egula used also by fullers. 
 
 Pliny says, it renders woollen stuffs white and soft. 
 It is obvious from this, that the ancients knew the 
 met hod of bleaching flannel by the fumes of sulphur, 
 as practised by the moderns. 
 
 4. The fourth kind was used only for sulphuring 
 matches. 
 
 Sulphur, in Pliny's time, was found native in the 
 JEolian islands, and in Campania. It is curious that 
 he never mentions Sicily, whence the great supply is 
 drawn for modern manufacture. 
 
 In medicine, it seems to have been only used ex- 
 ternally by the ancients. It was considered as excel- 
 lent for removing eruptions. It was used also for fu- 
 migating. 
 
 The word alttmen, which we translate a/urn, occurs 
 often in Pliny ; and is the same substance which the 
 Greeks distinguished by the nameof*rrrrijpin(./y/J/eriVi). 
 It is described pretty minutely by Dioscorides, and also 
 by Pliny. It was obviously a natural production, dug 
 out of the earth, and consequently quite different from 
 our alum, with which the ancients were unacquainted. 
 
104 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 Dioscorides says that it was found abundantly in 
 Egypt ; that it was of various kinds, but that the slaty 
 variety was the best. He mentions also many other 
 localities, lit* says that, for medical purposes, the 
 most valued ui' all the varieties of alumen were the 
 sltity, the nntml, and the /ir/uiW. The slaty alumen 
 is vci y white, has an exceedingly astringent taste, a 
 strong fcinell, is free from stony concretions, and 
 gradually cracks and emits long capillary crystals from 
 ' these rifts ; on which account it is sometimes called 
 tiichitt*. This description obviously applies to a kind 
 of slate-clay, which probably contained pyrites mixed 
 with it of the decomposing kind. The capillary crys- 
 tals were probably similar to those crystals at present 
 called hair-salt by mineralogists, which exude pretty 
 abundantly from the shale of the coal-beds, when it 
 has been long exposed to the air. Hair-salt differs 
 very much in its nature. Klaproth ascertained by 
 analysis, that the hair-salt from the quicksilver-mines 
 in Idria is sulphate of magnesia, mixed with a small 
 quantity of sulphate of iron.* The hair-salt from the 
 abandoned coal-pits in the neighbourhood of Glasgow 
 is a double salt, composed of sulphate of alumina, and 
 sulphate of iron, in. definite proportions; the composi- 
 tion being 
 
 I atom protosulphate of iron, 
 
 I 1 atom sulphate of alumina, 
 15 atoms water. 
 
 I suspect strongly that the capillary crystals from 
 the schistose alumen of Dioscorides were nearly of the 
 same nature. 
 
 From Pliny's account of the uses to which alumen 
 was applied, it is quite obvious that it must have 
 varied very much in its nature. Alumen niyrum was 
 used to strike a black colour, and must therefore have 
 contained iron. It was doubtless an impure native 
 
 Beilrsge, iii. 104. 
 
CHEMISTRY O? THE ANCIENTS. 105 
 
 sulphate of iron, similar to many native productions of 
 the same nature still met with .in various parts of the 
 world, but not employed ; their use having: been su- 
 perseded by various artificial salts, more definite in 
 their nature, and consequently more certain in their 
 application, and at the same time cheaper and more 
 abundant than the native. 
 
 The alumen emploved as a mordant by the dyers, 
 must have btcn a sulphate of alumina more or less 
 pure; at least it must have been free from all sulphate 
 of iron, which would have affected the colour of the 
 cloth, and prevented the dyer from accomplishing his 
 object.* 
 
 What the alumen rotundum was, is not easily con- 
 jectured. Dioscorides says, that it was sometimes 
 made artificially ; but that the artificial alumen rotun- 
 dum was not much valued. The best, he says, was 
 full of air-bubbles, nearly white, and of a very astrin- 
 gent taste. It had a slaty appearance, and was found 
 in Egypt or the Island of Melos. 
 
 The liquid alumen was limpid, milky, of an equal 
 colour, free from hard concretions, and having a fiery 
 shade of colour. t In its nature, it was similar to the 
 alumen candidum ; it must therefore have consisted 
 chiefly, at least, of sulphate of alumina. 
 
 Bitumen and naphtha were known to the ancients, 
 and used by them to give light instead of oil ; they 
 were employed also as external applications in cases 
 of disease, and were considered as having t he same 
 virtues as sulphur. It is said, that the word trans- 
 lated salt in the New Testament* 4 Ye are the salt of 
 the earth : but if the salt have lost his savour, where- 
 with shall it be salted ? It is henceforth good for no- 
 thing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot 
 
 '" Quoniam infidendts claro color* hnia candkhim liquid unique 
 utilissimum est, contraque fuscis ct obscuris nigrura." Plinn, 
 ixxr. 15. 
 
 t Sec Dioscorides, lib. T. c. 123. Fliiui HistNat uunr. 18. 
 
106 HISTORY or CHEMISTRY; 
 
 of men"* it is said, that the word salt in this passage 
 refers to asphalt, or bitumen, which was used by the 
 Jews in their sacrifices, and called salt by them. But 
 I have not been able to find satisfactory evidence of 
 the truth of this opinion. It is obvious from the con- 
 text, that the word translated suit could not have had 
 that niraiiin^ among the Jews ; because salt never can 
 be supposed to lose its savour. Bitumen, while liquid, 
 has a strong taste and smell, which it loses gradually 
 by exposure to the air, as it approaches more and more 
 to a solid form. 
 
 Asphalt was one of the great constituents of the 
 Greek fire. A great bed of it still existing in Albania, 
 supplied the Greeks with this substance. Concerning 
 the nature of the Greek fire, it is clear that many ex- 
 aggerated and even fabulous statements have been 
 published. The obvious intention of the Greeks be- 
 ing, probably, lo make their invention as much dread- 
 ed as possible by their enemies. Nitre was undoubt- 
 edly one of the most important of its constituents; 
 though no allusion whatever is ever made. We do 
 not know when nitrate of potash, the nitre of the 
 moderns, became known in Europe. It was discovered 
 in the east ; and was undoubtedly known in China and 
 India before the commencement of the Christian era. 
 The property of nitre, as a supporter of combustion, 
 could not have remained long unknown after the dis- 
 covery of the salt. The first person who threw a piece 
 of it upon a red-hot coal would observe it. Accord- 
 ingly we find that its use in fireworks was known very 
 early in China and India; though its prodigious ex- 
 pansive power, by which it propels bullets with so 
 great and destructive velocity, is a European inven- 
 tion, posterior to the time of Roger Bacon. 
 
 Matthew r. 13. " *Yiic tori TO \*c r^c 7*C* * ?* 
 iv TII* aAurOjjfrirai ; lt ovft v us\*tii In 
 ' 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE AXCIEtfTS. 107 
 
 The word nitre (im) had been applied by the an- 
 cients to carbonate of soda, a production of Egypt f 
 where it is still formed from sea- water, by some "un- 
 known process of nature in the marshes near Alexan- 
 dria. This is evident, not merely from the account 
 given of it by Dioscorides and Pliny ; for the following 
 passage, from the Old Testament * shows that it had 
 the same meaning amon^ the Jews : " As he that 
 taketh away a garment in cold weather, is as vinegar 
 upon nitre: so is he that singcth songs to a heavy 
 heart."* Vinegar poured ujxin saltpetre produces no 
 sensible effect whatever, but when poured upon car- 
 bonate of soda, it occasions an effervescence. When 
 saltpetre came to be imported to Europe, it was natu- 
 ral to give it the same name as that applied to carbo- 
 nate of soda, to which both in taste and appearance 
 it bore some faint resemblance. Saltpetre possessing 
 much more striking properties than carbonate of soda 
 much more attention was drawn to it, and it gradually 
 fixed upon itself the term nitre, at first applied to a 
 different salt. When this change of nomenclature 
 took place does not appear; but it was completed 
 before the time of Roger Bacon, who always applies 
 the tenn nitr -m to our nitrate of potash and never to 
 carbonate of soda. 
 
 In the preceding: history of the chemical facts known 
 to the ancients, I have taken no notice of a well* 
 known story related of Cleopatra. This magnificent 
 and profligate queen boasted to Antony that she 
 would herself consume a million of sistcrtii at a sup- 
 per. Antony smiled at the proposal, and doubted 
 the possibility of her performing it. Next evening 
 a magnificent entertainment was provided, at which 
 Antony, as usual, was present, and expressed his opi- 
 nion that the cost of the feast, magnificent as it was, 
 fell far short of the sum specified by the queen. She 
 
 9 Proferbt uf . ? 
 
108 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 requested him to defer computing till the dessert was 
 finished. A vessel filled with vinegar was placed be- 
 fore her, in which she threw two pearls, the finest in 
 the world, and which were valued at ten millions of 
 sistertii ; these pearls were dissolved by the vinegar/ 
 and the liquid was immediately drunk by the queen. 
 Thus she made good her boast, and destroyed the two 
 finest pearls in the world. f This story, supposing it 
 true, shows that Cleopatra was aware that vinegar has 
 the property of dissolving pearls. But not that she 
 knew the nature of these beautiful productions of 
 nature. We now know that pearls consist essentially 
 of carbonate of lime, and that the beauty is owing to 
 the thin concentric lamina?, of which they are composed. 
 Nor have I taken any not ice of lime with which the 
 ancients were well acquainted, and which they applied 
 to most of the uses to which the moderns put it. Thus 
 it constituted the base of the Roman mortar, which 
 is known to have been excellent. They employed it 
 also as a manure for the fields, as the moderns do. It 
 was known to have a corrosive nature when taken in- 
 ternally ; but was much employed by the ancients ex- 
 ternally, and in various ways as an application to 
 ulcers. Whether they knew its solubility in water 
 does not appear ; though, from the circumstance of its 
 being used for making mortar, this fact could hardly 
 escape them. These facts, though of great importance, 
 could scarcely be applied to the rearing of a chemical 
 structure, as the ancients could have no notion of the 
 action of acids upon lime, or of the numerous salts 
 which it is capable of forming. Phenomena which 
 must have remained unknown till the discovery of the 
 acids enabled experimenters to try their effects upon 
 limestone and quicklime. Not even a conjecture ap- 
 pears in any ancient writer that I have looked into, 
 
 " Cuju* asperitas vi&que in Ubem margerius resolvit." 
 t FUuii Hist. Nat. ii. 35. 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE AXCIF.XTS. 109 
 
 about the difference between quicklime and lime- 
 stone. This difference is so great that it must have 
 been remarked by them, yet nobody seems ever to 
 have thought of attempting to account for it. Even 
 the method of bummer or calcining lime is not de- 
 scribed by Pliny ; though there can be no doubt that 
 the ancients were acquainted with it. 
 
 Nor have I taken any notice of leather or the me- 
 thod of tanning it. There are so many allusions to 
 leather and its uses by the ancient poets and histo- 
 rians, that the acquaintance of the ancients with it is 
 put out of doubt. But so far as I know, there is no 
 description of the process of tanning in any ancient 
 author whatever. 
 
110 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY* 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 CHEMISTRY OF TUX 
 
 II ITII FRTO I have spoken of Alchymy, or of the che- 
 mical manufactures of the ancients. The people to 
 whom scientific chemistry owes its origin are the 
 Arabians. Not that they prosecuted scientific che- 
 mistry themselves ; but they were the first persons who 
 attempted to form chemical medicines. This they did 
 by mixing various bodies with each other, and applying 
 heat to the mixture in various ways. This led to the 
 discovery of some of the mineral acids. These they 
 applied to the metals, &c., and ascertained the effects 
 produced upon that most important class of bodies. 
 Thus the Arabians began those researches which led 
 gradually to the formation of scientific chemistry. We 
 must therefore endeavour to ascertain the chemical 
 facts for which we arc indebted to the Arabians. 
 
 When Mahomet first delivered his dogmas to his 
 countrymen they were not altogether barbarous. Pos- 
 sessed of a copious and expressive language, and in- 
 habiting a burning climate, their imaginations were 
 lively and their passions violent. Poetry and fiction 
 were cultivated by them with ardour, and with consi- 
 derable success. But science and inductive philo- 
 sophy, had made little or no progress among them. 
 The fatalism introduced by Mahomet, and the blind 
 enthusiasm which he inculcated, rendered them fu- 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE ARABIANS. Ill 
 
 rious bigots and determined enemies to every kind of 
 intellectual improvement. The rapidity with which 
 they overran Asia, Africa, and even a portion of 
 Europe, is universally known. At that period the 
 western world, was sunk into extreme barbarism, and 
 the Greeks, with whom the remains of civilization still 
 lingered, were sadly degenerated from those sages 
 who graced the classic ages. Bent to the earth under 
 the most grinding but turbulent despotism that ever 
 disgraced mankind, and having their understandings 
 sealed up by the most subtle and absurd, and un- 
 comprising superstition, all the energy of mind, all 
 the powers of invention, all the industry and talent, 
 which distinguished their ancestors, had completely 
 forsaken them. Their writers aimed at nothing new 
 or great, and were satisfied with repeating the scientific 
 facts determined by their ancestors. The lamp of 
 science fluttered in its socket, and was on the eve of 
 being extinguished. 
 
 Nothing j^ood or great could be expected from such 
 a state of society. It was, therefore, wisely deter- 
 mined by Providence that the Mussulman conquerors, 
 should overrun the earth, sweep out those miserable 
 governors, and free the wretched inhabitants from the 
 trammels of despotism and superstition. As a des- 
 potism not less severe, and a superstition still more 
 gloomy and uncompromising, was substituted in their 
 place, it mny seem at first si:ht, that the conquests of 
 the Mahometans brought things into a worse state 
 than they found them. But the listless inactivity, the 
 almost deathlike torpor which had frozen the minds of 
 mankind, were effectually roused. The Mussulmans 
 displayed a degree of energy and activity which have 
 few parallels in the history of the world : and after the 
 conquests of the Mahometans were completed, and 
 the Califs quietly seated upon the greatest and most 
 powerful throne "that the world had ever seen ; after 
 Almanzor, about the middle of the eighth century, had 
 
112 BISTORT Or CHEMISTRY. 
 
 founded the city of Bagdad, and settled a permanent 
 and flourishing 'peace, the arts and sciences, which 
 usually accompany such a state of society, began to 
 make their appearance. 
 
 That calif founded an academy at Bagdad, which 
 acquired much celebrity, and gradually raised itself 
 above all the other academies in his dominions. A 
 medical college was established there with powers to 
 examine all those persons who intended to devote 
 themselves to the medical profession. So many pro- 
 fessors and pupiU flocked to this celebrated college, 
 from all parts of the world, that at one time their num- 
 ber amounted to no fewer than six thousand. Public 
 hospitals and laboratories were established to facilitate 
 a knowledge of diseases, and to make the students 
 acquainted with the method of preparing medicines. 
 It was this last establishment which originated with the 
 califs that gave a first beginning to the science of 
 chemistry. 
 
 In the thirteenth century the calif Mostanser re- 
 established the academy and the medical college at 
 Bagdad : for both had fallen into decay, and had 
 been replaced by an infinite number of Jewish semi- 
 naries. Mostanser gave large salaries to the profes- 
 sors, collected a magnificent library, and established a 
 new school of pharmacy. He was himself often pre- 
 sent at the public lectures. 
 
 The successor of Mostanser was the calif Hatpun- 
 Al-Raschid, the perpetual hero of the Arabian tales. 
 He not only carried his love for the sciences further 
 than his predecessors, but displayed a liberality and a 
 tolerance for religious opinions, which was not quite 
 consistent with Mahometan bigotry and superstition. 
 He drew round him the Syrian Christians, who trans- 
 lated the Greek classics, rewarded them liberally, and 
 appointed them instructors of his Mahometan sub- 
 jects, especially in medicine and pharmacy. He pro- 
 tected the Christian school of Dschondisabour, founded 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE ARABIAN'S. 113 
 
 by the Nestorian Christians, before the time of Maho- 
 met, and still continuing in a flourishing state : always 
 surrounded by literary men, he frequently conde- 
 scended to take a part in their discussions, and not 
 u n frequently, as might have been expected from his 
 rank, came off victorious. 
 
 The most enlightened of all the califs was Alma- 
 mon, who has rendered his name immortal by his 
 exertions in favour of the sciences. It was during his 
 reign that the Arabian schools came to be thoroughly 
 acquainted with Greek science; he procured the 
 translation of a great number of important works. 
 This conduct inflamed the religious zeal of the faith- 
 ful, who devoted him to destruction, and to the 
 divine wrath, for favouring philosophy, and in that 
 way diminishing the authority of the Koran. Al- 
 mamon purchased the ancient classics, from all quar- 
 ters, and recommended the care of doing so in a par- 
 ticular manner to his ambassadors at the court of the 
 (reek emperors. To Leo, the philosopher, he made 
 the most advantageous offers, to induce him to come 
 to Bagdad ; but that philosopher would not listen to 
 liis invitation. It was under the auspices of this en- 
 lightened prince, that the celebrated attempt was made 
 to determine the size of the earth by measuring a 
 degree of the meridian. The result of this attempt 
 it does not belong to this work to relate. 
 
 Almotassem and Motawakkel, who succeeded Al- 
 mamon, followed his example, favoured the sciences, 
 and extended their protection to men of science who 
 \vere Christians. Motawakkel re-established the ce- 
 lebrated academy and library of Alexandria. But 
 he acted with more severity than his predecessors with 
 regard to the Christians, who may perhaps have 
 abused the tolerance which they enjoyed. 
 
 The other vicars of the prophet, in the different 
 Mahometan states, followed the tine example set them 
 by A Imainou. Already in the eighth century the sore* 
 
 VOL, i. I 
 
} 14 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 reigns of Mogreb and the western provinces of Africa 
 showed themselves the zealous friends of the sciences. 
 One of them called Abdallah-Ebn-Ibadschab ren- 
 dered commerce and industry nourishing at Tunis. 
 He himself cultivated* poetry and drew numerous 
 artists and men of science into his state. At Fez and 
 in Morocco the sciences flourished, especially during 
 the reign of the Edrisites, the last of whom, Jahiah, a 
 prince possessed of genius, sweetness, and goodness, 
 changed his court into an academy, and paid atten- 
 tion to those only who had distinguished themselves 
 by their scientific knowledge. 
 
 But Spain was the most fortunate of all the Ma- 
 hometan states, and had arrived at such a degree pf 
 prosperity both in commerce, manufactures, popula- 
 tion, ana wealth, as is hardly to be credited. The 
 three Abdalruhmans and Alhakem carried, from the 
 eighth to the tenth century, the country subject to the 
 Calif of Cordova to the highest degree of splendour. 
 They protected the sciences, and governed with so 
 much mildness, that Spain was probably never so 
 happy under the dominion of any Christian prince. 
 Alhakem established at Cordova an academy, which 
 fur several ages was the most celebrated in the whole 
 world. All the Christians of Western Europe re- 
 paired to this academy in search of information. It 
 contained, in the tenth century, a library of '280,000 
 volumes. The catalogue of this library tilled no less 
 than forty-four volumes, Seville, Toledo, and Murcia, 
 had likewise their schools of science and their libraries, 
 which retained their celebrity as long as the dominion 
 of the Moors lasted. In the twelfth century there 
 were seventy public libraries in that part of Spain 
 which belonged to the Mahometans. Cordova had 
 produced one hundred and titty authors, Almeria fifty- 
 two, and Murcia sixty-two. 
 
 The Mahometan states of the east continued also 
 to favour the sciences. An emir of Irak, Adad-El- 
 
CHEMISTRY OF TUT ARABIAN'S. 115 
 
 Daula by name, distinguished himself towards the 
 end of the tenth century by the protection which he 
 afforded to men of science. To him almost all the 
 philosophers of the age dedicated their works. Ano- 
 ther emir of Irak, Saif- Ed- Daula, established schools 
 at K u fa and at Bussora, which soon acquired great ce- 
 lebrity. Abou-Mansor-Baharam, established a public 
 library at Finizabad in Curdistan, which at its very 
 commencement contained 7000 volumes. In the 
 thirteenth century there existed a celebrated school of 
 medicine in Damascus. The calif Malck-Adcl endowed 
 it richly, and was often present at the lectures with a 
 book under his arm. 
 
 Had the progress of the sciences among the Ara- 
 bians been proportional to the number of those who 
 cultivated them, we might hail the Saracens as the 
 saviours of literature during the dark and benighted 
 ages of Christianity; but we must acknowledge with 
 regret, that notwithstanding the enlightened views of 
 the califs, notwithstanding the multiplicity of acade- 
 mies and libraries, and the prodigious number of 
 writers, the sciences received but little ^improvement 
 from the Arabians. There are very few Arabian 
 writers in whose works we find either philosophical 
 idea?, successful researches, new facts, or great and 
 new and important truths. How, indeed, could such 
 things be expected from a people naturally hostile to 
 mental exertion; professing a religion which stigma- 
 tizes all exercise of the judgment as a crime, and 
 weighed down by the heavy yoke of despotism ? . It 
 was the religion of the Arabians, and the despotism 
 of their princes, that opposed the greatest obstacles 
 to the progress of the sciences, even during the most 
 flourishing period of their civilization.* Fortunately 
 
 For a fbllfr acconnt of the profrrrw of science among: the 
 Arabians thnn would be rnnBtstent with this work, the reader fa 
 referred to Mortucla's Hist, dps Malhtmatiuues, i. 351: Spren- 
 gd't Hirt. dc U Medccine, ii. 246. 
 12 
 
116 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 . chemistry was the branch of science least obnoxious 
 to the religious prejudices of the Mahometans. It was 
 in it, therefore, that the greatest improvements were 
 made : of these improvements it will be requisite now 
 to endeavour to give the reader some idea. Astro* 
 logy and alchymy, they both derived from the Greeks : 
 neither of them were inconsistent with the taste of the 
 nation neither of them were anathematized by the 
 Mahometan creed, though Islainism prohibited magic 
 and all the arts of divination. Alchymy may have 
 suggested the chemical processes but the Arabians 
 applied them to the preparation of medicines, and 
 thus opened a new and most copious source of inves- 
 tigation. 
 
 The choiitical writings of the Arabians which I have 
 had an opportunity of seeing and perusing in a Latin 
 dress, being ignorant of the original language in which 
 they were written, are those of Geber and Avicenna. 
 
 Geber, whose real name was Aboii-Moussah- 
 Dschalar-Al-Soli, was a Subcan of Harran, in Me- 
 hu|Mtamia, and lived during the eighth cent urv. Very 
 little is known respecting the history of this writer, 
 who must be considered as the patriarch of chemistry, 
 (lolius,- professor of the oriental languages in the 
 University of Ley den, made a present of Geber's. work 
 in manuscript to the public library. He translated it 
 into Latin, and published it m the same city in folio, 
 and afterwards in quarto, under the title of ** Lapis 
 Philosophorum."* It was translated into English by 
 Richard Russei in lt>78, under the title of, " The 
 "Works of Geber, the most famous Arabian Prince and 
 Philosopher. M f The works of Geber, so far as they 
 
 Boerhaare** Chemistry (Shaw's* translation), i. 26. Ao/r. 
 
 f Golius was not, however, the tint translator of Geber. 
 A translation of the longest and most important of his tracts 
 into Latin appeared in Strashurgr, in 1529. There was another 
 translation published in Italy, from a manuscript in the Va- 
 tican* There probably luighi be ether translation*. I hare 
 
CHEMISTRY OP THE All ABM VS. 117 
 
 appeared in Latin or English, consist of four tracts. 
 The first is entitled, " Of the Investigation or Search 
 of Perfection." The second is entitled, " Of the Sum, 
 of Perfection, or of the perfect Magistcry." The 
 third, " Of the Invention of Verity or Perfection." 
 And the last, " Of Furnaces, AVc.; with a Recapitula- 
 tion of the Author's Experiments," 
 
 The object of Geber's work is to teach the method 
 of making the philosopher's stone, which he distin-^ 
 jruishes usually by the name of medicine of the third 
 dast. The whole is in general written with so much 
 plainness, that we can understand the nature of the 
 substances which he employed, the processes which 
 he followed, and the <rreater number of the products 
 which he obtained. It is, therefore, 'a book of some 
 importance, because it is the oldest chemical treatise 
 in existence,* and because it makes us acquainted 
 with the processes followed by the Arabians, and the 
 progress which they had made in chemical investiga- 
 tions. I shall therefore lay before the reader the most 
 important facts contained in Geber's work. 
 
 1 . He considered all the metals as compounds of 
 mercury and sulphur : this opinion did not originate 
 with him. It is evident from what he says, that the 
 same notion had been adopted by his predecessors 
 men whom he speaks of under the title of the 
 ancients. 
 
 2. The metals with which he was acquainted were 
 gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, and lead. These are 
 usually distinguished by him under the names of >/, 
 Luna', Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Whether 
 
 comp.irrd four different copies of Geber's works, and found 
 some differences, though not very material. 1 hare followed 
 RuMel's English translation most commonly, as upon the whole . 
 the most accurate that I have seen. 
 
 Of course I eiclude the writings of the Greek ecclesiastics 
 mentioned in a previous part of this work, which still con- 
 tinue ia manuscript j because, I am ignorant of what they 
 contain. 
 
US HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 these names of the planets were applied to the metals 
 by Geber, or only by his translators, I cannot say; 
 but they were always employed by the alchy mists, 
 who never designated the metals by any other ap- 
 pellations. 
 
 3. Gold and silver he considered as perfect metals ; 
 but the other four were imperfect metals. The dif- 
 ference between them depends, in his opinion, partly 
 upon the proportions of mercury and sulphur in each, 
 and partly upon the purity or impurity of the mercury 
 and sulphur which enters into the composition of each. 
 
 Gold, according to him, is created of the most 
 subtile substance of mercury and of most clear fixture, 
 and of a small substance of sulphur, clean and of pure 
 redness, fixed, clear, and changed from its own nature, 
 tinging that; and because there happens a diversity in 
 the colours of that sulphur, the yellowness of gold 
 must needs have a like diversity.* His evidence that 
 fold consisted chiefly of mercury, is the great case 
 with which mercury dissolves gold. For mercury, in 
 his opinion, dissolves nothing that is not of its own 
 nature. The lustre and splendour of gold is another 
 proof of the great proportion of mercury which it con- 
 tains. That it is a fixed substance, void of all burn- 
 ing sulphur, he thinks evident by every operation in 
 the fire, for it is neither diminished .nor inflamed. 
 His other reasons are not so intelligible.! 
 
 Silver, like gold, is composed of much mercury and 
 a little sulphur; but in the gold the sulphur is red; 
 whereas the sulphur that goes to the formation of 
 silver is white. The sulphur in silver is also clean, 
 fixed, and clear. Silver has a purity short of that of 
 gold, and a more gross inspissation. The proof of 
 this is, that its parts are not so condensed, nor is it 
 so fixed as gold; for it may be diminished by fire, 
 which is not the case with gold.f 
 
 Sum of Perfection, book ii. put i. chap. 5. 
 
 tibia. ; lbui.,cb*p. 6. 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE ARABIANS. 119 
 
 Iron is composed of earthy mercury and earthy 
 sulphur, highly fixed, the latter in by far the greatest 
 quantity. Sulphur, by the work of fixation, n.orc ea- 
 sily destroys the easiness of liquefaction than mercury. 
 Hence the reason why iron is not fusible, as is the 
 case with the other metals.* 
 
 Sulphur not fixed melts sooner than mercury ; but 
 fixed sulphur opposes fusion. What contains more 
 fixed sulphur, more slowly admits of fusion than what 
 partakes of burning sulphur, which more easily and 
 sooner flows, f 
 
 Copper is composed of sulphur unclean, gross and 
 fixer! as to its greater part ; but as to its lesser part 
 not fixed, red, and livid, in relation to the whole not 
 overcoming nor overcome and of gross mercury, t 
 
 When copper is exposed to itniition, you may dis- 
 cern a sulphureous flame to arise from it, which is a 
 si^n of sulphur not fixed ; and the loss of the quantity 
 of it by exhalation through the frequent combustion 
 of it, shows that it has fixed sulphur. This last be- 
 ins: in abundance, occasions the slowness of its fu- 
 sion and the hardness of its substance. That copper 
 contains red and unclean sulphur, united to unclean 
 mercury, is, he thinks, evident, from its sensible 
 qualities. 
 
 Tin consists of sulphur of small fixation, white with 
 a whiteness not pure, not overcoming but overcome, 
 mixed with mercury partly fixed and partly not fixed, . 
 white and impure. || That this is the constitution of 
 tin he thinks evident ; for when calcined, it emits a 
 sulphureous stench, which is a sign of sulphur not 
 fixed : it yields no flame, not because the sulphur is 
 fixed, but because it contains a great portion of mer- 
 cury. In tin there is a twofold sulphur and also a 
 twofold mercury. One sulphur is less fixed, because 
 in calcining it gives out a stench as sulphur. The fixed 
 
 Sum of Perfection, book ii. part i. chap. 7. 
 
 t Ibid. ; Jbul., cliap.8. Ibid. | Ibid, chip. 9. 
 
170 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 sulphur continues in the tin after it is calcined* He 
 thinks that the twofold mercury in tin is evident, from 
 this, that before calcination it makes a crashing 
 noise when bent, but after it has been thrice cal- 
 cined, that crashing noise can no longer be per- 
 ceived.* Geber says, that if lead be washed with 
 mercury, and after its washing melted in a fire not 
 exceeding the fire of its fusion, a portion of the mer- 
 cury will remain combined with the lead, and will 
 give it the crashing noise and all the qualities of tin. 
 On the other hand, you may convert tin into lead. 
 By manifold repetition of its calcination, and the ad- 
 ministration of fire convenient for its reduction, it U 
 turned into lead.f 
 
 Lead, in Geber's opinion, differs from tin only in 
 having a more unclean substance commixed of the 
 two more gross substances, sulphur and mercury. 
 The sulphur in it is burning and more adhesive to the 
 substance of its own mercury, and it has more of the 
 substance of fixed sulphur in its composition than tin 
 has.J 
 
 Such are the opinions which Gebor entertained re- 
 specting the composition of the metals. I have been 
 induced to state them as nearly in his own words as 
 possible, and to give the reasons which he has assigned 
 for them, even when his facts were not quite correct, 
 because I thought that this was the most likely way of 
 conveying. to the reader an accurate notion of the sen- 
 timents of this father of the alchymists, upon the very 
 foundation of the whole doctrine of the transmutation 
 of metals. He was of opinion that all the imperfect 
 metals might be transformed into gold and silver, by 
 altering the proportions of the mercury and sulphur of 
 which they are composed, and by changing the nature 
 of the mercury and sulphur so as to make them the 
 same with the mercury and sulphur which constitute 
 
 Sum of Perfection, book U. parti, chap. 9. 
 f Ibid. ; Ibid., chap. 10. 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE ARABIAN*)! 121 
 
 gold and silver. The subtance capable of producing 
 these important changes he calls sometimes the/j/ii/o- 
 sophers stone, but generally the medicine. He gives 
 the method of preparing this important mayiitery* as 
 he rails it. But it is not worth while to state his pro- 
 cess, because he leaves out several particulars, in 
 order to prevent the foolish from reaping any benefit 
 from his writings, while at the same time those readers 
 who possess the proper degree of sacacity will be able, 
 by studying the different parts of his writings, to di- 
 vine the nature of the steps which he omits, and thus 
 profit by his researches and explanations. But it 
 will be worth while to notice the most important of 
 his processes, because this will enable us to judge of 
 the state of chemistry in his time. 
 . 4. In his book onYurnaces, he gives a description 
 of a furnace proper for calcining metals, and from 
 the fourteenth chapter of the fourth part of the first 
 book of his Sum of Perfection, it is obvious that 
 the method of calcining or oxidizing iron, copper, 
 tin, and lead, and also mercury and arsenic were fa- 
 miliarly known to him. 
 
 He gives a description of a furnace for distilling, 
 and a pretty minute account of the glass or stone- 
 ware, or metallic aludel and alembic, by means of 
 which the process was conducted. He was in the 
 habit of distilling by surrounding his aludel with hot 
 ashes, to prevent it from being broken. He was ac- 
 quainted also with the water- bath. These processes were 
 familiar to him. The description of the distillation of 
 many bodies occurs in his work ; but there is not the 
 least evidence that he was acquainted with ardent 
 spirits. The term spirit occurs frequently ii* his 
 writings, but it wa.> applied to volatile bodies in gene- 
 ral, and in particular to sulphur and white arsenic,' 
 which he considered as substances very similar in their 
 properties. Mercury also he considered as a spirit. 
 
 The method of distilling per cktcensum, as is prao 
 
122 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 t ised in the smelting of zinc, was also known to him. 
 He describes an apparatus for the purpose, and gives 
 several examples of such distillations in his writings. 
 
 He gives also a description of a furnace for melting 
 metals, and mentions the vessels in which such pro* 
 cesses were conducted. He was acquainted with cru- 
 cibles ; and even describes the mode of making cupels, 
 nearly similar to those used at present. The process 
 of cupellating gold and silver, and purifying them by 
 means of lead, is given by him pretty minutely and 
 accurately : he calls it cintritium, or at least that is 
 the term used by his Latin translator. 
 
 He was in the habit of dissolving salts in water and 
 acetic acid, and even the metals in different menstrua. 
 Of these menstrua he nowhere gives any account ; but 
 from our knowledge of the properties of the different 
 metals, and from some processes which he notices, it 
 is easy to perceive what his solvents must have been; 
 namely, the mineral acids which were known to him, 
 and to which there is no allusion whatever in any 
 preceding writer that I have had an opportunity of 
 consulting. Whether Geber was the discoverer of these 
 acids cannot be known, as he nowhere claims the dis- 
 covery : indeed his object was to slur over these acids, 
 as much as possible, that their existence, or at least 
 their remark-able properties, mi^ht not be suspected by 
 the uninitiated. It was this atiectation of secrecy and 
 mystery that has deprived the earliest chemists of that 
 credit and reputation to which they would have been 
 justly entitled, had their discoveries been made known 
 to the public in a plain and intelligible manner. 
 
 The mode of purifying liquids by filtration, and of 
 separating precipitates from liquids by the same means, 
 was known to Geber. He called the process distilla- 
 tiun through a filter. 
 
 Thus the greater number of chemical processes, such 
 as they were practised almost to the end of the eighteenth 
 century, were known to Geber. If we compare his 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE ARABIANS. 123 
 
 works with those of Dioscorides and Pliny, we shall 
 perceive the great progress which chemistry or rather 
 pharmacy had made. It is more than probable that 
 these improvements were made by the Arabian phy- 
 sicians, or at least by the physicians who filled the 
 chairs in the medical schools, which were under the 
 protection of the califs : for as no notice is taken of 
 these processes by any of the Greek or Roman writers 
 that have come down to us, and as we find them 
 minutely described by the earliest chemical writers 
 among the Arabians, we have no other alternative 
 than to admit that they originated in the east. 
 
 I shall now state the different chemical substances 
 or preparations which were known to Gober, or which 
 he describes the method of preparing in his works. 
 
 1 . Common salt. This substance occurring in such 
 abundance in the earth, and be- ing indispensable as a 
 froasoner of food, was known from tlie earliest ages. 
 But Geber describes the method which he adopted to 
 free it from impurities. It was exposed to a red heat, 
 then dissolved in water, filtered, crystallized by evapo- 
 ration, and the crystals being exposed to a red heat, 
 were put into a close vessel, and kept for use.* 
 Whether the identity of sal-gem (native gait) and 
 common salt was known to Geber is nowhere said. 
 Probably not, as he gives separate directions for 
 purifying each. 
 
 2. "Geber gives an account of the two fixed alkalies, 
 potash and *oda, and gives processes for obtaining 
 them. Potash was obtained by burning cream of tar- 
 tar in a crucible, dissolving the residue in water, filter- 
 ing the solution, and evaporating to dryncss.f This 
 would yield a pure carbonate of potash. 
 
 Carbonate of soda he calls sagimen ri/ri, and salt 
 of soda. He mentions plants which yield it when 
 burnt, points out the method of purifying it, and even 
 
 Inratigfttion and Search of Perfection, chap. 3. 
 f Invention of Verity, chap. 4. 
 
124 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 describes the method of rendering it caustic by means 
 of quicklime. * 
 
 3. Saltpetre, or nitrate of potash, was known to 
 him ; and Geber is the first writer in whom we find an 
 account of this salt. Nothing is said respecting its 
 origin; but there can be little doubt that it came 
 from India, where it was collected, and known long 
 before Europeans were acquainted with it. The know- 
 ledge of this salt was probably one great cause of the 
 superiority of the Arabians over uro|>eans in chemical 
 knowledge ; for it enabled them to procure nitric acid, 
 by means of which they dissolved all the metals known 
 in their time, and thus acquired a knowledge of va- 
 rious important saline compounds, which were of con- 
 siderable importance. 
 
 There is a process for preparing saltpetre artificially, 
 in several of the Latin copies of Geber, though it does 
 not appear in our English translation. The method 
 was to dissolve sagimen vitii, or carbonate of soda, in 
 aqua fort is, to filter and crystallize by evaporation.! 
 If this process be genuine, it is obvious that Geber 
 must have been acquainted with nitrate of soda; but 
 I have some doubts about the genuineness of the pas- 
 sage, because the term 'aquafortis occurs in it. Now 
 this term occurs nowhere else in Geber's work : even 
 when he gives the process for procuring nitric acid, he 
 calls it simply water ; but observes, that it is a water 
 |H>ssessed of much virtue, and that it constitutes a 
 precious instrument in the hands of the man who 
 possesses sagacity to use it aright. 
 
 4. Sal ammoniac was known to Geber, and seems 
 to have been quite common in his time. There is no 
 evidence that it was known to the Greeks or Romans, 
 as neither Dioscorides nor Pliny make any allusion 
 to it. The word in oltl books is sometimes sal armo- 
 niac, sometimes sal ammoniac. It is supposed to 
 
 Search of Perfection, chap. 3. 
 
 f De luvestigatione Perfect, cliap. 4. 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE ARABIANS. 125 
 
 have been brought originally from the neighbourhood 
 of the temple of Jupiter Ammon : but had this been 
 the case, and had it occurred native, it could scarcely 
 have been unknown to the Romans, under whose 
 dominions that part of Africa fell. In the writings of 
 the alchymists, sal ammoniac is mentioned under the 
 following whimsical names : 
 Anima sensibilis, 
 Aqua duortim f rat rum ex sorore, 
 Aquila, 
 
 Lapis aquilinis, 
 Cancer, 
 
 Lapis aniri'li contingent is, 
 Sal lapidum, 
 Sal alocoph. 
 
 Gebcr not only knew sal ammoniac, but he was 
 aware of its volatility; and gives various processes 
 for subliming it, and uses it frequently to promote the 
 sublimation of other bodies, as of oxides of iron and 
 copper. He srivos also a method of procuring it from 
 urine, a liquid which, when allowed to run into putre- 
 faction, is known to yield it in abundance Sal 
 ammoniac was much used by Gebcr, in his various 
 processes to bring the inferior metals to a state of 
 greater perfection. By adding it or common salt to 
 aqua fortis, he was enabled to dissolve gold, which 
 certainly could not be accomplished in the time of 
 Dioscorides or Pliny. The description, -indeed, of 
 Cieber's process for dissolving gold is left on purpose 
 in a defective state ; but an attentive reader will rind 
 no great difficulty in supplying the defects, and thus 
 understanding the whole of the process. 
 
 5. Alum, precisely the same as the alum of the 
 modems, was familiarly known to Gebcr, and em- 
 ployed by him in his processes. The manufacture of 
 this salt, therefore, had been discovered between the 
 time when Pliny composed his Natural History and 
 
126 BISTORT OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 the eighth century, when Geber wrote; unless we 
 admit that the mode of making it had been known to 
 the Tyrian dyers, hut that they had kept the secret 
 so well, that no suspicion of its existence was enter- 
 tained by the Greeks and Romans. That they em- 
 ployed alumina as a mordant in some of their dyes, 
 is evident ; but there is no proof whatever that alum, 
 in the modern sense of the word, was known to them. 
 
 Geber mentions three alums which he was in the 
 habit of using; namely, icy alum, or Rocca alum; 
 Jamenoiis alum, or alum of Jameni, and feather alum. 
 Rocca, or Edcssuj in Syria, is admitted to have been 
 the place where the tirst manufactory of alum was . 
 established ; but at what time, or by whom, is quite 
 unknown : we know only that it must have been pos- 
 terior to the commencement of the Christian era, and 
 prior to the eighth century, when Geber wrote. Ja- 
 meni must have been another locality where, at the 
 time of Geber, a manufactory of ulum existed. Feather 
 alum was undoubtedly one of the native impure va- 
 rieties of uluin, known to the Greeks and Romans. 
 Geber was in the habit of distilling alum by a strong 
 heat, and of preserving the water which came over 
 as a valuable menstruum. If alum be exposed to a 
 red heat in glass vessels, it will give out a portion of 
 sulphuric ucid : hence water distilled from alum by 
 Gfberwas probably a weak solution of sulphuric acid, 
 which would undoubtedly act powerfully as a solvent 
 of iron, and of the alkaline carbonates. It was pro- 
 bably in this way that he used it. 
 
 6. Sulphate of iron or copperas, as it is called 
 (cuptrosu), in the state of a crystalline salt, was well 
 known to Geber, and appears in his time to have beeu 
 manufactured. 
 
 7. Baurach, or borax, is mentioned by him, but 
 without any description by which we can know whether 
 or not it was our borax : the probability is that it was. 
 
dlEMISTHY OP THE ARABIANS. 127 
 
 Both glass and borax were used by him when the 
 oxides of metals vrere reduced by him to the metallic 
 state. 
 
 8. Vinegar was purified by him by distilling it over, 
 and it was used as a solvent in many of his processes. 
 
 9. Nitric arid was known to him by the name of 
 dissolving water. He prepared it by putting into an 
 alembic one pound of sulphate of iron of Cyprus, half 
 a pound of saltpetre, and a quarter of a pound of alum 
 of Jamcni : this mixture was distilled till every thing 
 liquid was driven over. He mentions the red fumes 
 which make their appearance in the alembic during 
 the process. * This process, though not an econo- 
 mical one, would certainly yield nitric acid ; and it is 
 remarkable, because it is here that we find the first 
 hint of the knowledge of chemists of this most im- 
 portant acid, without which many chemical proces- 
 ses of the utmost importance could not be performed 
 at all. 
 
 10. This acid, thus prepared, he made use of to 
 dissolve silver: the solution was concentrated till the 
 nitrate of silver was obtained by him in a crystallized 
 state. This process is thus described by him : " Dis- 
 solve silver calcined in solutive water (nitric ciW), as 
 before; which being done, coct it in a phial with a 
 long neck, the orifice of which must be left unstopped, 
 for one day only, until a third part of the water be 
 consumed. This being effected, set it with its vessel 
 in a cold place, and then it is converted into small 
 fusible stones, like crystal."f 
 
 11. He was in the habit also of dissolving sal 
 ammoniac in this nitric acid, and employing the solu- 
 tion, which was the aqua regia of the old chemists, to 
 dissolve gold. J He assures us that this aqua regia 
 would dissolve likewise sulphur and silver. The latter 
 assertion is erroneous. But sulphur is easily converted 
 
 Tnrrntion of Verity, chap. 23. 
 
 t Ibid., chap. 21, $ Ibid., chap. 23. 
 
128 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 into sulphuric acid by the action of aqua regia, and of 
 course it disappears or dissolves. 
 
 12. Corrosive sublimate is likewise described by 
 Geber in a very intelligible manner. His method of 
 preparing it was as follows: " Take of mercury one 
 pound, of dried sulphate of iron two pounds, of alum 
 calcined one pound, of common salt half a pound, 
 and of saltpetre a quarter of a pound : incorporate 
 altogether by trituration and sublime ; gather the 
 white, dense, and ponderous portions which shall be 
 .found about the sides of the vessel. If in the first 
 sublimation you find it turbid or unclean (which may 
 happni by reason of your own negligence), sublime a 
 second time with the same fuses." * Still more minute 
 directions are Driven in other parts of the work : we 
 have even some imperfect account of the properties of 
 corrosive sublimate. 
 
 13. Corrosive sublimate is not the only prepara- 
 tion of mercury mentioned by Geber. He informs 
 us that when mercury is combined with sulphur 
 it assumes a red colour, and Incomes cinnabar. f He 
 describes the affinities of mercury for the different 
 metals, it adheres easily to three metals ; namely, 
 lead, tin, and gold; to silver with more difficulty. To 
 copper with still more difficulty than to silver; but to 
 iron it unites in nowise unless by artifice.* This is a 
 tolerably accurate account of the matter. He says, 
 that mercury is the heaviest body in nature except 
 gold, which is the only metal that will sink in it. 
 Now this was true, applied to all the substances known 
 when Geber lived. 
 
 He gives an account of the method of forming the 
 peroxide of mercury by heat ; that variety of it for- 
 merly -distinguished by the name of red preclpitati 
 per se. "Mercury," he says, ** is also coagulated by 
 
 * Invention of Verity, chap. 8. 
 
 f Sum of Perfection*, x>ok i. part iiL chap. 4. 
 
 ; Ibid., chap. 6. Ibid. ^ 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE ARABIAN. ]29 
 
 lon^ and constant retention in fire, in a glass vessel 
 with a very long: neck and round belly ; the orifice of 
 the neck being kept open, that the humidity may va- 
 nish thereby."* He pives another process for prepar- 
 ing this oxide, possible, perhaps, though certainly re- 
 quiring very cautious regulation of the fire. " Take," 
 says he, ' of mercury one pound, of vitriol (sulphate 
 of iron) rubified two pounds, and of saltpetre one 
 pound. Mortify the mercury with these, and then 
 sublime it from rock alum and saltpetre in equal 
 wetghU."t 
 
 14. Geber was acquainted with several of the com- 
 pounds of metals with sulphur. He remarks that 
 sulphur when fused with metals increases their weight.; 
 Copper combined with sulphur becomes yellow, and 
 mercury red.| He knew the method of dissolving 
 sulphur in caustic potash, and again precipitating it 
 by the addition of an acid. His process is as follows : 
 " Grind clear and crummose sulphur to a most subtile 
 powder, which boil in a lixivium made of ashes' of 
 heartsease and quicklime, gathering from off the 
 'surface its oleaginous combustibility, until it be dis- 
 cerned to be clear. This being done, stir the whole 
 with a stick, and then warily take off that which 
 passeth out with the lixivium, leaving the more gross 
 parts in the bottom. Permit that extract to cool a 
 little, and upon it pour a fourth part of its own 
 quantity of distilled vinegar, and then will the whole 
 suddenly be congealed as milk. Remove as much of 
 the clear lixivium as you can; but dry the residue 
 with a gentle fire and keep it."|| 
 
 1.3. It would appear from various passages in 
 Geber's works that he was acquainted with arsenic in 
 the metallic state. He frequently mentions its com- 
 
 Sum of Perfection, book i. part iv. chap. Ifi. 
 f- Invention of Verity, chap. 10. 
 t Sum of Perfection/hook i. part iii. chap. 4. 
 i Ibid. || hrrntion of Verity, chap. $. 
 
 VOL.1. K 
 
130 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 bustibility, and considers it as the compe er of sulphur. 
 And. in his book on Furnaces, chapter 25 (or 28 in 
 some copies), he expressly mentions metallic arsenic 
 (arscnicum metallinum), in a preparation not very in- 
 telligible, but which he considered of great importance. 
 Tho white oxide of arsenic or arsenious acid, was ob- 
 viously well known to him. He gives more than one 
 process for obtaining it by sublimation.* He observes 
 in 1. is Sum of Perfection, book i. part iv. chap. *2, whirh 
 treats of sublimation, *' Arsenic, which before its 
 sublimation was evil and prone to adust ion, after its 
 sublimation, sutlers not itself to be inflamed; but 
 only resides without inflammation." 
 
 Geber states the fact, that when arsenic is heated 
 with copper that metal becomes white, f He gives 
 also a process by which the white arscniate of iron is 
 obviously made. " Grind one pound of iron tilings 
 with half a pound of sublimed arsenic (arsenious acid). 
 Jin l>i he the mixture with the water of saltpetre, and 
 salt-alkali, repeating this imbibation thrice. Then 
 make it flow with a violent tire, and you will have 
 your iron white. Repeat this labour till it flow suffi- 
 ciently with peculiar dealbation.J 
 
 16. He mentions oxide of copper under the name 
 of as listuM, the red oxide of iron under the name of 
 crocus of iron. He mentions also litharge and red 
 lead.^ But as all these substances were known to the 
 Greeks and Romans, it is needless to cuter into any 
 particular details. 
 
 17. 1 am not sure what substance Geber understood 
 by tluvword marchasile. It was a substance which 
 must have been abundant, and in common use, for he 
 refers to it frequently, and uses it in many of his pro- 
 ccsscs ; but he nowhere informs us what it is. I sus- 
 
 Invention of Verity, chap. 7. 
 
 f Sum of 1'rrfrrtton,' book ii. part. ii. chip. 11. 
 
 } Invention of Verity, cUap. 14. Jbid., chap. 4 and 1*. 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE ARABIAN'S. 131 
 
 pect it may have been sulphurct of antimony, which 
 was certainly in common use in Asia long before the 
 time of Geber. But he also makes mention of anti- 
 mony by name, or at least the Latin translator has made 
 use of the word antimnniutn. When speaking of the 
 reduction of metals after heating them with sulphur, 
 he says, " The reduction of tin is converted into clear 
 antimony ; but of lead, into a dark -coloured antimony, 
 as we have found by proper experience."* It is not 
 easy to conjecture what meaning the word antimony 
 is intended to convey in this passage. In another 
 passage he says, " Antimony is calcined, dissolved, 
 clarified, congealed, and ground to powder, so it is 
 prepared, "f 
 
 18. Geber's description of the metals is tolerably 
 accurate, considering the time when he wrote. As an 
 example I shall subjoin his account of gold. " Gold 
 is a metallic body, yellow, ponderous, mute, fulged, 
 equally digested in the bowels of the earth, and very 
 long washed with mineral water; under the hammer 
 extensible, fusible, juid sustaining the trial of the cupel 
 ami cementation."; He gives an example of copper 
 being changed into gold. " In copper-mines,*' he 
 says, " we sec a certain water which flows out, and 
 carries with it thin scales of copper, which (by a con- 
 tinual and fang-continued course) it washes ami 
 cleanses. But after such water ceases to flow, we find 
 these thin scales with the dry sand, in three years time 
 to be digested with the heat of the sun ; and among 
 these scales the purest gold is found : therefore we 
 judge those scales were cleansed by the benefit of the 
 water, but were equally digested by heat of the sun, 
 in thedrynessofthe sand, and so brought to equality/'^ 
 Here we have an example of plausible reasoning from 
 
 * Sam of Perfection, book ii. part Hi. chap. 10. 
 f- Invention of Verity, chap. 4* 
 2 Sum of Perfection, hook i. part iii. chap. 8. 
 Ibid., book i. part iii. chap. 8. 
 K 2 
 
132 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 defective premises. The gold grains doubtless existed 
 in the sand before, while the scales of copper in the 
 course of three years would be oxidized and converted 
 into powder, and disappear, or at least lose all their 
 metallic lustre. 
 
 Such are the most remarkable chemical facts which 
 I have observed in the works of Gebcr. They are so 
 numerous and important, as to entitle him with some 
 justice to the appellation of the father and founder of 
 chemistry. Besides the metals, sulphur and salt, with 
 which the Greeks and Romans were acquainted, he 
 knew the method of preparing sulphuric acid, nitric 
 arid, and aqua rcgia. He knew the method of dissolving 
 the metals by means of these acids, and actually pre- 
 pared nitrate of silver and corrosive sublimate. He 
 was acquainted with potash and soda, both in the state 
 of carbonates and caustic. He was aware that these 
 alkalies dissolve sulphur, and he employed the process 
 to obtain sulphur in a state of purity. 
 
 But notwithstanding the experimental merit of Ge- 
 ber, his spirit of philosophy did not much exceed that 
 of his countrymen. He satisfied himself with account- 
 ing for phenomena by occult causes, as was the uni- 
 versal custom of the Arabians ; a practice quite in- 
 consistent with real scientific progress. That this was 
 the case will appear from the following passage, in 
 which < iclu-r attempts to give an explanation of the 
 properties of the yrcat elixir or jtAtlttftyiAfrff stone: 
 There fore* let him attend to the properties and ways 
 of action of the composition of the greater elixir. For 
 we endeavour to make one substance, yet compounded 
 and composed of many, so permanently fixed, that 
 being put upon the fire, the fire cannot injure; and 
 that it may be mixed with metals in flux and How with 
 them, and enter with that which in them is of an in- 
 gressible substance, and be fermented with that which 
 in them is of a permixable substance ; and be con- 
 solidated with that which in them is of a consolidate 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE ARABIA**. 133 
 
 substance; and be fixed with that which in them is of 
 a fix able substance ; and not be burnt by those things 
 which burn not gold and silver ; and take away con- 
 solidation and weights with due ignition.* 
 
 The next Arabian whose name 1 shall introduce 
 into this history, is Al-Hassain-Ahou-Ali-Ben-Abdal- 
 lah-Ebn-Sina, surnamed Scheik Reyes, or prince of 
 physicians, vulgarly known by the name of Ariccnna. 
 Next to Aristotle and Galen, his reputation was the 
 highest, and his authority the Greatest of all medical 
 practitioners ; and he reigned paramount, or at least 
 shared the medical sceptre till he was hurled from his 
 throne by the rude hands of Paracelsus. 
 
 Avicenna was born in the year 978, at Bokhara, to 
 which place his. father had retired during the emirate 
 of the calif Nuhh, one of the sons of the celebrated 
 Almansor. Ali, his father, had dwelt in Balkh, in. 
 the Chorazan. After the birth of Avicenna he went to 
 Asschena in Bucharia, where he continued to live till 
 his son had reached his fifteenth year. No labour nor 
 expense was spared on the education of Avicenna, 
 whose abilities were so extraordinary that he is said to 
 have been able to repeat the whole Koran by heart 
 at the age of ten years. Ali crave him for a master 
 Abou-Abdallah-Annatholi, who taught him grammar, 
 dialectics, the geometry of Euclid, and the astronomy 
 of Ptolemy. But Avicenna quitted his tuition be* 
 cause he could not give him the solution of a problem 
 in logic. He attached himself to a merchant, who 
 taught him arithmetic, and made him acquainted with 
 the Indian numerals from which our own are derived. 
 He then undertook a journey to Bagdad, where he 
 studied philosophy under the great Peripat ician, Abou- 
 Nasr-Alfarabi, a disciple of Mesue the elder. At the 
 same time he applied himself to medicine, under the 
 tuition of the Nestor ian, Abou-Sahel-Masichi. He 
 
 Investigation of Perfection*, chap. 11. 
 
134 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 informs us himself that he applied with an eitraordi- 
 nary ardour to the study of the sciences. He was in 
 the habit of drinking great quantities of liquids during 
 the night, to prevent him from sleeping; and he often 
 obtained in a dream a solution of those problems at 
 which he had laboured in vain while he was awake. 
 AY hen the difficulties to be surmounted appeared to 
 him too great, he prayed to God to communicate to 
 him a share of his wisdom ; and these prayers, he as- 
 sures us, were never oti'ered in vain. The metaphysics 
 of Aristotle was the only book which he could not 
 comprehend, and after reading them over forty times, 
 he threw them aside with great anger at himself. 
 
 Already, at the age of sixteen, he was a physician 
 of eminence ; and at eighteen he performed a brilliant 
 cure on the calif Nuhh, which gave him such celebrity 
 that Mohammed, Calif of Chorazan, invited him to 
 his palace; but Avicenna rather chose to reside at 
 Dschordschan, where he cured the nephew of the 
 calif Kabus of a grievous distemper. 
 
 Afterwards heweat to Ray, where he was appointed 
 physician to Prince Magd-Oddatila. Here he com- 
 posed a dictionary of the sciences. Sometime after 
 this he was raised to the dignity of vizier at Hamdan; 
 but he was speedily deprived of his orHce and thrown 
 into prison for having favoured a sedition. While in- 
 carcerated he wrote many works on medicine and 
 philosophy. By-and-by he was set at liberty, and 
 restored to his dignity ; but after the death of his pro- 
 tector, Sehems-Uddaula, being afraid of a new at- 
 tempt to deprive him of his liberty, he took refuge in 
 the house of an apothecary, where he remained long 
 concealed and completely occupied with his literary 
 labours. Being at last discovered he was thrown into 
 the castle of Bcrdawa, where he was confined for four 
 months. At the end of that time a fortunate accident 
 enabled him to make his escape, in the disguise of a 
 monk. He repaired to Ispahan, where he lived much 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THfc ARABIANS. 135 
 
 respected at the court of the calif Ola-Oddaula. He 
 did not live to a great a^e, tacatisc he hud worn out 
 his constitution by too free an indulgence of women 
 and wine. Having l>ecn attacked by a violent colic, 
 ho caused eight injections, prepared lYom long pepper, 
 to be thrown up in one day. This excessive, use of so 
 irritating" a remedy, occasioned an excoriation of the 
 intestine:*, which was followed by an attack of epilepsy. 
 A journey to Hamdan, in company with the calif, 
 and the use of mithridate. into which his sen-ant by 
 mistake had put too much opium, contributed still fur- 
 ther to put an end to his life. He had scarcely arrived 
 at the town when he died in the fifty-eighth year of 
 his age, in the year 1036. 
 
 Avicenna was the author of the immense work en- 
 titled " Canon," which was translated into Latin, and 
 for five centuries constituted the great standard, the in- 
 fallible guide, the confession of faith of the medical 
 world. All n'edical knowledge was contained in it; 
 and nothing except what was contained in it was consi- 
 dered by medical men as of any importance. When 
 we take a view of the Canon, and compare it with tho 
 writ ings of the Greeks, and even of the Arabians, that 
 preceded it, we shall find some difficulty in accounting 
 for the unbounded authority which he acquired over 
 the medical world, and for the length of time during 
 which that authority continued. 
 
 But it mi&t be remomtared, that Avicenna'* reign 
 occupies the darkest and most dreary period of the 
 history of the human mind. The human race seems to 
 have been asleep, and the mental faculties in a state 
 of complete torpor. Mankind, accustomed in their 
 religious opinions to obey blindly the infallible de- 
 cisions of the church, and to think precisely as the 
 church enjoined them to think, would naturally look 
 for some means to save them the trouble of thinking 
 on medical subjects ; and this means they found for- 
 tunately in the canons of Avicenna. These canons, 
 
136 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 in their opinion, were equally infallible with the de* 
 cisions of the holy father, and required to be as im- 
 plicitly obeyed. The whole science of medicine was 
 reduced to a simple perusal of Avicenna's Canon, and 
 an implicit adherence to his rules and directions. 
 
 When we compare this celebrated work with the 
 medical writings of the Greeks, and even of the 
 Arabians, the predecessors of Avicenna, we shall be 
 surprised that it contains little or nothing which can 
 be considered as original ; the whole is borrowed from 
 the writings of Galen, or /Etius, or R hazes: scarcely 
 ever does he venture to trust his own wings, but rests 
 entirely on the sagacity of his Greek and Arabian 
 predecessors. Galen is his great guide ; or, if he ever 
 forsake him, it is to place himself under the direction 
 of Aristotle. 
 
 The Canon contains a collection of most of the 
 valuable information contained in the writings of the 
 ancient Greek physicians, arranged, it must be allow* 
 ed t with great clearness. The Hhawi of Razes is al- 
 most as complete ; but it wants the lucldus ordo which 
 distinguishes the Canon of Avicenna. 1 conceive that 
 the high reputation which Avicenna acquired, was 
 owing to the care which he bestowed upon his arrange- 
 lacnt. He \uis undoubtedly a man of abilities, but 
 not of inventive genius. There is little original matter 
 in the Canon. But the physicians in the west, while 
 Avicenna occupied the medical sceptre, had no op- 
 portunity of judging of the originality of their oracle, 
 because they were unacquainted with the Greek Ian- 
 unu^e, and could not therefore consult the writings of 
 Galen or vDtius, except through the corrupt medium 
 of an Arabian version. 
 
 But it is not the medical reputation of Avicenna that 
 induced me to mention his name here. Like all the 
 Arabian physicians, he was also a chemist ; and his 
 chemical tracts having been translated into Latin, and 
 published iu Western Europe, we are enabled to judge 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE ARABIANS. 137 
 
 of their merit, and to estimate the effect which they may 
 have had upon the progress of chemistry. The first 
 Latin translation of the chemical writings of Avicenna 
 was published at Basil in 157*2 ; they consist of t\vo 
 separate books ; the first, under the name of " Porta 
 Klementorum," consists of a dialogue between a master 
 and his pupil, respecting: the mysteries of Alchymy. 
 He gives an account of the four elements, fire, air, 
 water, earth, and gives them their usual qualities of 
 dry, moist, hot, and cold. He then treats of air, which, 
 he says, is the food of fire, of water, of honey, of the 
 mutual conversion of the elements into each other; of 
 milk and cheese, of the mixture of fire and water, and 
 that all things arc composed of the four elements. 
 There is nothing in this tract which has any pretension 
 to novelty ; he merely retails the opinions of the Greek 
 philosophers. 
 
 The other treatise is much larger, and professes to 
 teach the whole art of alchymy ; it is divided into ten 
 parts, entitled " Dictiones." The first diction treats of 
 the philosopher's stone in general ; the second diction 
 treats of the method of converting light things into 
 heavy, hard things into soft ; of the mutation of the 
 elements ; and of some other particulars of a nature not 
 very intelligible. The third diction treats of the for- 
 mation of the elixir; and the same subject is con- 
 tinued in the fourth. 
 
 The fifth diction is one of the most important in the 
 whole treatise; it is in general intelligible, which is 
 more than can be said of those that precede it. This 
 diction is divided into twenty-eight chapters : the first 
 chapter treats of copper, which, he says, is of three 
 kinds; pennon ian copper, natural copper, and Navarre 
 copper. But of these three varieties he gives no ac- 
 count whatever; though he enlarges a good deal on the 
 qualities of coppernot its properties, but its sup- 
 posed medicinal action. It is hot and dry, he says, 
 
138 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 but in the calx of it there is humidity. His account 
 of the composition of copper is the same with that of 
 Geber. 
 
 The second chapter treats of lead, the third of tin, 
 and in the remaining chapters he treats successively 
 of brass, iron, gold, silver, marcasite, sulphuret of 
 antimony, which is distinguished by the name of 
 alcohol; of soda, which he says is the juice of a plant 
 calicd sosu. And he gives an unintelligible process 
 by which it is extracted from that plant, without men- 
 tioning a syllable about the combustion to which it is 
 obvious that it must have been subjected. 
 
 In the twelfth chapter he treats of saltpetre, which, 
 he says, is brought from Sicily, from India, from 
 Egypt, and from Henninia. He describes several 
 varieties of it, but mentions nothing about its charac- 
 teristic property of deflagrating upon burning coals. 
 He then treats successively of common salt, of sal-gem, 
 of vitriol, of sulphur, of orpiment, and of sal ammoniac, 
 which, he says, comes from Egypt, from India, and 
 from For peri a. In the nineteenth and subsequent 
 chapters he treats of auruin vivum, of hair, of urine, of 
 eggs, of blood, of glass, of white linen, of horse-dungy 
 and of vinegar. 
 
 The sixth diction, in thirty-three chapters, treats of 
 the calcination of the inetals, of sublimation, and of 
 some other processes. I think it unnecessary to be 
 more particular, because 1 cannot perceive any thing 
 in it that had not been previously treated of by Geber. 
 
 The seventh diction treats of the preparation of 
 blood and eggs, and the method of dividing them into 
 their four elements. It treats also of the elixir of silver, 
 and the elixir of gold ; but it contains no chemical 
 fact of any importance. 
 
 The eighth diction treats of the preparation of the 
 ferment of silver, and of gold. The ninth diction treat) 
 of the whole inagistcry , and of the nuptials of the sun 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE AftA*tA\. 139 
 
 nnd moon ; that is, of gold and silver. The tenth dic- 
 tion treats of weights. 
 
 The chemical writings of Avicenna are of little 
 value, and apply chemistry rather to the supposed 
 medical qualities of the different substances treated of, 
 than to the advancement of the science. All the 
 chemical knowledge which he possesses is obviously 
 drawn from Geber. Geber, then, may be looked upon 
 as the only chemist among the Arabians to whom we 
 are indebted for any real improvements and new facts. 
 It is true that the Arabian physicians improved con- 
 siderably the materia medica of the Greeks, and in- 
 troduced many valuable medicines into common use 
 which were unknown before their time. It is enough 
 to mention corrosive sublimate, manna, opium, asa- 
 foetida. It would be difficult to make out many of 
 the vegetable substances used by the Arabian che- 
 mists; because the plants which "they designated by 
 particular names, can very seldom be identified. 
 Botany at that time had made so little progress, that 
 no method was known of describing plants so as to 
 enable other persons to determine what they were. 
 
140 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 OF THE f ROCEES8 OF CHEMISTET CNDEK I-AEACKLSUS AKD 
 HIS DISCIPLES. 
 
 HITHERTO we have witnessed only the first rude 
 beginnings, or, as it were, the early dawn of the che- 
 mical day. It U from the time of Paracelsus that the 
 true commencement of chemical investigations is to he 
 dated. Not that Paracelsus or his followers under- 
 stood the nature of the science, or undertook any 
 regular or successful investigation. But Paracelsus 
 shook the medical throne of Galen and Avicenna to 
 its very foundation ; he roused the latent energies of 
 the human mind, which had for so long a period lain 
 torpid ; he freed medical men from those trammels, 
 and put an end to that despotism which had existed 
 for five centuries. He pointed out the importance of 
 chemical medicines, and of chemical investigations, to 
 the physician. This led many laborious men to turn 
 their attention to the subject. Those metals which 
 were considered as likely to afford useful medicines, 
 mercury for example, and antimony, were exposed to 
 the action of an infinite number of reagents, and a 
 prodigious collection of new products obtained and 
 introduced into medicine. -Some of these were better, 
 and some worse, than the preparations formerly em- 
 ployed ; but all of them led to an increase of the 
 stock of chemical knowledge, which now began to 
 accumulate with considerable rapidity. It will be 
 
CHEMISTRY OP PAR ACE WITS. 141 
 
 proper, therefore, to give a somewhat particular ac- 
 count of the life and opinions of Paracelsus, so far as 
 they can be made out from his writings, because, 
 though he was not himself a scientific chemist, he may 
 be truly considered as the man through whose means 
 the stock of chemical knowledge was accumulated, 
 which was afterwards, by the ingenuity of Beccher, 
 and Stahl, moulded into a scientific form. 
 
 Philippns Aureolus Theophrastus Paracelsus Bom- 
 bast ab Hohenheim (as he denominates himself) was 
 born at Einsidcln, two German miles from Zurich. 
 His father was called William Bombast von llohenhcim. 
 He was a very near relation of George Bombast von 
 Hohenheim, who became afterwards grand master of 
 the order of Johannites. William Bombast von Ho- 
 henheim practised medicine at Einsideln.* After 
 receiving the first rudiments of his education in his 
 native city, he became a wandering scholastic, as was 
 then the custom with poor scholars. He wandered 
 from province to province, predicting the future by 
 the position of the stars, and the lines on the hand, 
 and exhibiting all the chemical processes which he had 
 learned from founders and alchy mists. For his initia- 
 tion in alchymy, astrology, and medicine, he was in- 
 debted to his father, who was much devoted to these 
 three sciences. Paracelsus mentions also the names 
 of several ecclesiastics from whom he received chemi- 
 cal information ; among others, Trithcimius, abbot of 
 Spanheim; Bishop Scheit, of Stettbach; Bishop Erhart, 
 of Lavcntall ; Bishop Nicolas, of Hippon ; and Bishop 
 Matthew Schacht. He seems also to have served 
 some years as an army surgeon, for he mentions many 
 cures which he performed in the Low Countries, in the 
 States of the Church, in the kingdom of Naples, and 
 during the wars against the Venetians, the Danes, and 
 the Dutch. 
 
 See Testament urn Paracrlsi, passim.' 
 
142 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 There is some uncertainty whether he received a 
 regular college education, as was then the practice 
 with all medical men* He acknowledges himself that 
 his medical antagonists reproached him with never 
 having fret|Ufiitcd their schools ; and he is perpetually 
 affirming, that a physician should receive all his 
 knowledge from God, and not from man. But if we 
 can trust his own assertions, there can be no doubt 
 that he took a regular medical degree, which implies 
 a regular college education. He tells us, in his pre- 
 face to his C'hirurgia Magna, that he visited the uni- 
 versities of Germany, France, and Italy. He assures 
 his readers, that he was the ornament of the schools 
 where he studied. He even speaks of the oath which 
 he was obliged to take when he received his medical 
 degree ; but where he studied, or where and when he 
 received his medical degree, are questions which nei- 
 ther Paracelsus nor his disciples, nor his biographers, 
 have enabled us to solve. If he ever attended a 
 university, he must have neglected his studies, other- 
 wise he could not have been ignorant, as he 'confess- 
 edly was, of i he very first elements of the most common 
 kinds of knowledge. Hut if he neglected the univer- 
 sities, he JalKiurcd long and assiduously with the rich 
 higismond Puggcru*, of Schwartz, in order to learn 
 the true secret of forming the philosopher's stone. 
 
 He gives us some details of the numerous journeys 
 that he made, as was customary with the all hymi>ts 
 of the time, into the mountains of Bohemia, the Hast, 
 und Sweden, to inspect the mines, to get himself ini- 
 tiated into the mysteries of the eastern adepts, to 
 inspect the wonders of nature, and to view the cele- 
 brated diamond mountain, the position of which, how- 
 ever, he unfortunately forgets to specify. 
 
 In the preface to his Cliirurgia Magna, he informs 
 us that he traversed Spain, Portugal, England, Prus- 
 sia, Poland, and Transylvania; where he not only 
 profited by the information of the medical meu with 
 
CHEMISTHY OF PARACEL5VS. 14$ 
 
 whom he became acquainted, but that he drew much 
 precious information from old women, gipsies, con- 
 jurors, and chemists. * He spent several years in 
 Hungary; and informs us that at Weissenburg, in 
 Croatia, and in Stockholm, he was taught by several 
 old women to prepare drinks capable of curing ulcers* 
 He is said also to have made a voyage into Egypt, 
 and even into Tartary ; and he accompanied the son 
 of the Kan of the Tartars to Constantinople, in order 
 to learn the secret of the philosopher's stone from 
 Trismogin, who inhabited that capital. This prodi- 
 gious activity, this constant motion from place to place, 
 left him but little leisure for reading: accordingly he 
 informs us himself, that during the space of ten years 
 he never opened a book, and that his whole library 
 consisted only of six sheets. The inventory of his 
 books, drawn up after his death, confirms this recital ; 
 for they consisted only of the Bible, the Concordance 
 to the Bible, the New Testament, and the Commenta- 
 ries of St. Jerome on the Evangelists. 
 
 We know not at what period he returned back to 
 Germany ; but at the age of thirty-three the great 
 number of fortunate cures which he had performed 
 rendered him an object of admiration to the people, 
 and of jealousy to the rival physicians of the time. 
 He assures us that he cured eighteen princes whose 
 diseases had been aggravated by the practitioners de- 
 voted to the system of Galen. Among others he cured 
 Philip, Margrave of Baden, of a dysentery, who pro- 
 mised him a great reward, but did not keep his pro- 
 mise, and even treated him in a way unworthy of .that 
 
 * " Hfcpani.i, Portnirallia, Anjtfia, ftanisftia, Lithuania-, Polonia, 
 Pannonia, Valacliia, Transylvania, Croatia,, lllyrico, imnio om- 
 nibus totius Europae nationibus pcrapratis, undeqnc non foliint 
 apnd medico*, serf elchininros, tonsorc*, anirulas, magos, chy- 
 iniMas, rtobilcs ac iimohilm, optima, nelectiora ac arcretiora, 
 <|uc tufiain extarrnt rrmedia, inqui*iri acrilcr."- / 
 e. Opera 1'aracr Isi, torn. iit. 
 
144 HISTORY OF CHTMISTRY. 
 
 prince. This cure, however, and others of a similar 
 nature, added greatly to his celebrity; and in order 
 to raise his reputation to the highest possible pitch, he 
 announced publicly that he was able to cure all the 
 diseases hitherto reckoned incurable ; and that he had 
 discovered an elixir, by means of which the life of 
 man might be prolonged at pleasure to any extent 
 whatever. He began the practice, which has since 
 been so successfully followed in this country, of dis- 
 pensing medicine* gratuitously to the poor, in order to 
 induce the rich to apply to him for assistance when 
 they were overtaken with diseases. 
 
 in the year 15v?b* Paracelsus was appointed pro- 
 fessor of physic and surgery in the University of 
 Basil. This appointment was given him, it is said, 
 by the recommendation of (Ecolampadius. He intro- 
 duced the custom of lecturing in the common lan- 
 guage of the country, as is at present the universal 
 practice : but during the time of Paracelsus, and long 
 after indeed* all lectures were delivered in Latin. The 
 new method which he followed in explaining the theory 
 and practice of the art : the numerous fortunate cures 
 which he stated in confirmation of his method of treat- 
 ment ; the emphasis with which he spoke of his secrets 
 for prolonging life, and for curing every kind of dis- 
 ease without distinction, but still more his lecturing in 
 a language which wis understood by the whole |*>pu- 
 lation,.drew to Bale an immense crowd of idle, euthu- 
 siu*tic, and credulous hearers. 
 
 / The lectures which he delivered on Practical Mcdi- 
 
 I cine still remain, written in a confused mixture of 
 
 / German and barbarous Latin, and containing little or 
 
 I nothing except a farrago of empirical remedies, ad- 
 
 / vanced with the greatest confidence. They have a 
 
 ' much greater resemblance to a collection of quack 
 
 ' advertisements than to the sober lectures of a pro- 
 
 | fessor in a university. In the month of November, 
 
 KvJ;>, he wrote to Christopher C la user, a physician in 
 
CHEMISTRY OF PARACELSUS. 145 
 
 Zurich, that as Hippocrates was the first physician 
 among the Greeks, Aviccnna among the Arabians,) 
 Galen among: the Pergamcnians, and Marsilius among 
 the Italians, SQ he uas beyond dispute the greatest ? . 
 physician among the Germans. Every country pro- / 
 duces an illustrious physician, whose medicines are f 
 adapted to the climate in which he lived, but not \ 
 suited to other countries. The remedies of Hippo- I 
 crates were pood to the Greeks, but not suitable to j 
 the Germans; thus it was "necessary that an inspired 
 physician should spring up in every country, and that i 
 he was the person destined to teach the Germans the / 
 art of curing all diseases. * 
 
 Paracelsus began his professorial career by burning \ 
 publicly, in his class-room, and in the presence of his I 
 pupils, the works of Galen and Aviccnna, assuring his 
 htariTs that the strings of his shoes possessed more 
 knowledge than those two celebrated physicians. All 
 the universities united had not, he assured them, as 
 much knowledge as was contained in his own beard, 
 and the hairs upon his neck were better informed than 
 all the writers that ever existed put together. To 
 give the reader an idea of the arrogant absurdity of 
 his pretensions, I shall translate a few sentences of the 
 preface to his tract, entitled " Paragranum," where he 
 indulges in his usual strain of rodomontade: " Me, 
 me you shall follow, you Avjccnna, you Galen, you 
 Rhuzes, you Montagnnna, yor. Mesue. I shall not 
 follow you, but you shall follow me. You, I say, you 
 inhabitants of Paris, you inhabitants of Montpelier, 
 you Suevi, you Misnians, you inhabitants of Cologne, 
 you inhabitants of Vicuna; all you whom the Rhine 
 and the Danube nourish, you who inhabit the islands 
 
 * See the" dedication to his treatise De Gradilu ft Compo- 
 *itionil,ti* Rfcfptomm ft \atnralium. Opera Paracelsi, rol. U. 
 p. 144. I always refer to the folio edition of Paracelsus'* works, 
 in three volume*, published at Genera in 1608, by M. de Tour* 
 MS, which is the edition in my possession, j 
 
 VOL. I. L 
 
146 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 of the sea; you also Italy, you Dalmatia, yon Athens, 
 you Greek, you Arabian, you Israelite I shall not 
 follow you, but you shall follow me.) Nor shall any 
 one lurk in the darkest and most remote corner whom 
 the dogs shall not piss upon.1 I shall be the monarch, 
 the monarchy shall be mine. If I administer, and I 
 bind up vour loins, is he with whom you are at present 
 delighted a Cacophrastus ? This ordure must be eaten 
 by you." 
 
 ""What will your opinion be when you see your 
 Cacophrastus constituted the chief of the monarchy ? 
 What will you think when you see the sect of Theo- 
 phrastus leading on a solemn triumph, if I make you 
 pass under the yoke of my philosophy ? your Pliny 
 will you call Cacopliny, ana your Aristotle, Caco- 
 aristotle ? If 1 plunge them together with your Por- 
 phyry, Albert us, &c., and the whole of their com- 
 patriots into my necessary.' 9 But the terms become 
 now so coarse and indelicate, that I cannot bring 
 myself to proceed further with the translation. Enough 
 has been given to show the extreme arrogance and 
 folly of Paracelsus. 
 
 So far, however, was this impudence and grossness 
 from injuring the interest of Paracelsus, that we are 
 assured by llamus and Urstisius that it contributed still 
 further to increase it. The coarseness of his language 
 was well suited to the vulgarity of the age ; and his ar- 
 rogance and boasting were considered, as usual, as a 
 proof of superior merit. The cure which he performed 
 on Frobenius, drew the attention of Erasmus himself, 
 who consulted him alxjut the diseases with which he 
 was afflicted ; and the letters that passed between 
 them are still preserved. The epistle of Paracelsus is 
 short, enigmatical, and unintelligible; that of Eras- 
 mus is distinguished by that clearness and elegance 
 which characterize his writings.* But Frobeuius died 
 
 . Opera Paracel&i, i. 435. 
 
CHEMISTRY OF PA11ACELSUS. 147 
 
 in the month of October, 1527, and the antagonists 
 of Paracelsus attributed his death (and probably with 
 justice) to the violent remedies which had been ad- 
 ministered to a man whose constitution had been 
 destroyed by the gout. 
 
 His death contributed not a little to tarnish the 
 glory of Paracelsus: but he suffered the greatest 
 injury from the habits of intoxication in which he in- 
 dulged, and from the vulgarity of the way in which 
 he spent his time. He hardly ever went into his 
 .class-room to deliver a lecture till he was half in- 
 toxicated, and scarcely ever dictated to his secretaries \ 
 till he had lost the use of his reason by a too liberal 
 indulgence in wine. If he was summoned to visit a 
 patient, he scarcely ever went but in a state of in- 
 toxication. Not unfrcquently he passed the whole 
 night in the alehouse, in the company of peasants, and 
 ' when morning came, was quite incapable of perform- 
 ing the duties of his station. On one occasion, after 
 a debauch, which lasted the whole night, he was called 
 next morning to visit a patient ; on entering the room, 
 he inquired if the sick person had taken any thing : 
 " Nothing," was the answer, "except the body of our 
 Lord." " Since you have already," says he, " provided 
 yourself with another physician, my presence here is un- 
 necessary," and he left the apartment instantly. -When 
 Albertus Basa, physician to the king of Poland, visited 
 Paracelsus in the city of Basle, he carried him to see 
 a patient whose strength was completely exhausted, 
 and which, in his opinion, it was impossible to restore ; 
 but Paracelsus, wishing to make a parade of his skill, 
 administered to him three drops of his laudanum, and 
 invited him to dine with him next day. * The in vita- 
 
 * There were two laudanums of Paracelsus; one was reef 
 oxide qf mercury 9 the other consisted of the following substances : 
 Chloride of antimony, 1 ounce; hepatic aloes, 1 ounce; 
 rose-water, f ounce ; saffron, 3 ounces ; ambergris, 2 drams* 
 Ul these well mixed. 
 
 L 2 
 
148 HISTORY OT CHEMISTRY. 
 
 t ion was accepted, and the sick man dined next day 
 with his physician. 
 
 / Towards the end of the year 1527 a disgraceful 
 ) dispute into which he entered brought his career, as 
 I a professor, to a sudden termination. The canon 
 I Cornelius, of Uchtenfels, who had been long a martyr 
 I to the gout, employed him as his physician, and pro- 
 / mised him one hundred florins if he could cure him. 
 Paracelsus made him take three pills of laudanum, 
 1 and having thus freed him from pain, demanded the 
 sum agreed upon ; but Lichtenfels refused to pay him 
 the whole of it. Paracelsus summoned him before 
 the court, and the magistrate of Basle decided that 
 the canon 'was bound to pay only the regular price of 
 the medicine administered. Irritated at this decision, 
 our intoxicated professor uttered a most violent in- 
 vective against the magistrate, who threatened to 
 punish him for his outrageous conduct. His friends 
 advised him to save himself by flight. He took their 
 advice, and thus abdicated his professorship. But, by 
 this time, his celebrity as a teacher had been so com- 
 pletely destroyed by his foolish and immoral conduct, 
 that he had lost all his hearers. In consequence of 
 this state of tilings, his flight from Basle produced no 
 sensation whatever in that university. 
 
 Paracelsus betook himself, in the first place, to 
 Alsace, and sent for his faithful follower, the book- 
 seller, Operinus, together with the whole of his che- 
 mical apparatus. In 1528 we find him at Colmar, 
 where he recommenced his ambulating life of a theo- 
 sophist, which he had led during his youth. His book 
 upon syphilis, known at that time by the name of 
 Aha bus (iallicus, was dedicated at Colmar, to the chief 
 magistrate of Colmar, H ieronymus Bonerus.* 1 n 1 53 1 
 he was at Saint-Gallen ; in 1535, at Pfeflersbade, and 
 in 1536, at Augbburg, where he dedicated Lis Chirur- 
 
 Opera Paracclfi, iii. 101. 
 
CHEMISTRY OF PARACELSUS. 149 
 
 gift Magna to Malhausen. At the request of John dc 
 Leippa, Marshal of Bohemia, he undertook a journev 
 into Moravia ; as that nobleman, having been informed 
 that Paracelsus understood the method of curing thft 
 trout radically, was anxious to put himself under his 
 care. Paracelsus lived for a lon time at Kroman, 
 and its environs. John de Leippa, instead of receiv- 
 ing any benefit from the medicines administered to 
 him, became daily worse, and at last died. This was 
 the fate also of the lady of Zcrotin, in whom the 
 remedies of Paracelsus produced no fewer than twenty- 
 four epileptic fits in one dav. Paracelsus, instead of 
 waiting the disgrace with which the death of this lady 
 would have overwhelmed him, announced his intention 
 of going to Vienna, that he might see how they would 
 treat him in that capital. 
 
 It is said, that from Vienna he went into Hungary ; 
 .but in 1538, we find him in Villach, where he dedi- 
 cated his Chronica et Origo Carinthitr to the states of 
 Carinthia.* His book, De Natura Rerum, had been 
 dedicated to Winkelstein, and the dedication is dated 
 also at Villach, in the year 1537.f In 1540 he was 
 at Mindelheim, and in 1541, at Strashurg, where he 
 died, in St. Stephen's hospital, in the forty-eighth 
 year of his age. 
 
 To form an accurate idea of this most extraordinary 
 man, we must attend to his habits, and to the situa- 
 tion in which he was placed. He had acquired such 
 a habit of moving about, that he assures us himself he 
 found it impossible for him to continue for any length 
 of time in one place. He was always surrounded by 
 a number of followers, whom neither his habits of in- 
 toxication, nor the foolish and immoral conduct in 
 which he was accustomed to indulge, could induce 
 to forsake him. The most celebrated of these was 
 Opcrinus, a printer at Basle, on whom Paracelsus 
 
 Opera Pancd^L 243. f IML, ii. 84. 
 
150 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 lavishes the most excessive praises, in his book De 
 Morbo Gallico. But Onertnus loaded his master with 
 obloquy, being provoked at him because he had not 
 made him acquainted with the secret of the philoso- 
 pher's stone, as he had promised to do. We must 
 therefore be cautious in believing the stories that he 
 relates to the discredit of his master. We know the 
 names of two others of his followers; Francis, who 
 assures us that Paracelsus was devoted to the trans- 
 mutation of metals; and George Vetter, who con- 
 sidered htm as a magician ; as was the opinion also of 
 Operinus. Paracelsus hunself, speaks of Dr. Corne- 
 lius, whom he calls his secretary, and in honour of 
 whom he wrote several of his libels. Other libels are 
 dedicated to Doctors Peter, Andrew, and Ursinus, to 
 the licentiate Pancrace, and to Mr. Raphael. On 
 this occasion he complains bitterly of the infidelity of 
 his servants, who, he says, had succeeded in stealing 
 from him several of his secrets ; and had by this means 
 been enabled to establish their reputation. He accuses 
 equally the barbers and bathers that followed him, and 
 is no less severe upon the physicians of every country 
 through which be travelled. 
 
 When we attempt to form an accurate conception of 
 the medical and philosophical opinions of this singular 
 man, we find ourselves beset with almost insurmount- 
 able tliftirulties. His statements are so much at 
 variance with each other, in his different pieces, and 
 so much confusion reigns with respect to the order of 
 publication, that we know not what to fix on as his last 
 and mat urest opinions. His style is execrable ; filled 
 with new words of his own coining, and of mysticisms 
 either introduced to excite the admiration of the igno- 
 rant, or from the fanaticism and credulity of the 
 writer, who was undoubtedly, to a considerable extent, 
 the dupe of his own impostures. That he was in pos- 
 session of the philosopher's stone, or of a medicine 
 capable of prolonging life to an indefinite length, as 
 
CHEMISTRY OP PARACELSUS. 151 
 
 lie all along asserted, he could not himself believe; 
 but he had boasted so long and so loudly of his won- 
 derful cures, and of the eflicacy of his medicines, that 
 there can be no doubt that he ultimately placed im- 
 plicit faith in them. The blunders of the transcribers 
 whom he employed to copy his works, may perhaps 
 account for some of the contradictions which they 
 contain. But how can we look for a regular system 
 of opinions from a man who generally dictated his 
 works when in a state of intoxication, and thus laboured 
 under an almost constant deprivation of reason. 
 
 His obscurity was partly the effect of design, and 
 no doubt was intended to exalt the notions entertained 
 of his profundity. He uses common words in new 
 significations, without giving any indication of the 
 change which he introduced. Thus anatomy, in the 
 writings of Paracelsus, signifies not the dissection of 
 dead animals to determine their structure, but it 
 means the nature, force, and magical designation of 
 a thins:. And as, according to the Platonic and 
 Cabalistic theory, every earthly body is formed after 
 the model of a heavenly body," Paracelsus calls ana- 
 tomy the knowledge of that model, of that ideal, or of 
 that paradigm after which all things arc created. He 
 terms the fundamental force of a thing a star, and 
 defines alchymy the art of drawing out the stars of 
 metals. The star is the source of all knowledge. 
 When we eat, we introduce into our bodies the star 9 
 which is then modified, and favours nutrition. 
 
 It is probable that many of his obscure and unin- 
 telligible expressions are the fruit of ignorance. Thus 
 he uses the term pagoyvs, instead of paganus. He 
 gives the name otpayoyte to the four entities, or causes 
 of diseases, founded on the influence of the stars, to 
 the elementary qualities ; to the occult qualities, and 
 to the influence of spirits; because these had been 
 already admitted by the Pagans. But the fifth entity, 
 or cause of disease, which has God immediately for 
 
152 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 its author, is non pagoya. The undimia of Paracelsus 
 is our crdema ; only he applies the name to every kind 
 of dropsy. The Latin word tonitru, we find is declined 
 by Paracelsus. Thus he says, lams font/rut. The 
 well-known line of Ovid, 
 
 Tollcre nodo*am nescit metliciua podagram, . 
 He travestied into 
 
 Neacit tartaream Roades curare podagram.* 
 
 Roades, he says, means medicines for horses; and 
 if any person wishes a more elegant verse, he may 
 make it for himself. f He employs, also, a great num- 
 ber of words to which no meaning whatever can be 
 attached ; and to which, in all probability, he himself 
 had affixed none. 
 
 As is the case with all fanatics, he treated with con- 
 tempt every kind of knowledge acquired by labour 
 and application ; and boasted that his wisdom was 
 communicated to him directly by God Almighty. The 
 theosophist who is worthy of partaking of the divine 
 light, has no occasion for adopting a positive religion, 
 nor of subjecting himself to any kind of religious cere- 
 mony. The divine light within, which assimilates him 
 to the Deity, more than compensates for all these vulgar 
 usages, and raises the illuminated votary far above the 
 beggarly elements of external worship. Accordingly, 
 Paracelsus has been accused of treating the public 
 worship of the Deity with contempt. Not satisfied 
 with the plain sense of the book, he attempted to ex- 
 plain in a mystical manner the words and syllables of 
 the Bible. He accused Luther of not going far enough. 
 *' Luther/* says he, ** is not worthy of untying the 
 strings of my shoes : should I undertake a reformation, 
 I would begin by sending the pope and the reformers 
 themselves to school/' God, says Paracelsus, is the 
 
 Opera ParaceUi, L328. 
 
 f "Uut elegantioremopUt, ille com condat," Atrf. ' 
 
CHEMISTRY OF PARACELSUS. 153 
 
 first and most excellent of writers. The Holy Scrip- 
 ture conducts us to all truth, and teaches us all 
 things. But medicine, philosophy, and astronomy, 
 arc among: the number of things. Therefore, when we 
 want to kno* what magical medicine is, we must con- 
 sult the Apocalypse. The Bihle, with its paraphrases, 
 is the key to the theory of diseases. It puts it in our 
 power to understand St. John, who, like Daniel, F.7e- 
 kiel, Moses, Arc., was a magician, a cabalist, a diviner. 
 The first duty of a physician is to study the Cahala, 
 without which he must every moment commit a thou- 
 sand blunders. '* Learn," "says he, ' the cabalistic 
 art, which includes under it all the others/* " Man 
 invents nothing, the devil invents nothing; it is (Sod 
 alone who unveils to us the li^ht of nature." " God 
 honoured at first with his illumination the blind pagans, 
 Apollo, /Esculapius, Machaon, Podalirius, and Hippo- 
 crates, and imparted to them the genius of medicine ; 
 their successors were the sophists." One would sup- 
 pose, from this passage, that Paracelsus had read and 
 studied Hippocrates, and that he held him in high es- 
 timation. But the commentaries which he has left on 
 some of the aphorisms, show evidently that he did 
 not even understand the Greek physician. " The 
 compassion of God," says he, '* is the only foundation 
 of medical science, and not a knowledge, of the great 
 masters, or of the writing which they have left in Greek 
 and Latin/* " God often acts in dreams by the light 
 of nature, and points out to man the manner of curing 
 diseases." " This knowledge renders all those objects 
 visible which would otherwise escape the sight ; and 
 when faith is joined with it, nothing is then impossible 
 to the theosophist, who may transport the ocean to 
 the top of Mount /Etna, and Olympus into the Red 
 Sea/' Paracelsus predicts that by the year 1590 
 (Christian theosophy would be generally spread over 
 the world, and that the Galenical schools would be 
 almost or entirely overthrown . 
 
154 II ISTOR Y Of Cli EMISTRY. 
 
 We find in Paracelsus some traces of the opinions 
 of the Gnostics and Arians, who considered Christ as 
 the first emanation of the Deity. He calls the first 
 man parent homims; and makes all spirits emanate 
 from him. He is the limb us minor , or the last crea- 
 ture, into whom enters the great limbus, or the seed 
 of ail the creatures, the infinite being. All the sci- 
 ences, and all the arts of man, are derived from this 
 great It/nbus; and he who can sink himself in the little 
 Hindus, that is to say, in Adam, and who can commu- 
 nicate by faith with Jesus Christ, may invoke all 
 spirits. Those who owe their science to this limbus, 
 are the best informed ; those who derive it from the 
 stars, occupy the last rank ; and those who owe it to 
 the light of nature, are intermediate between the pre- 
 ceding. Jesus Christ, in his capacity of limbus minor 
 and first man, being always an emanation of the Di- 
 vinity ; and, consequently, a subordinate personage. 
 These ideas explain to us why Paracelsus passed for 
 an Arian, and was supposed not to believe in the Di- 
 vinity of Jesus Christ. He was of opinion that the 
 faithful performed miracles, and operated magical 
 cures by their simple confidence in God the Father, 
 and not by their faith in Christ; but he adds, however, 
 that we ought to pray to Jesus, in order to obtain his 
 intercession. 
 
 From the preceding attempt to explain the opinions 
 of Paracelsus, it will be evident to the reader that he 
 was both a fanatic and impostor, and that his theory 
 (if such a name can be given to the reveries of a 
 drunkard), consisted in uniting medicine with the doc- 
 trines of the Cabala. A few more observations will 
 be necessary to develop his dogmas still further. 
 
 Every body, in his opinion, and man in particu- 
 lar, is double, consisting of a material and spiritual 
 substance.* The spiritual, which may be called the 
 
 Arcbidoxorum, lib. L Opera Paracelsi, it. 4. . 
 
CHEMISTRY OF PARACELSUS. 155 
 
 sirfcric, results from the celestial influences ; and we 
 may trace after it a figure capable of producing all 
 kinds of magical effects. When we can act upon the 
 body itself, we art at the same time upon the spiritual 
 form by characters and conjurations.* Yet, in another 
 pa*sage, he blames all magical ceremonies, and as- 
 cribes them to want of faith. The celestial intelli- 
 gences impress upon material bodies certain signs, 
 which manifest thrir influence. The perfection of 
 art consists in understanding the meaning of these 
 sisrns, and in determining from them the nature, quali- 
 ties, and essence of a body. Adam, the first man, 
 had a perfect knowledge of the Cabala; he could inter- 
 pret the signatures of all things. It was this which 
 enabled him to assign to the animals names which 
 suited them best. A man who renounces all sensuality, 
 and i blindly obedient to the will of God, is capable 
 of taking a share in the actions which celestial intel- 
 ligences perform ; and consequently is possessed of 
 the philosopher's stone. Never docs he want any 
 thing ; all creatures in earth and in heaven arc obe- 
 <li<'nt to him; he can cure all diseases, and prolong 
 his life as long as he pleases; because he possesses 
 the tincture which Adam and the patriarch's before 
 the flood employed to prolong the term of their exist- 
 ence, f Beelzebub, the chief of the demons, is also 
 subject to the power of magic : and who can blame 
 the theosophist for believing in the devil ? He ought, 
 however, to take care to prevent this malignant spirit 
 from commanding him. Paracelsus was often wont 
 to say, " If God does not aid me, the devil will help 
 me." 
 
 * De longa Vita. Opera Paracelsi, ii. 46. 
 
 t Arcbidoxorum/lib. riii. Opera Paracelsi, ii. 29. In this 
 book he gires the method of preparing the elixir of life. It seems 
 to have been nothing else than a solution of common tnll in water ; 
 for the quintessence of gold, with which this solution was to be 
 mixed, was doubtless an imaginary substance. 
 
156 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 Pantheism was one of the. principal dogmas of the 
 Cabala; and Paracelsus adopts it in all its Crossness. 
 He affirms perpetually that every thing is animated in 
 the universe ; that every thing which exists, eats, 
 drinks, and voids excrements: even minerals and 
 liquids take food and void the digested remains of 
 their nourishment.* This opinion leads necessarily to 
 the admission of a great number of spiritual substances, 
 intermediate between material and immaterial in every 
 part of the sublunary world, in water, air, earth, and 
 tire; who, as well us man, eat, drink, converse, beget 
 children ; but which approach pure spirits in this, that 
 they are more transparent, and infinitely more agile 
 than all other animal bodies. Man possesses a soul, 
 of which these pure spirits are destitute. Hence it 
 happens that these spiritual substances are at once 
 body and spirit without a soul. When they die (for 
 like the human race they are subject to death), no 
 soul remains. Like us they are exposed to diseases. 
 Their names vary according to the places that they 
 occupy. When they inhabit the air, they are called 
 *ijljt/it; when the water, nymphs; when the earth, 
 pigmies; when the tire, salamanders. + The inha- 
 bitants of the waters are also called uudintp, and those 
 of the fire vulcuni. The sylphs approach nearest to 
 our nature, as they live in the air like us. The sylphs, 
 nymphs, and pigmies, sometimes obtain permission 
 from God to make themselves visible, to converse 
 with men, to indulge in carnal pleasures, and to pro- 
 duce children. But the salamanders have no relation 
 to man. These spiritual beings are acquainted with 
 the future, and capable of revealing it to man. They 
 appear under the form of iynesfutui. We have also 
 
 Modus Pharmarandi. Opera ParareUi, i. 811. 
 
 f Liber de Nynipiits, Sylphi*, Pysfiuvin, et SaUiuandrix, et de 
 cetrris Spirit ih us. Opera Paraceki, ii. 388. If the reader caa 
 understand Urn singular book, tiis sagacity will be greater than 
 mine. 
 
CHF.MISTRt OF fARACEtSt'S. 157 
 
 the history of the fairies and the giants ; and are told 
 how these spiritual beings are the guardians of con- 
 cealed treasures; and how these sylphs, nymphs, pig- 
 mies, and salamanders, may be charmed, and their 
 treasures taken from them. 
 
 This division of man into body and spirit, and of 
 the things of nature into visible and invisible, has in 
 all ages of the world, been adopted by fanatics, be- 
 cause it enabled them to explain the history of ghosts, . 
 and a thousand similar prejudices. Hence the dis- 
 tinction between soul and spirit, which is so very an- 
 cient; and hence the three following harmonics to 
 which the successors of Paracelsus paid a particular 
 attention : 
 
 *Sow/, Spirit, Boffy, 
 
 Mercury, Sulphur, Salt, 
 irf>r, Air, Earth. 
 
 The will and the imagination of man acts principally 
 by means of the spirit. Hence the reason of the 
 crticacy of sorcery and magic. The nirvi mntcrni arc 
 the impressions of these rice-men, and Paracelsus 
 calls them cocomica siyna. The sirtcric body of man 
 draws to him, by imagination, all that surrounds him, 
 and particularly the stars, on which it acts like a mag- 
 net. In this manner, women with child, and during 
 the regular period of monthly evacuation, having a 
 diseased imagination, are not only capable of poison- 
 ing a mirror by their breath, but of injuring the in- 
 fants in their wombs, and even also of poisoning the 
 moon. But it seems needless to continue this dis- 
 agreeable detail of the absurd and ridiculous opinions 
 which Paracelsus has consigned to us in his different 
 tracts. 
 
 The Physiology of Paracelsus (if such a name can 
 be applied" to his reveries) is nothing else than an ap- 
 plication of the laws of the Cabala to the explanation 
 . of the functions of the body. There exists, he assures 
 .us, an intimate connexion between the sun and the 
 
158 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 heart, the moon and the brain, Jupiter and the liver, 
 Saturn and the spleen, Mercury and the lungs, Mars 
 and the bile, Venus and the kidneys. In another 
 part of his works, he informs us that the sun acts on 
 the umbilicus and the middle parts of the abdomen, 
 the moon on the spine, Mercury on the bowels, Venus 
 on the organs of generation, Mars on the face, Jupi- 
 ter on the head, and Saturn on the extremities. The 
 pulse is nothing else than the measure of the tempe- 
 rature of the body, according to the space of the six 
 places which are in relation to the planets. Two pulses 
 under the sole of the feet belong to Saturn and Jupi- 
 ter, two at the elbow to Mars and Venus, two in the 
 temples to the moon and mercury. The pulse of the 
 sun is found under the heart. The macrocosm has 
 also seven pulses, which are the revolutions of the 
 seven planets, and the irregularity or intermittence of 
 these pulses, is represented by the eclipses. The moon 
 and Saturn are charged in the macrocosm with thick* 
 filing the water, which causes it to congeal. In like 
 manner the moon of the microcosm, that is to say the 
 brain, coagulates the blood. Hence melancholy pr* 
 suns, whom Paracelsus culls lunatics, have a thick 
 blood. We ought not to say of a man that he has 
 such and such a complexion; but that it is Mars, 
 Venus, &c., so that a physician ought to know the 
 planets of the microcosm, the arctic and antarctic 
 pole, the meridian, the zodiac, the east and the west, 
 before trying to explain the functions or cure the dis- 
 eases.* This knowledge is acquired by a 9 continual 
 comparison of the macrocosm with the microcosm. 
 What must have been the state of medicine at the 
 time when Paracelsus wrote, when the propagator of 
 
 * Parajrrani Alterius, tract, ii. Opera Paracelsi, i. 235. The 
 reader who has the curiosity to consult this tract, will find 
 abundance of similar stuff, which 1 did not think worth trans- 
 lating. 
 
CHEMISTRY OF PARACELSUS* 159 
 
 such opinions could be reckoned one of the greatest 
 of its reformers ? 
 
 The system of Galen had for its principal basis the 
 doctrine of the four elements, Jire, air, water, and 
 earth. Paracelsus neglected these elements, and 
 multiplied the substances of the disease itself. He 
 admits, strictly speaking, three or four elements ; 
 namely, the star* the root, the element, the sperm, 
 which he distinguishes by the name of the true seed. 
 All these elements were originally confounded together 
 in the chaos or yliados. The 5fiir is the active force 
 which gives form to matter. The stars arc reasonable 
 beings addicted to sodomy and adultery, like other 
 creatures. Each of them draws at pleasure out of 
 the chaos, the plant and the metal to which it has 
 an affinity, and gives a sideric form to their root. 
 There are two kinds of seed ; the fpcrm is the vehicle 
 of the true seed. It is engendered by speculation, by 
 imagination, by the power of the star. The occult, in- 
 visible, sideric body produces the true seed, and the 
 Adamic man secretes only the visible envelope of it. 
 Putrefaction cannot give birth to a new body : the 
 seed must pre-exist, and it is developed during putre- 
 faction by the power of the stars. The generation of 
 animals is produced by the concourse of the infinite 
 number of seeds which detach themselves from all 
 parts of the body. Thus the seed of the nose repro- 
 duces a nose, that of the eye the eye, and so on. 
 
 With respect to the elements themselves, Paracelsus 
 admits occasionally their influence on the functions of 
 the body, and the theory of diseases ; but he deduces 
 the faculties which they possess from the stars. It 
 was he that first shook the doctrine of the four ele- 
 ments, originally contrived by Empedocles. Alchymy 
 had introduced another set of elements, and the al~ 
 chymists maintained that salt, sulphur, and mercury, 
 were the true elements of things. Paracelsus endea- 
 voured to reconcile these chemical elements with his 
 
160 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 cabalistic ideas, and to show more clearly their utility 
 in the theory of medicine. He invented a sideric 
 talt, which can only be perceived by the exquisite 
 senses of a theosophist, elevated by the abnegation of 
 alt gross sensuality to a level with pure and spiritual 
 demons. This salt is the cause of the consistence of 
 bodies, and it is it which gives them the faculty of 
 being reproduced from their ashes. 
 
 Paracelsus imagined also a sideric sulphur, which 
 being vivified by the influence of the stars, gives bodies 
 the property of growing, and of being combustible. 
 He admits also a sideric mercury, the foundation of 
 fluidity and volatilization. The concourse of these 
 three substances forms the body. In different parts of 
 his works, Paracelsus says, that the elements are com* 
 posed of these three principles. In plants he calls the 
 salt balsam, the sulphur resin and the mercury yoturo- 
 niuM. In other passages he opposes the assertion of 
 the Galenists, that yi're is dry and hot, uir cold and 
 moist, earth dry and cold, uttttr moist and cold. Each 
 of these elements, he says, is capable of admitting all 
 qualities, so that in reality there exists a dry water, a 
 coldjire, &*c. 
 
 I must not omit another remarkable physiological 
 doctrine of Paracelsus, namely, that there exists in the 
 stomach a demon called A re kit us, who presides over 
 the chemical operations which take place in it, sepa- 
 rating the poisonous from the nutritive part of food, 
 and furnishing the alimentary substances with the 
 tincture, in consequence of which they become capable 
 of being assimilated. This ruler of ike stomach, who 
 changes bread into blood, is the type of the physician, 
 who ought to keep up a good understanding with him, 
 and lend him his assistance. To produce a change in 
 the humours ought never to be the object of the true 
 physician, he should endeavour to concentrate all his 
 operations on the stomach and the ruler who reigns in it. 
 This Archucus to whom the name of Nature may also 
 
CHEMISTRY OF FAKACKLMJ*. 1CI 
 
 be given, produces all the changes by his own power. 
 It is he alone who cures diseases. He has a head and 
 hands, and is nothing else than the spirit of life, the 
 sideric body of man, and no other spirit besides exists 
 in the body. Each part of the body has also a pecu- 
 liar stomach in which the secret ions "a re elaborated. 
 
 There are, he informs us, five different causes of 
 diseases. The first is the ens ustrorum. The constel- 
 lations do not immediately induce diseases, but they 
 alter and infect the air. This is what % properly speak- 
 ing: constitutes the entity of the stars. Some con- 
 stellations sulphurize the atmosphere, others communi- 
 cate to it arsenical, saline, or mercurial qualities. 
 The arsenical astral entities injure the blood, the mer* 
 ruriiil the bead, the saline the bones and the vessels. 
 Orpiment occasions tumours and dropsies, and the 
 bitter stars induce fever. 
 
 The second morbific cause is the ens vencni, which 
 proceeds from alimentary substances: when the ar- 
 cheus is languid putrefaction ensues, either localitcror 
 emuncttirali'tcr. This last takes place when those eva- 
 cuations, which ou^ht to be expelled by the nose, tho 
 intestines, or the bladder, are retained in the body. 
 Dissolved mercury escapes through the pores of the 
 skin, white sulphur by the nose, arsenic by the ears, 
 sulphur diluted with water by the eyes, salt in solution 
 by the urine, and sulphur deliquesced by the in- 
 testines. 
 
 The third morbific cause of disease is the ens na- 
 tnrule ; but Paracelsus subjects to the ens astro rum 
 the principles which the schools arc in the habit of ar- 
 ranging among: the number of natural causes. The 
 ens spirittiale forms the fourth species and the en* 
 finite or Christian entity the fifth. This last class 
 comprehends all the immediate effects of divine pre- 
 destination. 
 
 It would lead us too far if 1 were to point out the 
 strange methods which he takes to discover the cause 
 
 VOL. i. M 
 
162 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 of diseases. But his doctrine concerning tartar is too 
 important, and does our fanatic too much credit to be 
 omitted. It is without doubt the most useful of all 
 the innovations which he introduced. Tartar accord- 
 ing to him, is the principle of all the maladies pro* 
 ceeding from the thickening of the humours, the 
 rigidity of the solids, or the accumulation of earthy 
 matter. Paracelsus thought the term * /one not suit* 
 able to indicate that matter, because it applies only to 
 one species of it. Frequently the principle proceeds 
 from mucilage, and mucilage is tartar. He calls this 
 principle tartar (tartarus) because it burns like hell- 
 lire, and occasions the most dreadful diseases. As 
 tartar (iitartrate of jut ash) is deposited at the bottom 
 of the wine-cask, in the same way tartar in the living 
 body is de|K>sited on the surface of the teeth. It is 
 deposited on the internal parts of the body when the 
 arcirjDus acts with too great impetuosity and in an irre- 
 gular manner, and when it separates the nutritive 
 principle with too much impetuosity. Then the saline 
 spirit unites itself to it and coagulates the earthy 
 principle, which is always present, but often in the 
 state of matcrlapnma without being coagulated. 
 
 In this tnanner tartar, in the state tofiimtirinprima, 
 may be transmitted from father to son. But it is not 
 hereditary and transmit table when it has already as- 
 sumed the form of gout, of renal calculus, or of ob- 
 struction. The saline spirit which gives it its form, 
 and causes its coagulation, is seldom pure and free 
 from mixture; usually it contains alum, vitriol, or 
 common salt; and this mixture contributes also to 
 modify the tartarous diseases. The tartar may be 
 likewise distinguished according as it comes from the 
 blood itself, or from foreign matter* accumulated in 
 the humours. The great number of calculi which have 
 been found in every part of the body, und the obstruc- 
 tions, confirm the generality of this morbific cause, 
 to which arc due most of the diseases of the liver. 
 
CHEMISTRY OP PARACELSrS. 163 
 
 When the tartarous matter is increased by certain arti- 
 cles of food, renal calculi are engendered, acalculous 
 paroxysm is induced, and violent pain is occasioned. 
 It acts as an emetic, and may even give occasion to 
 death, when the saline spirit becomes corrosive; and 
 when the tartar coagulated by it becomes too irri- 
 tating^. 
 
 Tartar, then, is always an excrcmentitious sub- 
 stance, which in many cases results from the too great 
 activity of the digestive forces. It may make its ap- 
 pearance in all parts of the body, from the irregularity 
 and the activity, too energetic or too indolent, of the 
 archeus; and then it occasions particular accidents re- 
 lative tc each of the functions. Paracelsus enumerates 
 a great number of diseases of the organs, which may 
 be explained by that one cause ; and affirms, that the 
 profession of medicine would be infinitely more useful, 
 if medical men would endeavour to discover the tartar 
 before they tried to explain the affections. 
 
 Paracelsus points out, also, the means by which we 
 can distinguish the presence of tartar in urine. For 
 tin's it is necessary, not merely to inspect the urine, 
 but to subject it to a chemical analysis. He declaims 
 violently against the ordinary ouroscopy. . He divides 
 urine into internal and external; the internal comes 
 from the blood, and the external announces the na- 
 ture of the food and drink which has l>ceii employed. 
 To the sediment of urine he gives the new name of 
 o/co/a, and admits three species of it, namely, hypos- 
 tash, divuhio, and scdimcn. The first is connected 
 with the stomach, the second with the liver, and the 
 third with the kidneys; and tartar predominates in all 
 the three. 
 
 The Cabala constantly directs Paracelsus in his 
 therapeutics and materia medica. As all terrestrial 
 things have their image in the region of the stars, and 
 as diseases depend also on the influence of the stars, 
 we hare nothing more to do, in order to obtain a ccr- 
 x 2 
 
164 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY, 
 
 tain cure for these diseases, than to discover, by means 
 of the Cabala, the harmony of the constellations. 
 Gold is a specific against all diseases of the heart, be- 
 cause, in the mystic scale, it is in harmony with that 
 visctis. The liquor of the moon and crystal cure the 
 diseases of the brain. The liquor alkahest and cheiri 
 are efficacious against those of the liver. When we 
 employ vegetable substances, we must consider their 
 harmony with the constellations, and their magical 
 harmony with the parts of the body and the diseases, 
 each star drawing, by a sort of magical virtue, the 
 plant for which it has an affinity, and imparting to it 
 its activity. So that plants are a kind of sublunary 
 stars. To discover the virtues of plants, we must study 
 their anatomy and cheiromancy ; for the leaves are 
 their hands, and the lines observable on them enable 
 us to appreciate the virtues which they possess. Thus 
 the anatomy of the clielidoniuin shows us that it is a 
 remedy for jaundice. These are the celebrated sty na- 
 tures by means of which we deduce the virtues of 
 vegetables, and the medicines of analogy which they 
 present in relation to their form. Medicines, like wo- 
 men, are known by the forms which they affect. He 
 who calls in question this principle, accuses the 
 Divinity of falsehood, the infinite wisdom of whom has 
 contrived these external characters to bring the study 
 of them more upon a level with the weakness of the 
 human understanding. On the corolla of the euphrasia 
 there is a black dot ; from thi> we may conclude that 
 it furnishes an excellent remt-uy uguiust all diseases of. 
 the eye. The lizard has the colour of malignant ulcers, 
 and of the carbuncle ; this points out the efficacy 
 which that animal possesses as a remedy. 
 
 These signatures were exceedingly convenient for 
 the fanatics, since they saved them the trouble of 
 studying the medical virtues of plants, but enabled 
 them to decide the subject a priori. Paracelsus acted 
 very considerately, when he ascribed these virtues 
 
CHEMISTRY OF PARACELSUS. 165 
 
 principally to the star?, and affirmed that the observa- 
 tion of favourable constellations is an indispensable 
 condition in the employment of these medicines. "The 
 remedies are subjected to the will of the stars, and 
 directed by them ; you ought therefore to wait till 
 heaven is favourable, before ordering a medicine." 
 
 Paracelsus considered all the effects of plants as 
 specifics, and the use of them as secrets. The same 
 notions explain the eulogy which he bestowed on the 
 elixir of lont/ life* and upon all the means which he 
 employed to prolong the term of existence. He be- 
 lieved that these methods, which contained the matcria 
 prima, served to repair the constant waste of that mat- 
 ter in the human body. He was acquainted, he says, 
 with four of these arcana, to which he applied the 
 mystic terms, mercury of life, philosopher's stone, 
 &c. The polyfjonum persicaria was an infallible 
 specific against all the effects of magic. The method 
 of usinjr it is, to apply it to the suffering' part, and then 
 to bury it in the earth. It draws out the malignant 
 spirits like a magnet, and it is buried to prevent these 
 malignant spirits from making their escape. 
 
 The reformation of Paracelsus had the great advan- 
 tage of representing chemistry as an indispensable art 
 in the preparation of medicines. The distrusting de- 
 coctions and useless syrups gave place to tinctures, 
 essences, and extracts. Paracelsus says, expressly, 
 that the true use of chemistry is to prepare medicines, 
 and not to make gold. He takes that opportunity of 
 declaiming against cooks and innkeepers, who drown 
 medicines in soup, and thus destroy all their proper- 
 ties. He blames medical men for prescribing simples, 
 Or mixtures of simples, and affirms that the object 
 should always be to extract the quintessence of each 
 substance ; and he describes at length the method of 
 extracting this quintessence. But he was very little 
 scrupulous about the substances from which this quint- 
 
166 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 essence was to be extracted. The heart of a hare, the 
 bones of a hare, the bone of the heart of a stag, mo* 
 ther-of-pearl, coral, and various other bodies may, he 
 says, be used indiscriminately to furnish a quintessence . 
 capable of curing some of the most grievous diseases. 
 
 Paracelsus combats with peculiar energy the method 
 of cure employed by the disciples of Galen, directed 
 solely against the predominating humours, and the 
 elementary qualities. He blames them for attempting; 
 to correct the action of their medicines, by the addition 
 of useless ingredients. Fire and chemistry, he affirmed, 
 are the sole correctives. It was Paracelsus that first 
 introduced tin as a remedy for worms, though his mode 
 of employing it was not good. 
 
 1 have been thus particular in pointing out the phi- 
 lospphical and medical opinions of Paracelsus, because 
 they were productive of such important consequences, 
 by setting medical men free from the slavish deference 
 which they had been accustomed to pay to the dogtnas 
 of Galen and Avicenna. But it was the high rank to 
 which he raised chemistry, by making a knowledge of 
 it indispensable to all medical men ; and by insisting 
 that the great importance of chemistry did not consist 
 in the formation of gold, but in the preparation of 
 medicines, that rendered the era of Paracelsus so 
 important in the history of chemistry; for after his 
 time the art of chemistry was cultivated by medical 
 men in general it became a necessary part of their 
 'education, and began to be taught in colleges and 
 medical schools. The object of chemistry came to 
 be, not to discover the philosopher's stone, but to 
 prepare medicines ; and a great number of new me- 
 dicines, both from the mineral and vegetable king- 
 dom some of more, some of less, consequence, 
 soon issued from the laboratories of the chemical 
 physicians. 
 
 There can be little doubt that many chemical pre 
 
CHEMISTRY OF PARACELSUS. 167 
 
 parntions were either first introduced into medicine by 
 Paracelsus, or at least were first o|>enly prescribed by 
 him : though from the nature of his writings, and the 
 secrecy in which he endeavoured to keep his most 
 valuable remedies, it is not easy to point out what 
 these remedies were. Mercury is said to have been 
 employed in medicine by Basil Valentine ; but it was 
 Paracelsus who first used it openly as a cure for the 
 venereal disease, and who drew general attention to it 
 by his encomiums on its medical virtues, and by the 
 eclat of the cures which he performed by means of it, 
 after all the Galenical prescriptions of the schools had 
 been tried in vain. 
 
 He ascertained that alum contains, united to an 
 acid, not a metallic oxide, but an earth. He mentions 
 metallic arsenic; but there is some reason for believ- 
 ing that this metal was known to Geber and the 
 Arabian physicians. Zinc is mentioned by him, and 
 likewise bismuth, as substances not truly metallic, but 
 approaching to metals in their properties : for mallea- 
 bility and ductility were considered by him as essential 
 to the metals. * I cannot be sure of any other chemical 
 fact which appears in Paracelsus, and which was not 
 known before his time. The use of sal ammoniac in 
 subliming several metallic calces, was familiar to him, 
 but it had long ago been explained by Geber. It is 
 clear also that Geber was acquainted with aqua regia y 
 and that he employed it to dissolve gold. Paracelsus*s 
 reputation as a chemist, therefore, depends not upon 
 
 * Philosophic, tract, ir. DP Mine ml i bus. Opera Paracelsi, ti. 
 282. " Qnando ergo hoc modo met alia fnmt et prodticuntur, 
 dnm scilicet renis metalliru* fluxu* et durtilita* atiferttir et 
 in wptem mrtalU distribtiitnr; residential quirdam manet in 
 Ares, instar fcrtum trium primonnn. Ex bar nescituf zinetum, 
 quod et metallum est et non est. Sic et bisetntitiiin et buic 
 similia alia partim fluida, partim ductilia stint Zinetum 
 maxima ex parte spnria sobole* est ex cupro et bisemutum de 
 stanno. Ex hisce duobus omnium plurinue frcet ct remanenUa 
 in Ares fiunt." 
 
168 HISTORY OP CHEMIST AY* 
 
 any discoveries which he actually made, but upon the 
 great importance which he attached to the knowledge 
 of it, and to his making an acquaintance with chemistry 
 an indispensable requisite of a medical education. 
 
 Paracelsus, as the founder of a new system of 
 medicine, the object of which was to draw chemistry 
 out of that state of obscurity and degradation into 
 which it had been plunged, and to give it the charge 
 of the preparation of medicine, and presiding over the 
 whole healing art, deserved a particular notice ; and 
 I have even endeavoured, at some length, to lay his 
 system of opinions, absurd as it is, before the reader* 
 But the same attention is not due to the herd of fol- 
 lowers -who adopted his absurdities, and even carried 
 them, if possible, still further than their master : at 
 the same time there are one or two particulars con- 
 nected with the Paracelsian sect which it would be 
 improper to omit. 
 
 The most celebrated of his followers was Leonhard 
 Thurneysser-zum-Thurn, who was born in 1530, at 
 Basle, where his father was a goldsmith. His life, 
 like that of his master, was checkered with very extra- 
 ordinary vicissitudes. In 1560 he was sent to Scot- 
 land to examine the lead-mines in that country. In 
 1558 he commenced miner and sulphur extractor at 
 Tarenz on the Inn, and was so successful, that he 
 acquired a great reputation. He had turned his atten- 
 tion to medicine on the Paracelsian plan, and in 1568 
 made himself distinguished by several important cures 
 which he performed. In 1570 he published his Quinta 
 Essentia, with wooden cuts, in Minister; from thence 
 he went to Frankfort on the Oder, and published his 
 Piso, a work which treats of waters, rivers, and 
 sprinys. John George, Elector of Brandenburg, was 
 ut that time in Frankfort, and was informed that the 
 treatise of Thurneysser pointed out the existence of a 
 great deal of riches in the March of Brandenburg, till 
 that time unknown. His courtiers, who were anxious 
 
CHEMISTRY OF PARACELSUS. 169 
 
 to establish mines in their possession?, united in re- 
 commending the author. He was consulted about a 
 disease under which the wife of the elector was labour- 
 ing:, and having performed a cure, he was immediately 
 named physician to this prince. 
 
 He turned this situation to the best account. He 
 sold Spanish white, and other cosmetics, to the ladies 
 of the court ; and instead of the disgusting decoctions 
 of the Galenists, hn administered the remedies of 
 Paracelsus under the pompous titles of tincture of 
 gold, mayiftcry of the sun, potable gold, &c. By 
 these methods he succeeded in amassing a prodigious 
 fortune, but was not fortunate enough to be able to 
 keep it. Gaspard Hoffmann, professor at Frankfort, 
 a well-informed and enlightened man, published a 
 treatise, the object of which was to expose the extra- 
 vagant pretensions and ridiculous ignorance of Thur- 
 neysser. This book drew the attention of the cour- 
 tiers, and opened the eyes of the elector. Thur- 
 neysser lost much of his reputation ; and the methods 
 by which he attempted to bolster himself up, served 
 only to sink him still lower in the estimation of 
 men of sense. Among other things, he gave out that 
 he was the possessor of a devil, which he carried about 
 with him in a bottle. This pretended devil was no- 
 thing else than a scorpion, preserved in a phial of oil. 
 The trick was discovered, and the usual consequences 
 followed. He lost a process with his wife, from whom 
 he was separated; this deprived him of the greatest 
 part of his fortune. In 1.584 he fled to Italy, where 
 he occupied himself with the transmutation of metals, 
 and he died at Cologne in 1595. 
 
 Thurneysser extols Paracelsus as the only true phy- 
 sician that ever existed. His Quintessence is written 
 in verse. In the first book The Secret is the speaker* 
 He is represented with a padlock in his mouth, a key 
 in his hand, and seated on a coffer in a chamber, the 
 windows of which are shut. This personage teaches that 
 
170 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 all things arc composed of salt, sulphur, and mercury, 
 or of earth, air, and water; and consequently that 
 Jirc is excluded from the number of the elements. We 
 must search for the secret in the Bible, and then in 
 the start and the spirits. In the second book, ^4/cAy//iy 
 is the speaker. She points out the mode of jierfonu- 
 ing the processes ; and says that to endeavour to tix 
 volatile substances, is the same thing as to endeavour 
 to trace white letters on a wall with a piece of char* 
 coal. She prohibits all long processes, because God 
 created the world in six days. 
 
 His method of judging of the diseases from the 
 urine of the patient deserves to be mentioned. He 
 distilled the urine, and fixed to the receiver a tube 
 furnished with a scale,. the degrees of which consisted 
 of all the parts of the hotly. The phenomena which 
 he observed during the distillation of the urine, enabled 
 him to draw inferences respecting the state of all these 
 diiicrent organs. 
 
 I pass over Bodenstein, Taxttes, and Dorn, who 
 distinguished themselves as partisans of Paracelsus. 
 Dorn derived the whole of chemistry from the first 
 chapter of Genesis, the words of which he explained 
 in an alehymistical sense. These words in particular, 
 44 And God made the firmament, and divided the 
 waters which were under the firmament from the 
 waters which were -ibove the firmament," appeared to 
 him to be an account of the yrcat work. Severinus, 
 physician to the King of Denmark, and canon of Hos- 
 kifd, was also a celebrated partisan of Paracelsus; 
 but his writings do not show either that knowledge or 
 stretch of thought which would enable us to account 
 for the reputation which he acquired and enjoyed. 
 
 There were very few partisans of Paracelsus out of 
 Germany. The most celebrated of his followers among 
 the French, was Joseph du Chesne, better known by 
 the name of Quercitanus, who was physician to 
 Henry IV. He was a native of Gascony, and drew 
 
CflEMISTRY OF PARACELSUS. 171 
 
 many enemies upon himself by his arrogant and over- 
 bearing conduct. He pretended to be acquainted 
 with the method of making gold. He was a thorough- 
 going Paracelsian. He affirmed that diseases, like 
 plants, spring from seeds. The word alchymy, ac- 
 cording to him, is composed of the two Greek words 
 Xc (salt) and XT/"">' because the great secret is con- 
 cealed in salt. All bodies are composed of three 
 principles, as God is of three substances. These 
 principles are contained in saltpetre, the salts of sul- 
 phur solid and volatile, and the volatile mercurial 
 salt. He who possesses sal ycncr alls may easily produce 
 philosophical gold, and draw potable gold from the 
 three kingdoms of nature. To prove the possibility 
 of this transmutation, he cites an experiment very 
 often repeated after him, and which some theologians 
 have even employed as analairous to the resurrection of 
 the dead ; namely, the faculty which plants have of 
 being produced from their ashes. His materia medica is 
 founded on the sirjnntures of plants, which he carries 
 so far as to assert that male plants are more suitable 
 to men, and female plants to women. Sulphuric acid, 
 he says, has a magnetic virtue, in consequence of 
 which it is capable of curing the epilepsy. He re- 
 commends the mnatstcrinm cranii humani as an ex- 
 cellent medicine, and boasts much of the virtues of 
 antimony. 
 
 Dti.Chesne was opposed by Riolanus, who attacked 
 chemical remedies with much bitterness. The medical 
 faculty of Paris took up the cause of the GalcnisU 
 with much zeal, and prohibited their fellows and 
 licentiates from using any chemical medicines what- 
 ever. He had to sustain a dispute with Aubert relative 
 to the origin and the transmutation of metals. Fenot 
 came to the assistance of Aubert, and affirmed that 
 gold possesses no medical properties whatever, that 
 crabs' eyes are of no use when administered in inter- 
 mittent*, and that the laudanum of Paracelsus (being 
 
172 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 an opiate) is in reality hurtful instead of being bene- 
 ficial. 
 
 The decree of the medical faculty of Paris whi ?h 
 placed antimony among the poisons, and which occa- 
 sioned that of the Parliament .of Paris, was composed 
 by Simon Pietre, the elder, a man of great erudition 
 and the most unimpeachable probity. Had it been 
 literally obeyed it would have occasioned very violent 
 proceedings ; because chemical remedies, as they act 
 more promptly and with greater energy, were gtitimg 
 daily into more general use. In 1603 the celebrated 
 Theodore Turquet de Mayenne was prosecuted, be- 
 cause, in spite of the prohibition, he had sold antiino- 
 nial preparations. The decree of the faculty against 
 him exhibits a remarkable proof of the bigotry au 
 intolerance of the times.* However Turquet 
 not seem to have been molested notwithstanding i^-U 
 decree. He ceased indeed to be professor oft che- 
 mistry, but continued to practise medicine as forme.Iy ; 
 and two members of the faculty, Seguin and Ai&kia, 
 even wrote an apology for him. At last he went *o 
 England, whither he had been invited, to accept an 
 honourable appointment. 
 
 It was as follows : " Collegium niedicorum in'Academia Pa- 
 rtsiensi legitime congregatuui, audit* renunciatione sensorum, 
 quibus demand*!* erat provinria examinandi apologiain sub 
 nomine Mayerni Tur-jueti rditam, ipsam unanimi consensu 
 dauinat, tanquam fauiosum libelluin, niendacibus conviciis et 
 iuipudentibus caluuiniis refertum, qua* nonnUi ab Logins 
 imperito, impudent!, teuiulento et furioso pronteri potJicru.ii. 
 Ip>um Turt)uetuin indignum judieat, qua usquani inedicinam 
 facial, propter temeritateiii, impudeDtiam et verae medicine 
 ignorantiam. Oumes vero medicos, qui ubique frentiuui et 
 locoruiu luediciuaui exercent, hortalur ut ipsum Turquetum 
 ftiiiiiliaqiie'hoiiiiniini et opinionum portenta, a se suUque fini- 
 bus arceant et in Hippocratis ac Galeni ductrina constuntes per- 
 maneant : et prohibuit ne quis ex hoc inedicoruoa ParUiensium 
 online cum Turqueto eique siiuilibus medica cos)Uia ineat. 
 Qui secus fecerit, scholae ornamentis et academiae prirtlegiU 
 privabitur, et de regentium ouiuero expungelur. Datum J.ute- 
 tiae in itcboiii supcrioribus, die 5 Dtcembris, anno ealutis, 1603." 
 
OIXMI9TRY OF PARACELSUS. 173 
 
 The mystical doctrines of Paracelsus are supposed 
 to have given origin to the sect of Rosecmcians, con- 
 cerning which so much has been written and so little 
 certain is known, h is not at all unlikely that the 
 greatest part, if not the whole that has been stated 
 about the antiquity, and extent, and importance of 
 this sect, is mere fiction, and that the origin of the 
 whole w^s nothing else than a ludicrous performance 
 of Valentine Andrew, an ecclesiastic of Calwe, in the 
 country of Wirtemburg, a man of much learning, 
 genius, and philanthropy. From his life, written by 
 himself, and. preserved in the library of Wolfenbuttef, 
 we learn that in the year 1603 he drew up the cele- 
 brated Xoce Chimique of Christian Rosenkreuz, in order 
 to counteract the alchymistical and the thcosophistical 
 dogmas so common at that period. He was unable to 
 restrain his risible faculties when he saw this ludibrium 
 juvcmlts inyctrii adopted as a true history, while he 
 meant it merely as a satire. It is believed that the 
 Fama Fraternitatis is a production of this ecclesiastic, 
 and that he published it in order to correct the che- 
 mists and enthusiasts of the time. He himself was 
 called Andrece, Knight of the Rose-cross (ros& crucis) 
 because he had engraven on his seal a cross with four 
 roses. 
 
 It is true that Andrese instituted, in 1620, ifrater- 
 nitas Christiana, but with quite other views than those 
 which are supposed to have actuated the Rosecrucians. 
 His object was to correct the religious opinions of 
 the times, and to separate Christian theology from 
 scholastic controversies, with which it had been unhap- 
 pily intermixed. He himself, in different parts of his 
 writings, distinguishes carefully between the Rosecni- 
 cians and his own society, and amuses himself with! 
 the credulity of the German thcosophists, who adopted 
 so readily his fiction for a series of truths. It would 
 appear, therefore, that this secret order of Rosecru- 
 ciaus, notwithstanding the brilliant origin assigned to 
 
174 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 it, really owes its birth to the pleasantry of t clergyman 
 of Wirtemburg, who endeavoured by that means to 
 set bounds to the chimeras of theosophy, but who un- 
 fortunately only increased still more the adherents of 
 this absurd science. 
 
 A crowd of enthusiasts found it too advantageous 
 to propagate the principles of the rota crux not to 
 endeavour to unite them into a sect. Valentine Wei- 
 gel, a fanatical preacher atTschoppau, near Chemnitz, 
 left at his death a prodigious number of followers, who 
 were already Rosecrticians, without bearing the name. 
 Egidius Gutmann, of Suabia, was equally a Hose-cru- 
 cian, without bearing the name; he condemned all 
 patraii medicines, and affirmed that he possessed the 
 universal remedy which ennobles man, cures all dis- 
 eases, and gives man the power of fabricating gold. 
 *' To fly in the air, to transmute metals, and to know 
 all the sciences," says he, ." nothing more is requisite 
 than faith." 
 
 Oswald (.'rolling, of Hesse, must also take his sta- 
 tion in this honourable fraternity of enthusiasts. He 
 was physician to the Prince of Anhalt, and afterwards 
 a counsellor of the Emperor Rodoiphus 11. The in- 
 troduction to his Basilica Chymica, contains a short 
 but exact epitome of the opinions of Paracelsus. It is 
 not worth while to give the reader a notion of his own 
 opinions, which are quite as absurd and unintelligible 
 as those of Paracelsus and his followers. As a pre- 
 parer of chemical medicines he deserves more credit; 
 - antinnniium diaphoreticum was a favourite preparation 
 of his, and so was sulphate of potash, which was 
 known at the time by the name of tpccificum purguns 
 Pur ace I si: he knew chloride of silver well, and h'rst 
 gave it the name of Inna cornea, or horn silccr : ful- 
 minating gold was known to him, and called by him 
 uumm roltitile. 
 
 This is the place to mention Andrew Libavius, of 
 e! in baxoiiy, where he was a physician, and a 
 
CHEMISTRY OF fARACCtsrs. 175 
 
 professor in the gymnasium of Coburg, who waft one of 
 the most successful opponents of the school of Para- 
 celsus, and whose writings do him much credit. As 
 a chemist, he deserves perhaps to occupy a .higher 
 rank than any of his contemporaries : he was, it is 
 true, a believer in the possibility of transmuting metals, 
 and boasted of the wonderful powers of anrum pota 
 bile; but he always distinguishes between rational 
 alchymy and the mental alchymy of Paracelsus. He 
 separated, with irreat care, chemistry from the reveries 
 of the theosophists, and stands at the head of those 
 who opposed most successfully the procpress of super- 
 stition and fanaticism, which was makincr such an 
 overwhelming progress in his time. His writings are 
 very numerous and various, and were collected and 
 published at Frankfort, in 161.5, in three folio volumes, 
 under the title of "Opera omnia Medico-chymica." 
 Libavius himself died in 161(5. It would occupy more 
 space than we have room for, to attempt an abstract of 
 his very multifarious works. A few observation* will 
 be sufficient: he wrote no fewer than rive different 
 tracts to expose the quackery of George Amwald, 
 who had boasted that he was in possession of a panacea, 
 by means of which he was enabled to perform the most 
 wonderful cures, and which he was in the habit of 
 selling to his patients at an enormous price; Li 
 bavins showed that this boasted panacea was nothing 
 else than cinnabar, which neither possessed the virtues 
 ascribed to it by Amwald, nor deserved to be purchased 
 at so high a price. He entered also into a controversy 
 with C roll ius t and exposed his fanatical and absurd 
 opinions. He engaged likewise in a dispute with Hen- 
 nin^Scheunemann, a physician in Bamherg, who was 
 n Hosccrucian, and, like the rest of his brethren, pro- 
 foundly ignorant not .merely of all science, but even 
 <>f philology. The expressions of Scheuncmann are 
 so obscure, that we learn more of his opinions from 
 Libavius than from his owu writings. He divides the 
 
176 . HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 internal nature of man into seven different degrees, from 
 the seven changes it undergoes : these are, combus- 
 tion, sublimation, dissolution, putrefaction, distillation, 
 coagulation, and tincture. He gives us likewise an 
 account of ten modifications which the three elements 
 undergo ; but as they are quite unintelligible, it is not 
 worth while to state them. Libavhis had the patience 
 to analyze and expose all these gallimatias. 
 
 Libavius's system of chemistry, entitled "Alchymia 
 fc dispersis passim optimorum auctorum, veterum et 
 recentiorum exemplis potissimum, turn etiam preceptis 
 quibusdam operose collecta, adhibitisque ratione et 
 expcrieritia quanta pot u it esse methodo accurate ex- 
 plicata et in integrum corpus redacta. Accesserunt 
 tract at i nounulli physici chymici item methodistici/* 
 Frankfort, 1595, folio, 1597, 4to. is really an ex- 
 cellent book, considering the period in which it was 
 written, and deserves the attention of every person 
 who is interested in the history of chemistry. 1 shall 
 notice some of the most remarkable chemical facts 
 which occur in Ubavius, and which 1 have not observed 
 in any preceding writer ; who the actual discoverer of 
 these facts really was, it .is impossible to say, in con- 
 sequence of the secrecy which at that time was affect- 
 ed, and the obscure terms in which chemical facts are 
 in general stated. 
 
 He was aware that the fumes of sulphur have the 
 property of blackening white lead. He was in the 
 habit of purifying cinnabar by means of arsenic and 
 . oxide of lead. He knew the method of giving glass a 
 red colour by means of gold or its oxide, and was 
 aware of the method of making artificial gems, such 
 as ruby, topaz, hyacinth, garnet, balass, by tinging 
 glass by means of metallic oxides. He points out 
 rluor spar as an excellent flux for various metals and 
 their oxides. He knew that when metals were fused 
 along with alkaline bodies, a certain portion of them 
 was converted into slags, and this portion he endea- 
 
CHEMISTRY OF PAKACCtSV*. 177 
 
 voured to recover by the addition of iron filing. 
 He was aware of the mode of acidifying sulphur by 
 means of nitric acid. He knew that camphor is so- 
 luble in nitric acid, and forms with it a kind of oil. 
 Of the pcrchloride of tin he was undoubtedly the dis- 
 coverer, as it has continued ever since his time to 
 pass by his name ; namely, fu m ing liquor of Libavius. 
 He was aware, that alcohol or spirits could be ob- 
 tained by distilling: the fermented juice of a great va- 
 riety of sweet fruits. He procured sulphuric acid by 
 the distillation of alum and sulphate of iron, as Ge- 
 ber had done long before his time ; but he determined 
 the nature of the acid with more care than had been 
 done, and showed, that it was the same as that ob- 
 tained by the combustion of sulphur along with salt- 
 petre. To him, therefore, in some measure, are we 
 indebted for the process of preparing sulphuric acid 
 which is at present practised by manufacturers. 
 
 Libavius found a successor in Angclus Sala, of 
 Vicenza, physician to the Duke of Mecklenburg- 
 Schwerin, worthy of his enlightened views and inde- 
 fatigable exertions to oppose the torrent of fanaticism 
 which threatened to overwhelm all Europe. Sala was 
 still more addicted to chemical remedies than Libavius 
 himself; but he had abjured a multitude of preju- 
 dices which had distinguished the school of Paracelsus. 
 He discarded mmtm jtotabilc* and considered ful- 
 minating gold as the only remedy of that metal that 
 deserved to be prescribed by medical men. He treated 
 the notion of the existence of a universal remedy 
 with contempt. He described sulphuret of gold and 
 glass of antimony with a good deal of precision. He 
 recommended sulphuric acid as an excellent remedy, 
 and showed that it might be formed indifferently from 
 sulphur, or by distilling blue vitriol or green vitriol. 
 He affirmed, that the essential salts obtained from 
 plants had not the same virtues as the plants from 
 which they are obtained. He showed that sal am* 
 
 VOL. i. x 
 
178 SIISTOR Y OP CII FMISTE Y. 
 
 nioniac U a compound of muriatic acid and ammonia* 
 To him, therefore, we are indebted for the first ac- 
 curate mention of ammonia. It could not but have 
 been noticed before by chemists, as it is procured with 
 so much ease by the distillation of animal substances ; 
 but Sala is the first person who seems to have exa- 
 mined it with attention, arid to have recognised its. 
 peculiar properties, and the readiness with which it 
 saturates the different acids. He showed that iron 
 has the property of precipitating copper from acid so- 
 lutions : he pointed out also various precipitations of 
 metals by other metals. He seems to have been ac- 
 quainted with calomel, and to have been aware of 
 at least some of its medical properties. He says, 
 that fulminating gold loses its fulminating property 
 when mixed with its own weight of sulphur, and the 
 sulphur is burnt off* it. Many other curious chemical 
 facts occur in his writings, which it would be too te- 
 dious to particularize here. His works were collected 
 and published in a quarto volume at Frankfort, in 
 1()47, under the title of ** Opera Mcd'ico-chymica, qme 
 extant omnia." There was another edition in the 
 same place in 1682, and an edition was published at 
 Rome in 1650. 
 
VAK IIELMOKT AKD TUB tATRO-CIIEMISTS. 179 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Or VAX HELMOKT AlfO THC lATBO-CHIUItTf. 
 
 PARACELSUS first raised the dignity of chemistry, 
 by pointing out the necessity of it for medical men, 
 and by showing the superiority of chemical medicines 
 over the distrusting decoctions of the GalenUts. Li- 
 bavius and Angclus Sala had carefully separated che- 
 mistry from the fanatical opinions of the followers of 
 Paracelsus and the Rosecrucians. But matters were 
 not doomed to remain in this state. Chemistry under- 
 went a new revolution at this period, which shook the 
 Spaprical system to it* foundation; substituted other 
 principles, and pave to medicine an aspect entirely 
 new. This revolution was in a great measure due to 
 the labours of Van Helmont.. 
 
 John Baptist Van Helmont was a gentleman of 
 Brabant, and Lord of Merode, of Royenboch, of 
 Oorschot, and of Pellines. He was born in Brussels 
 in 1577, and studied scholastic philosophy in Lou vain 
 till the age of seventeen. After having finished his 
 humanity (as it was termed), he ought, according to 
 the usage of the place, to have taken his decree of 
 master of arts ; but, having reflected on the futility of 
 these ceremonies, he resolved never t< solicit any aca- 
 demical honour. He next associated himself to the 
 Jesuits, who then delivered courses of philosophy at 
 Louvain, to the great displeasure of the professors of 
 
 K 2 
 
180 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 that city. One of the most celebrated of the Jesu its , 
 Martin del Rio, even taught him magic. But Van 
 Helmont was disappointed in his expectations: in- 
 stead of that true wisdom which he hoped to ac- 
 quire, he met with nothing but scholastic dialectics, 
 with all its usual subtilties. He was no better satisfied 
 with the doctrines of the Stoics, who taught him his 
 own weakness and misery. 
 
 At last the works of Thomas a K em pis, and John 
 Taulerus fell into his hands. These sacred books of 
 mysticism attracted his attention : he thought that he 
 perceived that wisdom is the gift of the Supreme 
 Being ; that it must be obtained by prayer ; and that 
 we must renounce our own will, if we wish to partici- 
 pate in the influence of the divine grace. From this 
 moment he imitated Jesus Christ, in his humility. He 
 abandoned ail his property to his sister, renouncing 
 the privileges of his birth, and laving aside the rank 
 which he had hitherto occupied in society. It was 
 not long before he reaped the fruit of these abnega- 
 tions. A genius appeared to him in all the important 
 circumstances of his life. In the year 1633 his own 
 soul appeared to him under the figure of a resplendent 
 crystal. 
 
 The desire which he had of imitating in every 
 respect the conduct of Christ, suggested to him the 
 idea of practising medicine as a work of chanty and 
 benevolence. He began, as was then the custom of 
 the time, by studying the art of healing in the writ- 
 ings of the ancients. He read the works of Hippo- 
 crates and Galen with avidity ; and made himself so 
 well. acquainted with their opinions, that he astonished 
 nil the medical men by the profundity of his know- 
 ledge. But as his taste for mysticism was insatiable, 
 he soon became disgusted with the writings of the 
 (Wrecks; an accident led him to abandon them for 
 ever. Happening to take up the glove of a young 
 girl afflicted with the t/cA, he caught that disagreeable 
 
VAV IIKLMOXT A\D TIIF. I.\TRO-<*IIF.M1ST*. 181 
 
 disease. The Galenists whom he consulted, attributed 
 it to the combustion of the bile, and the saline state of 
 the phlegm. They prescribed a course of purgatives 
 which weakened him considerably, without effecting a 
 cure. This circumstance disgusted him with the svs- 
 tem of the humorists, and led him to form the reolu- 
 tion of reforming medicine, as Paracelsus had done. 
 The works of this reformer, which he read with atten- 
 tion, awakened in him a spirit of reformation, but did 
 not satisfy him ; because his knowledge, being much 
 greater than that of Paracelsus, he could not avoid 
 despising the distrusting egotism, and the ridiculous 
 ignorance of that fanatic. Though he had already 
 refused a canon icate, he took the degree of doctor of 
 medicine, in 1599, and afterwards travelled through 
 the greatest part of France and Italy; and he assures 
 us, that during his travels, he performed a great nnm- 
 ber of cures. On his return, he married a rich Bra- 
 bantine lady, by whom he had several children ; among 
 others a son, afterwards celebrated under the name of 
 Francis Mercurius, who edited his father's works, and 
 who went a good deal further than his father had done, 
 in all the branches of thcosophy. Van Helmont passed 
 the rest of his life on his estate at Vilvorde, almost 
 constantly occupied with the processes of hi* labora- 
 tory. He died in the year 1 644, on the 1 3th of Decem- 
 ber, at six o'clock in 'the evening, after having nearly 
 reached the age of sixty-seven years. 
 
 The system of Van Helmont has for its basis the 
 opinions" of the spiritualists. He arranged even the 
 influence of evil genii, the efforts of sorcerers, and the 
 power of magicians among the causes which produce 
 diseases. The archeus of Paracelsus constituted one 
 of the capital points of his theory ; but he ascribed to 
 it a more substantial nature than 'Paracelsus had done* 
 This archeus is independent of the elements ; it has 
 no form ; for form constitutes the object of generation, 
 
182 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 or of production. These ideas are obviously borrowed 
 from the ancient*. The form of Aristotle is not the 
 /up?*, but the mpT"" (*Ae power of actiiy) which 
 matter does not possess. 
 
 The archcus draws all the corpuscles of matter to 
 the aid of fermentation. There are, properly speak- 
 ing, only two causes of things ; the cause ex qua, and 
 the cause per quatn. The first of these causes is 
 water. Van Helmont considered water as the true 
 principle of every thing which exists; and he brought 
 forward very specious arguments in favour of his opi- 
 nion, drawn both from the animal and vegetable 
 kingdom. The reader will find his arguments on the 
 subject, in his treatise entitled * Conipiexionum atcjue 
 Al i>tionmn element ulium Figmentum."* The only one 
 of his experiments that, in the present state of our 
 knowledge, possesses much plausibility, is the follow* 
 ing : He took a large earthen vessel, and put into it 
 200 Ibs. of earth, previously dried in an oven. . This 
 earth he moistened with rain-water, and planted in it 
 a willow which weighed five pounds. After an inter- 
 val of live years, he pulled up his willow and found 
 that its weight amounted to 169 pounds, and about 
 three ounces. During these five years, the earth in 
 the pot was duly watered with rain or distilled water. 
 To prevent the earth in which the willow grew from 
 being mixed with new earth blown upon it by the 
 winds, the pot was covered with tin plate, pierced with 
 a great number of holes to admit the air freely. The 
 leaves which fell every autumn during the vegetation 
 of the willow in the pot, were not reckoned in the 
 169 Ibs. 3oz. The earth in the pot being again dried 
 in the oven, was found to have lost about two ounces 
 of its original weight. Thus 164 Ibs. of wood, bark, 
 
 * J. B. Van Hclmont, Opera Dumb, p. 100. The edition which 
 I quote from WHS printed at Frankfort, in 1682, at the expense of 
 John Jufttui Krytliropilui, in a very thick quarto volume. 
 
VAX HELMOKT AND THE IATRO-C1IEMISTS. 183 
 
 roots, &c., were produced from water alone.* This, 
 and several other experiments which it is needless to 
 state, satisfied him that all vegetable substances are 
 produced from water alone. He takes it for granted 
 that fish live (ultimately at least) on water alone.; but. 
 they contain almost all the peculiar animal substances 
 that exist in the animal kingdom. Hence he concludes 
 that animal substances are derived also from pure 
 water, f His reasoning with resj>cct to sulphur, glass, 
 stone, metals, Arc., all of which he thinks may ulti- 
 mately be resolved into water, is not so satisfactory. 
 
 Water produces elementary earth, or pure quart/; 
 but this elementary earth docs not enter into the com- 
 position of organic bodies. Van Helmont excludes 
 fire from the number of elements, because it is not a 
 substance, nor even the essential form of a substance. 
 The matter of fire is compound, and differs entirely 
 from the matter of light. Water gives origin also to 
 the three chemical principles, salt, sulphur, and mer- 
 cury, which cannot be considered as elements or active 
 principles. I do not see clearly how he gets rid of 
 air ; for he says, that though water may be elevated in 
 the form of vapour, yet that these vapours are no more 
 air than the dust of marble is water. 
 
 According to Van Helmont, a particular disposition 
 of matter, or a particular mixture of that matter is not 
 necessary for the formation of a body. The archeus, 
 by its sole power, draws all bodies from water, when 
 the ferment exists. Thisycrmrwf, in its quality of a 
 mean which determines the action of the archeus, is 
 not a formal being; it can neither be called a *n6- 
 stance, nor an accident. It pre-exists in the seed which 
 is developed by it, and which contains in itself a second 
 ferment of the seed, the product of the first. The 
 ferment exhales an odour, which attracts the generat- 
 ing spirit of the archeus. This spirit consists in an 
 
 V*a Helmoct, Opert Omnia, p. 104. f Ibid., p.105. 
 
184 HISTORY or CHEMISTRY. 
 
 aura vi/a/u, and it creates the bodies uf nature in its 
 own imajre, after its own idea. It is the true founda- 
 tion of life, and of all the functions of organized 
 bodies ; it disappears only at the instant of death to 
 produce a new creation of the body, which enters then, 
 for the second time, into fermentation. The seed, then, 
 is not indispensable to enable an animal to propagate 
 its species; it is merely necessary that the archeus 
 should act upon a suitable ferment. Animals pro- 
 duced in this manner are as perfect as those which 
 spring from eggs. 
 
 When water, as an element, ferments, it develops 
 a vapour, to which Van Helmont gave the name of 
 4/f/$ f and which he endeavours to distinguish from air. 
 This gas contains the chemical principles of the body 
 from which it escapes in an aerial form by the impulse 
 of the archeus. It is a substance intermediate between 
 spirit and matter, the principle of action of life, and of 
 generation of all bodies ; for its production is the first 
 result of the action of the vital spirit on the torpid 
 ferment, and it may be compared to the chaos of the 
 aucieuts. 
 
 The term gas, now in common use among chemists, 
 and applied by them to all elastic fluids which differ in 
 their properties from common air, was first employed 
 by Van Helmont : and it is evident, from different 
 parts of his writings, that he was aware that different 
 species of gas exist. His uas sylcestre was evidently 
 our carbonic acid yus, for he says, that it is evolved 
 during the fermentation of wine and beer; that it is 
 formed when charcoal is burnt in air ; and that it exists 
 in the Grotto del Cane. He was aware that this gas 
 extinguishes a lighted candle. But he says -that the 
 gases from dung, and those formed in the large intes- 
 tines, when passed through a candle, catch fire, and 
 exhibit a variety of colours, like the rainbow.* To 
 
 De Flatib us, sect. 49. Opera Van Helmont, p. 405. 
 
VAX ntLMOVT AXD TOE IAT11O-CIIEMISTS. 185 
 
 these combustible gases he gave the names of gas 
 pinrjiiCi yris slccum* yas fullginosum^ or cndimicum. 
 
 Sal ammoniac, he says, may be distilled alone, with- 
 out danger, and so may aqua fortis (aqua chrysulca), 
 but if they be mixed together so much pas sylvestre 
 is produced, that the vessels employed, however 
 strong, will burst asunder, unless an opening be left 
 for the escape of this sras.* In the same way cream 
 of tartar cannot be distilled in close vessels without 
 breaking them in pieces, an opening must be left 
 for the escape of the gas sylvcstrc, which is gene- 
 rated in such abundance. f He says, also, that when 
 carbonate of lime is dissolved in distilled vinegar, or 
 silver in nitric acid, abundance of gas sylvestre is 
 extricated. From these, and many other passages 
 which might be quoted, it is evident that Van Hel- 
 mont was aware of the evolution of gas during the 
 solution of carbonates and metals in acids, and during 
 the distillation of various animal and vegetable sub- 
 stances, that he had anticipated the experiments made 
 so many years after by Dr. Hales, and for which that 
 philosopher got so much credit. But it would be 
 going too far to say, as some have done, that Van 
 Helmont knew accurately the differences which cha- 
 racterize the different gases which he produced, or 
 indeed that he distinguished accurately between them. 
 For it is evident, from the passages quoted and from 
 many others which occur in his treatise, De Flatibus, 
 that carbonic acid, protoxide of azote, and deutoxide 
 of azote, and probably also muriatic acid gas were 
 all considered by him as constituting one and the 
 same gas. How, indeed, could he distinguish be- 
 tween different gases when he was not acquainted 
 with the method of collecting them, or of determining 
 their properties? These observations of Van Hel- 
 mont, then, though they do him much credit, and 
 
 Ibid., p. 408. f Ibid., p. 409. 
 
186 HISTORY 07 CHEMISTRY. 
 
 show how far his chemical knowledge was superior 
 to that of the age in which he lived, take nothing 
 from the merit or the credit of those illustrious che- 
 mists who, in the latter half of the eighteenth century, 
 devoted themselves to the investigation of this part 
 of chemistry, at that time attended with much diffi- 
 culty, but intimately connected with the subsequent 
 progress which the science has made. 
 
 Van Helmont was aware, also, that the bulk of 
 air is diminished when bodies are burnt in it. He 
 considered respiration to be necessary in this way : 
 the air was drawn into the blood by the pulmonary 
 arteries and veins, and occasioned a fermentation in 
 it requisite for the continuance of lite. 
 
 Gas, according to Van Helmont, has an affinity 
 with the principle of the movement of the stars, to 
 which he gave the name of bias. It had, he sup- 
 posed, much influence on all sublunary bodies. He 
 admitted in the ferment which gives birth to plants, 
 a substance which, after the example of Paracelsus, 
 he called pessas, and to the metallic ferment he gave 
 the name of bur.* 
 
 The archeus of Van Helmont, like that of Para- 
 celsus, has its seat in the stomach. It is the same 
 thing as the sentient soul. This notion of the nature 
 and seat of the archeus was founded on the following 
 experiment : He swallowed a quantity of aconitum 
 (henbane). In two hours he experienced the most 
 disagreeable sensation in his stomach. His feeling 
 and understanding seemed to be concentrated in that 
 organ, for he had no longer the free use of his mental 
 faculties. This feeling induced him to place the seat 
 of understanding in the stomach, of volition in the 
 
 In his Majrnum Oportet, sect. '39, p. 151, lie* gives an 
 account of the origin of metals in the earth, and in that section 
 there is a description of bur, which those who are anxious to 
 understand the ideas of the author ou this subject may con- 
 sult 
 
TAX IIELMOXT AXD THE lATRO-CHCMlSTS. 187 
 
 heart, and of memory in the brain. The faculty of 
 desire, to which the ancients had assigned the. liver 
 as its orpin, he placed in the spleen. What con- 
 firmed him still more in the idea that the stomach is 
 the seat of the soul, is the fact, that life sometimes 
 continues after the destruction of the brain, but never, 
 he alleges, after that of the stomach. The sentient 
 soul acts constantly by means of the rital tjtirits, 
 which are of a resplendent nature, and the nerves 
 serve merely to moisten these spirits which constitute 
 the mediums of sensation. By virtue of the archeus 
 man is much nearer to the realm of spirits and the 
 father of all the genii, than to the world. He thinks 
 that Paracelsus's constant comparison of the human 
 body with the world is absurd. Yet Van Hclmont, 
 at least in his youth, was a believer in magnetism, 
 which he employed as a method of explaining the 
 effect of sympathy. 
 
 The archriis exercises the greatest influence on 
 (liirestion, and he has chiefly the stomach and spleen 
 under his superintendence. These, two organs form a 
 duumvirate in the body; for the stomach cannot act 
 alone and without the concurrence of the spleen. 
 Digestion is produced by means of an acid liquor, 
 which dissolves the food," under the superintendence 
 of the archeus. Van Hclmont assures us that he had 
 himself tasted this acid liquor in the stomach of birds. 
 Heat, strictly speaking, does not favour digestion; 
 for we see no increase of the digestive powers 
 during the most ardent fever. Nor are the powers 
 of digestion wanting in fishes, although they want 
 the animal heat which is requisite for mammiferous 
 animals. Certain birds even digest fragments of glass, 
 which, certainly, simple heat would not enable them 
 to do. The pylorus is, in some measure, the director 
 of digestion. It acts by a peculiar and immaterial 
 power, in virtue of a bias, and not as a muscle. It 
 opens and shuts the stomach according to the orders 
 
188 IfliTORt OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 of the archeus. It is in it, therefore, that the causes 
 of derangement of digestion must be sought for. 
 
 The duumvirate just spoken of is the cause of 
 natural sleep, which does not belong to the soul, 
 as far as it resides in the stomach. Sleep is a natural 
 action, and one of the first vital actions. Hence the 
 reason why the embryo sleeps without ceasing. At 
 any rate it is not true that sleep is owing to vapours 
 which mount to the brain. During sleep the soul 
 is naturally occupied, and it is then that the deity 
 approaches most intimately to man. Accordingly/ 
 \ an Helmont informs us, that he received in dreams 
 the revelation of several secrets, which he could not 
 have learnt otherwise. 
 
 The duumvirate operates the'^r*/ digestion, of 
 which, Van Helmont enumerates six different species. 
 When the acid, which is prepared for digestion, 
 passes into the duodenum it is neutralized by the 
 bile of the gall-bladder. This constitutes the second 
 digestion. To the bile of the gall-bladder, Van Hel- 
 mont gave the name of fel, and he carefully dis- 
 tinguished it from the biliary principle in the mass 
 of the blood. This last he called Lite. The fel is 
 not an excrementitious matter, but a humour ne- 
 cessary to lite, a true vital balsam. Van Helmont 
 endeavoured to show by various experiments that it 
 is not Litter. 
 
 The third digestion takes place in the vessels of 
 the mesentery, into which the gall-bladder sends the 
 prepared fluid. The fourth digestion is operated in 
 the heart, where the red blood becomes more yellow 
 and more volatile by the addition of the vital spirits. 
 This is owing to the passage of the vital spirit from 
 the posterior to the anterior ventricle, through the 
 pores of the septum. At the same time the pulse 
 is produced, which of itself develops heat ; but does 
 not regulate it in any manner, as the ancients pre- 
 tended that it did. The //{A digestion consists in the 
 
IIELMOXT AXD THE IATRO-CIIFMISTS. 189 
 
 conversion of the arterial blood into vital spirit. It 
 takes place principally in the brain, but is produced 
 also throughout all the body. The sixth digestion 
 consists in the elaboration of the nutritive principle 
 in each member, where the archeus prepares its own 
 nourishment by means of the vital spirits. Thus, 
 there are six digestions: the number seven has been 
 chosen by nature for a state of repose. 
 
 From the preceding sketch of the physiology of 
 Van Helmont, it is evident that he paid little or no 
 regard to the structure of the parts in explaining 
 the functions. In his pathology we find the same 
 passion for spiritualism. He admitted, indeed, the 
 importance of anatomy, but he regretted that the 
 pathological part of that science had been so little 
 cultivated. As the archeus is the foundation of life 
 and of all the functions, it is plain that the diseases 
 can neither be derived from the four cardinal 
 humours, nor from the disposition or the action of 
 opposite ^things ; the proximate cause of diseases must 
 be sought for in the sufferings, the anger, the fear, 
 and the other affections of the archeus, and their 
 remote cause may be considered as the ideal seed 
 of the archeus. Disease, in his opinion, is not a 
 negative state or a mere absence of health, it is a 
 substantial and active thing as well as a state of 
 health. Most of the diseases which attack certuin 
 parts or members of the body result from an error 
 in the archeus, who sends his ferment from the 
 stomach in which he resides into the other parts of 
 the body. Van Helmont explained in this way not 
 only the epilepsy and madness, but likewise the gout, 
 which does not proceed from a flux, and has not 
 its seat in the limb in which the pain resides, but 
 is always owing to an error in the vital spirit. It 
 is true that the character of the gout acts upon the 
 semen in which the vital spirit principally manifests 
 its action, and that in this way diseases are pro* 
 
190 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 paguted in the act of generation; but if, during life, 
 instead of altering the semen it is carried to the 
 liquid of the articulations, this is a proof of the 
 prudence of nature, which lavishes all ner cares on 
 the preservation of the species, and loves better to 
 alter the humours of the articulations than the semen 
 itself. The gout acidifies the liquors of the articu- 
 lations, which is then coagulated by the acids. The 
 duumvirate is the cause of apoplexy, vertigo, and 
 particularly of a species of asthma, which Van Hel- 
 mont calls caducus pultnonalis. Pleurisy is pro* 
 duced in a similar way. The archeus, in a movement 
 of rage, sends acrid acids to the lungs, which occa- 
 sion an inflammation. Dropsy is also owing to the 
 anger of the archeus, who prevents the secretions of 
 the kidneys from going on in the usual way* 
 
 Ot' all the diseases, lever appeared to him most con- 
 formable to his notions of the unlimited power of the 
 archeus. The causes of fever are all much more 
 proper to offend the archeus, than to alter the struc- 
 ture of parts and the mixture of humours. The cold 
 tit is owing to a state of fear and consternation, into 
 which the archeus is thrown, and the hot stage results 
 from his disordered movements. All fevers have their 
 peculiar seat in the duumvirate. 
 
 Van 1 1 rl mont was in general much more successful 
 in refuting the scholastic opinions by which -the practice 
 of medicine was regulated in his time, than in establish- 
 ing his own. We are struck with the force of his ar- 
 guments against the Galenical doctrine of fever, and 
 against the influence of the cardinal humours on the 
 different kinds of fever. He refuted no less vehemently 
 the idea of the putridity of the blood, while that liquid 
 circulates in the vessels. Perhaps he carried the op- 
 posite doctrine too far; but his opinions have had a 
 good effect upon- subsequent medical theory, and me- 
 dical men learned from them to make less use of the 
 term putridity. The phrase mixture of humours, not 
 
VA* HCLMONT AND THC IATRO-CIIEMISTS. 191 
 
 more intelligible, however, came to be substituted 
 for it. 
 
 Van Helmont's theory of urinary calculi deserves 
 peculiar attention, because it exhibits the germ of a 
 more rational explanation of these concretions than 
 had been previously attempted by physiologists. Van 
 Helmont was aware that Paracelsus, who ascribed 
 those concretions to tartar, had formed an idea of 
 their nature, which a careful chemical analysis would 
 immediately refute. He satisfied himself that urinary 
 calculi differ completely from common stones, and 
 that they do not exist in the food or drink which the 
 calculous person had taken. Tartar, he says, preci- 
 pitates from wine, not as an earth, but as a crystal- 
 lized salt. In like manner, the natural salt of urine 
 precipitates from that liquid, and gives origin to cal- 
 culi. We may imitate this natural process by mixing 
 spirit of urine with rectified alcohol. Immediately an 
 off a alba is precipitated. 
 
 It is needless to observe that Van Helmont was 
 mistaken, in supposing that this offa was the matter 
 of calculus. Spirit of urine was a strong solution of 
 carbonate of ammonia. The alcohol precipitated this 
 salt ; so that his offa was merely carbontitc of ummn- 
 inn. Nor is there the shadow of evidence that alcohol, 
 as Van Helmont thought it did, ever makes its way 
 into the mass of humours ; yet his notion of the origin 
 of calculi is not less accurate, though of course he 
 was ignorant of the chemical nature of the various 
 substances which constitute these calculi. From this 
 reasoning Van Helmont was induced to reject the 
 term tartar, employed by Paracelsus. To avoid all 
 false interpretations he substitutes the word due lech, 
 to denote the state in which the spirit of urine precipi- 
 tates and gives origin to these calculous concretions. 
 
 As all diseases proceeded in his opinion from the 
 archeus, the object of his treatment was to calm the 
 archeus, to stimulate it, and to regulate its movements. 
 
192 BISTORT OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 To accomplish these objects he relied upon dietetics, 
 and upon acting on the imaginations of his patients. 
 He considered certain words as very efficacious in 
 curing the diseases of the archeus. He admitted the 
 existence of the universal medicine, to which he gave 
 the names of liquor alkahest, ens primutn salium, 
 primus me tail us. Mercurials, antimonials, opium, 
 and. wine, are particularly agreeable to the archeus, 
 when in a state of delirium from fever. 
 
 Among the mercurial preparations, he praises what 
 he calls mcrcurius diaphoreticus as the best. He 
 gives no account of the mode, of preparing it; but 
 from some circumstances I think it must have been 
 calomel. He considers it as a sovereign remedy 
 in fevers, dropsies, diseases of the liver, and ulcers of 
 the lungs. He employed the red oxide of mercury 
 as an external application to ulcers. The principal 
 antimonial preparations which he employed were the 
 hydrosulphuret, or golden sulphur, and the deutoxide, 
 or antimoniutn diaphorcticum. This last medicine 
 was used in scruple doses a proof of its great inert* 
 ness compared with the protoxide of antimony. 
 
 Opium he considered as a fortifying and calming 
 medicine, it contains an acrid salt and a bitter oil, 
 which give it the virtue of putting a stop to the errors 
 of the archeus, when it was sending its acid ferment 
 into other acid parts of the body. Van Hehnont as* 
 sures us that he wrought many important cures by the 
 employment of wine. 
 
 Such is a very short statement of the opinions of a 
 man, who, notwithstanding his attachment to the fa- 
 natical opinions which distinguished the time in which 
 he lived, had the merit of overturning a vast number 
 of errors, both theoretical and practical; and of laying 
 down many principles, which, for want of erudition, 
 have been frequently assigned to modern writers. Van 
 Helmont has been frequently placed on the same level 
 with Paracelsus, and treated like him with contempt. 
 
VAV IIFLMOVT AND THE lATRO-CHEMISTS. 193 
 
 But his claims upon the medical world arc much 
 higher, and his merits infinitely greater. His notions, 
 it is true, were fanatical ; but his erudition was great, 
 his understanding excellent, and his industry indefati- 
 gable. His writings did not become known till rather 
 a late period; for, with the exception of a single tract, 
 they were not published till 1648, by his son, after hi* 
 deaUi. 
 
 .' The decided preference given to chemical medicines 
 by Van Helmont, and the uses to which he applies 
 chemical theory, had a natural tendency to raise che- 
 mistry to a higher rank in the eyes of medical men 
 than it had yet reached. But the man to whom the 
 credit of founding the iatro-chcmical sect is due, is 
 Francis de le Boe Sylvius, who was born in the year 
 1614. While a practitioner of medicine at Amsterdam, 
 he studied with profound attention the system of Van 
 Helmont, and the rival and much more popular theory 
 of Descartes : upon these he founded his own theory, 
 which, in reality, contains little entitled to the name 
 of original, notwithstanding the tone in which he 
 speaks of it, and his repeated declarations that he had 
 borrowed from no one. He was . appointed professor 
 of the theory and practice of medicine in the University 
 of Levden, where he taught with such eclat, and drew 
 after him so great a number of pupils, that Bocrhaave 
 alone surpassed him in this respect. It was he that 
 first introduced the practice of giving clinical lectures 
 in the hospitals, on the cases treated in the presence 
 of the pupils. This admirable innovation has been 
 productive of much benefit to medicine. He greatly 
 promoted anatomical studies, and inspected, himself, a 
 vast number of dead bodies. This is the more re- 
 markable, because his own system, like that of Van 
 Helmont, from whom it was borrowed, was quite in- 
 dependent of the structure of the parts. 
 
 Every thing was explained by him according to the 
 principles of chemistry, as they were then understood* 
 
 VOL. i. o 
 
194 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 The celebrity of the university in which he taught, 
 and the vast number of his pupils, contributed to 
 spread this theory into every part of the world, and to 
 give it an eclat which is really surprising, when we 
 consider it with attention. But he possessed the 
 talents just suited for securing the reception of his 
 opinions by his pupils as infallible oracles, and of 
 being the idol of the university. Yet it is melancholy 
 to be obliged to add, that few persons ever more 
 abused the favours of nature, or the advantages of 
 situation and elocution. 
 
 To form a clear idea of the principles of this founder 
 of iutro-chemistry, we have only to call to mind the 
 ferments of Van Helmont, which constitute the foun- 
 dation-stone of the whole system. We cannot, says 
 he, conceive a single change in the mixture of the 
 humours, which is not the consequence of fermenta- 
 tion ; and yet he assigns to this fermentation con* 
 ditiuns which arc scarcely to be found united in the 
 living body. Digestion, in his opinion, is a true fer- 
 mentation produced by the application of a ferment. 
 Like Van !lelmont,hc admits a triumvirate ; but places 
 it in the humours; the effervescence or fermentation of 
 which enabled him to explain most of the functions 
 .of the body. Digestion is the result of the mixture of 
 the saliva with the pancreatic juice and the bile, and 
 the fermentation of these humours. The saliva, as 
 well as the pancreatic juice, contains an acidulous 
 salt easily, recognised by the taste. Here Sylvius de- 
 rives advantage from the experiments of Ilegnier de 
 Giaaf on the pancreatic juice, which he had constantly 
 found acid. 
 
 Sylvius, who affirmed that the bile contained an 
 alkali, united with aa oil and a volatile spirit, supposes 
 an effervescence from the union of the alkali of the 
 bile with the acid of the pancreatic juice, and thisyer- 
 mtntatwH he considered as the cause of digestion. 
 13 y this fermentation the chyle is produced, which is 
 
VAX IICLMOST AXD THE lATRO-CHEMtSTS. 195 
 
 nothing: else than the volatile spirit of the food accom- 
 panied by an oil and an alkali, neutralized by a weak 
 acid. The blood is more than completed (plus quant 
 pcrficitur) in the spleen. It acquires its highest 
 perfection by the addition of a certain quantity of 
 vital spirits. The bile is not drawn from the blood 
 in the liver, but pre-exists in the circulating fluid. 
 It mixes with that fluid anew to be carried to the 
 heart together with the lymph, equally mixed with the 
 blood, and there it gives origin to a vital fermentation. 
 In this way the blood Incomes the centre of reunion 
 of all the humours of the secretions, which mix to- 
 gether or separate, without the solids taking the small- 
 est share in the operations. Indeed, so completely 
 are the solids banished from the system of Sylvius that 
 he attends to nothing whatever except the humours. 
 
 The formation and motion of the blood is explained 
 by the fermentation of the oily volatile salt of the bile, 
 and the dulcified acid of the lymph, which develops 
 the vital heat, by which the blood is attenuated and 
 becomes capable of circulating. This vital fire, quite 
 different from ordinary fire is kept up in its turn by 
 the uniform mixture of the blood. It attenuates the 
 humours, not because it is hrtit but because it is com- 
 posed of pyramids. This last notion is obviously 
 borrowed from Descartes, just as the fermentation 
 in the heart, as the cause of the motion of the blood, 
 reminds us of the opinions of Van Hclmont. 
 
 Sylvius explains the preparation of the vital spirits 
 in the encephalos by distillation, and he finds a great 
 resemblance between their properties and tho*e of 
 spirit of wine. The nerves conduct these spirits to 
 the different parts, and they spread themselves in 
 the substance of the organs to render them sensible. 
 "When they insinuate themselves into the glands the 
 addition of the acid of the blood produces a liquid 
 analogous to naphtha, which constitutes the lymph. 
 Lymph, then, is a compound of the vital spirit and 
 
196 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 the acid of the blood. Milk is formed in the mammae 
 by the afflux of a very mild acid, which gives a white 
 colour to the red humour of the blood. 
 
 The theory of the natural functions was no less 
 chemical. Even the diseases themselves were ex- 
 plained upon chemical principles. Sylvius first intro- 
 duced the word acridity to denote a predominance of 
 the chemical elements of the humours/ and he looked 
 upon these acridities as the proximate cause of all 
 diseases. But as every thing acrid may be referred to 
 one or other of two classes, acids and alkalies, there 
 are only two great classes of diseases ; namely, those 
 proceeding from an acid acridity, and those proceed* 
 ing from an alkaline. 
 
 Sylvius was not altogether ignorant of the consti- 
 tuent parts of the animal humours ; but it is obvious, 
 from the account of his opinions just given, that this 
 knowledge was very incomplete ; indeed the whole of 
 his chemical science resolves itself into a compa- 
 rison of the humours of the living body with chemical 
 liquids. Perhaps his notions residing such of the 
 gases, as he had occasion to observe, were somewhat 
 clearer than those of Van Helmont. He called them 
 halitus, and takes some notice of their different che- 
 mical properties, and states the influence which he 
 supposes tiieiij to e\i rt in certain diseases. 
 
 In the human body he saw nothing but a magna of 
 humours continually in fermentation, distillation, effer- 
 vescence, or precipitation; and the physician was de- 
 graded by him to the rank of a distiller or a brewer. 
 
 Bile acquires different acridities, when bad food, 
 altered air, or other similar causes act apon the body. 
 It becomes acid or alkaline, in the former case it 
 thickens and occasions obstructions; in the latter it 
 excites febrile heat; and the viscid vapours elevated 
 from it are the cause of the cold lit with which fever 
 commences. All acute and continued fevers have 
 their origin iu tlii* acridity of the bile. The vicious 
 
VAX HELMOXT AXD THE IATRO-CHEMIST3. 197 
 
 mixture of the bile with die blood, or its specific acri- 
 dity, produces jaundice, which is far from being: al- 
 ways owing to obstructions in the liver. The vicious 
 effervescence of the bile with the pancreatic juice pro- 
 duces almost all other diseases. But all these asser- 
 tions of Sylvius arc unsupported by evidence. 
 
 The acid acridity of the pancreatic juice, and the 
 obstruction of the pancreatic ducts, which are pro* 
 duced by it, are considered by him as the cause of 
 intermittent fevers. When the acid of the pancreatic 
 juice acquires still more acridity, hypochondriasis and 
 Hysteria are the consequences of it. If, during the 
 morbid effervescence of the pancreatic juice with the 
 bile an acid and viscid humour arise, the vital spirits 
 of the heart are overwhelmed during a certain time. 
 This occasions syncope, palpitation of the heart, and 
 other nervous affection*. 
 
 When the acid acridity of the pancreatic juice or of 
 the lymph (for both are similar) is deposited on the 
 nerves, the consequence is spasms or convulsions; 
 epilepsy in particular depends upon the acrid vapours 
 produced by the morbid effervescence of the pan- 
 creatic juice with acrid bile. Gout has the same origin 
 as intermittent fevers, for we must look for it in the 
 obstruction of the pancreas and the lymphatic glands, 
 accompanied with an acid acridity of the lymph. 
 Rheumatism is owing to the acrid acid, deprived of 
 the oil which dulcifies it. The smallpox is occasioned 
 by an acid acridity in the lymph, which gives origin 
 to the pustules. Indeed all suppuration in general 
 is owing to a coagulating acid in the lymph. Syphilis 
 results from a caustic acid in the lymph. The itch is 
 produced by an acid acridity of the lymph. Dropsies 
 are produced by the same acid acridity of the lymph. 
 Urinary calculi are the consequences of a coagulating 
 acid existing in the lymph and the pancreatic juice. 
 Corrosive acids, and tie loss of volatile spirits, 
 occasion leucorrhoea. 
 
198 IIISTOEY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 From the preceding statement it would appear that 
 almost all diseases proceed from acids* However, 
 Sylvius informs us that malignant fevers are owing to 
 a superabundance of volatile salts and to a too great 
 tenuity of the blood. The vital spirits themselves give 
 occasion to diseases. They are sometimes too aqueous, 
 sometimes they etfcrvesce too violently, and sometimes 
 not at all. Hence all the nervous diseases, which 
 Sylvius never considers as existing by themselves; 
 but as always derived from the acid, acrid, or alka- 
 line vapours which trouble the vital spirits. . 
 
 The method of cure which Sylvius deduced from 
 these absurd and contemptible hypotheses, was worthy 
 of the hypotheses themselves ; and certainly constitute 
 the most detestable mode of treatment that ever has 
 disgraced medical science. To diseases produced by 
 the effervescence of the bile he opposed purgatives ; 
 because in his opinion emetics produced injurious 
 effects. The reason was, that the emetics which he 
 employed were too violent, consisting of antimonial 
 preparations, particularly powder of Alycrutti, or an 
 impure protoxide of antimony. For though emetic 
 tartar had been discovered in 1630, it does not seem 
 to have come into use till a much later period. We 
 do not find any notice of it in the praxis chymiatrica 
 of Hartnmnn published in 1647, at Geneva. 
 
 He endeavoured to moderate the acridity of the bile 
 by opiates and other narcotics. It will scarcely be 
 believed, though it was a natural consequence of his 
 opinions, when we state that he recommended ammo* 
 niacal preparations, particularly his oleaginous volatile 
 Siilt, and spirit of hartshorn, Arc., as cures for almost 
 all diseases. Sometimes they were employed to cor* 
 rect the acidity of the lymph, sometimes to destroy the 
 acid acridity of the pancreatic juice, sometimes to 
 correct the inertness of the vital spirits, sometimes to 
 promote the secretions, and to induce a How of the 
 menses. Volatile spirit of amber and opium were 
 
VA!* nrLMOXT AXD THE IATRO-CIIEMISTS. 199 
 
 prescribed by him in intermittent fevers ; and volatile 
 salts in almost all acute diseases. He united them 
 with antivenoraous potions, angelica, contrayerva, be- 
 zoard, crabs' eyes, and other similar substances. These 
 absorbents seemed to him very necessary to correct 
 the acidity of the pancreatic juice, and the acridity of 
 the bile. In administering them he paid no attention 
 to the regular* course which acute diseases usually 
 run; he neither inquired into the remote nor proximate 
 causes of disease, nor to the symptoms: every thing 
 was neglected connected with induction, and his 
 whole proceedings regulated by wild speculations and 
 absurd theories, quite inconsistent with the phenomena 
 of nature. 
 
 To attempt to refute these wild notions of Sylvius 
 would be loss of time. It is extraordinary, and almost 
 incredible, that he could have regulated his practice 
 by them: and it is a still more incredible thing, and 
 exhibits a very humiliating view of human nature, 
 that these crudities and absurdities were swallowed 
 with avidity by crowds of students, who placed a blind 
 reliance on the dogmas of their master, and were 
 initiated by him into a method of treating their patients, 
 better calculated than any other that could easily have 
 been devised, to aggravate all their diseases, and put 
 an end to their lives. If any of the patients of the 
 iatro-chcmists ever recovered their health, well might 
 it be said that their recovery was not the consequence 
 of the prescriptions of their physicians, but that it took 
 place in spite of them.* 
 
 As an example of the prescriptions of Sylriui, wegire th 
 following for malignant fever: 
 
 ft. Theriac. rctcr. 3? 
 Antim. di.tphor. 5} 
 Syrup. Card. Brnedic.Ji] 
 Aq. prophylact. 3) 
 
 Cinnam. ws 
 
 Scabios. tij 
 
 Iff. 01 
 
200 HISTORY OP CHEMrSTRT. 
 
 It is a very remarkable circumstance, and shows 
 clearly that mankind in general had become disgusted 
 with the dogmas of the Galenists, that iatro-che- 
 mistry was adopted more or less completely by almost 
 all physicians. There were, indeed, a few indivi- 
 duals who raised their voices against it; but, what 
 is curious and inexplicable, they never attempted to 
 start objections against the principles of the iatro- 
 chemists, or to |>oint out the futility of their hypothe- 
 sis, and their inconsistency with fact. They com- 
 bated them by arguments not more solid than* those of 
 their antagonists. 
 
 During the presidency of- Riolan over the Medical 
 College of Paris, that learned body set itself against 
 all innovations. Guy Patin, who was a medical pro* 
 lessor in the University of Paris, and a man of great 
 celebrity, opposed the chemical system of medicine 
 with much zeal. In his Martyrologium Antimonii he 
 collects all the cases in which the use of antimony, as 
 a medicine, had proved injurious to the patient. But 
 in the year 1666, the dispute relative to antimony, 
 and particularly relative to tartar emetic, became so 
 violent, that all the doctors of the faculty of Paris 
 were assembled by an order of the parliament, under 
 the presidency of Dean Vignon, and after a long 
 deliberation, it was concluded by a majority of 
 ninety-two votes, that tartar emetic, and other an- 
 timonials, should not only be permitted, but even re- 
 commended. Patin after this decision pretended no 
 longer to combat chemical medicine; but he did not 
 remain inactive. One of his friends, Francis Blonde!, 
 demanded the resolution to be cancelled ; but his ex- 
 ertions \*ere unsuccessful; nor were the writings of 
 Guillemeau and Mcnjot, who were also keen partisans 
 of the views of Patin, attended with better success. 
 
 In England iatro-cheinistry assumed a direction 
 quite peculiar. It was embraced by a set of men who 
 had cultivated anatomy with the most marked success, 
 
VA* ITELMOXT A*D THE IAT1lO-CntMlSTS. 201 
 
 and who were quite familiar with the experimental 
 method of investigating nature. The most eminent 
 of all the English supporters of iatro-chemistry was 
 Thomas Willis, who was a contemporary of Sylvius. 
 
 Dr. Willis was born at Great Bodmin, in Wiltshire, 
 in 1621. He was a student at Christchurch College, 
 in Oxford, when that city was garrisoned for King 
 Charles I. Like the other students, he bore arms for 
 his Majesty, and devoted his leisure hours to the study 
 of physic. After the surrender of Oxford to the par- 
 liament, he devoted himself to the practice of medi- 
 cine, and soon acquired reputation. He appropriated 
 a room as an oratory for divine service, according to 
 the forms of the church of England, to which most of 
 the loyalists of Oxford daily resorted. In 1660, he 
 became Scdlcian professor of natural philosophy, and 
 the same year he took the degree of doctor of physic. 
 Me settled ultimately in London, and soon acquired 
 a higher reputation, and a more extensive practice, 
 than any of his contemporaries. He died in 1675, 
 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. He was a 
 first- rate anatomist. To him we arc indebted for the 
 first accurate description of the brain and nerves. 
 
 But it is as an iatro-cheroist that he claims a place 
 in this work. His notions approach nearer to those 
 of Paracelsus than to the hypotheses of Van Helmont 
 and Sylvius. He admits the three chemical elements 
 of Paracelsus, salt, sulphur, and mercury, in all the 
 bodies in nature, and employs them to explain their 
 properties and changes; but he gives the name of 
 spirit to the mercury of Paracelsus. He ascribes to 
 it the virtue of volatilizing all the constituent parts of 
 bodies : salt, on the other hand, is the cause of fixity 
 in bodies; sulphur produces colour and heat, and 
 unites the fjririt to the wit. In the stomach there 
 occurs an acid ferment, which forms the chyle with 
 the sulphur of the aliments : this chyle enters into 
 effervescence in the heart, because the salt and sul- 
 
202 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 phur take fire together. From this results the vital 
 
 flame, which penetrates every thing. The vital spirits 
 are secreted in the brain by a real distillation. The 
 vessels of the testes draw an elixir from the constituent 
 parts of the blood ; but the spleen retains the earthy 
 part, and communicates a new igneous ferment to the 
 circulating fluid. On this account the blood must be 
 considered as a humour, constantly disposed to fer- 
 mentation, and in this respect it may be compared to 
 wine. Every humour in which salt, sulphur, and 
 spirit predominates in a certain manner, may be con- 
 verted into a finncnt. All diseases proceed from a 
 morbid state or action of this ferment ; and a physi- 
 cian may be compared to a wine-merchant; for, like 
 him, he has nothing to do but to watch that the ne- 
 cessary fermentations take place with regularity, and 
 that no foreign substance come to derange the ope- 
 ration. 
 
 At this period the mania of explaining every thing 
 had proceeded to such a leiurth, that no distinction 
 was made between dead and living bodies. The che- 
 mical facts which were at that time known, were ap- 
 plied without hesitation to explain all the functions 
 and all the diseases of the living body. According to 
 Willis, fever is the simple result of a violent and pre- 
 ternatural effervescence of the blood and the other 
 humours of the body, either produced by external 
 causes, or by internal ferments, into which the chyle 
 is converted when it mixes with the blood. The effer- 
 vescence of the vital spiiits is the source of quotidians ; 
 that of salt and sulphur produces continued fever; 
 and external ferments of a malignant nature produce 
 malignant fevers. Thus the smallpox is owing to the 
 seeds of fermentation set in activity by an external 
 principle of contagion. Spasms and convulsions are 
 produced by an explosion of the salt and sulphur 
 with the animal spirits. Hypochondriaca! affections 
 and hysteria depend origiiiahy on the morbid putritac- 
 
VAX HELtfOTT AXD THE lATRO-CHEMISTS. 203 
 
 tion of the blood in the spleen, or on abaci fcrmcntes- 
 cible principle, loaded with salt and sulphur, which 
 unites with the vital spirits and deranges them. Scurvy 
 is owing to an alteration of the blood, which may then 
 be compared to vapid or stale wine. The gout is 
 merely the coagulation of the nutritive juices altered 
 by the acidified animal spirits ; just as sulphuric acid 
 forms a coagulum with carbonate of potash. 
 
 The action of medicines is easily explained by the 
 effects which they produce on the nourishing principles. 
 Sudorifics are considered as cordials, because they 
 augment the sulphur of the blood, which is the true 
 food of the vital flame. Cordials purify the animal 
 spirits, and fix the too volatile blood. Willis dis- 
 agrees with the other iatro-chemists of his time in one 
 thin:: he recommends bleeding in the greater num- 
 ber of diseases, as an excellent method of diminishing 
 unnatural fermentation. 
 
 Dr. Croone, a celebrated Fellow of the Royal So- 
 ciety, was another English iatro-chemist, who attempt- 
 ed to explain muscular motion by the effervescence of 
 the nervous fluid, or animal spirits. 
 
 It is not worth while to notice the host of writers- 
 English, French, Italian, Dutch, and German, who 
 exerted themselves to maintain, improve, and defend, 
 the chemical doctrines of medicine. The first person 
 who attempted to overturn these absurd doctrines, 
 and to introduce something more satisfactory in their 
 place, was Mr. Boyle, at that time in the height of 
 his celebrity. 
 
 Robert Boyle was born at Youghall, in the pro* 
 vince of Munster, on the 25th of January, 1627. He 
 was the seventh son, and the fourteenth child of 
 Richard, Earl of Cork. He was partly educated at 
 home, and partly at Eton, where he was under the 
 tuition of Sir Henry Wotton. At the age of eleven, 
 he travelled with his brother and a French tutor 
 through France to Geneva, where he pursued his 
 
04 HISTORY 07 CHEMISTRY. 
 
 studies for twenty-one months, and then went to 
 Italy. During this period, he acquired the French 
 and Italian languages; and, indeed, talked in the for- 
 mer with so much fluency and correctness, that he 
 passed, when he thought proper, for a Frenchman. In 
 16-1 '2, his father's ti nances were deranged, by the 
 breaking out of the great Irish rebellion. His tutor, 
 who was a Genevese, was obliged to borrow, on his 
 own credit, a sum of money sufficient to carry him 
 home. On his arrival, he found his father dead ; and, 
 though two estates had been left to him, such was the 
 state of the times, that several years elapsed before he 
 could command the requisite sum of money to supply 
 his exigencies. He retired to an estate at Stalbridge, 
 in Dorsetshire. 
 
 In 1654 he went to Oxford, where he associated 
 himself with a number of eminent men (Dr. Willis 
 among others), who had constituted themselves into a 
 combination for experimental investigations, distin- 
 guished by the name of the Philosophical College. 
 This society was transferred to London ; and, in 16(33, 
 was incorporated by Charles 11. under the name of the 
 Royal Society. In 1668 Mr. Boyle took up his re 
 sidence in London, where he continued till the last day 
 of December, 1691, assiduously occupied in experi- 
 mental investigations, on which day he died, in the 
 sixty-fifth year of his a^e. 
 
 We are indebted to Mr. Boyle for the first intro- 
 duction of the air-pump and the thermometer into 
 Britain, and for contributing so much, by means of 
 Dr. Hooke, to the improvement of both. His hydro- 
 statical and pneumatical investigations and experi- 
 ments constitute the foundation of these two sciences. 
 The thermometer was first made an accurate instru- 
 ment of investigation by Sir Isaac Newton, in 1701. 
 This he did by selecting as two fixed points the tem- 
 peratures at which water freezes and boils ; marking 
 these upon the stem of the thermometer, and dividing 
 
VAX HELMOXT AXD THE IATRO-CIIEMISTS. 205 
 
 the interval between them into a certain number of de- 
 grees. All thermometers made in this way will stand at 
 the same point when plunged into bodies of the same 
 temperature. The mimbcrof divisions between the freez- 
 ing and boiling points constitute the cause of the differ- 
 ences between diflerent thermometers. In Fahrenheit's 
 thermometer, which is used in Great Britain, the num- 
 ber of degrees, between the freezing and boiling points 
 of water, is 1 80 ; in Reaumur's it is 80 ; in Celsius's, or 
 the centigrade, it is 100 ; and in De Life's it is 150. 
 
 But my reason for mentioning Mr. Boyle here was, 
 the attempt which he made in 1661, by the publica- 
 tion of his Sceptical Chemist, to overturn the absurd 
 opinions of the iatro-chemists. He raises doubts, not 
 only respecting the existence of the elements of the 
 Peripatetics, but even of those of the chemists. The 
 first elements of bodies, in his opinion, are atoms, of 
 different shapes and sizes ; the union of which gives 
 origin to what we vulgarly call elements. We cannot 
 restrain the number of these to four, as the Peripatetics 
 do ; nor to three, with the chemists : neither are they 
 immutable, but convertible into each other. Fire is 
 not the means that ought to be employed to obtain 
 them ; for the salt and sulphur are formed during its 
 action by the union of diflerent simple bodies. 
 
 Boyle shows, besides, that the chemical theory of 
 qualities is exceedingly inaccurate and uncertain ; be- 
 cause it takes for granted things which am very doubt- 
 ful, and in many cases directly contrary to the pheno- 
 mena of nature. He endeavours to prove the truth of 
 these ideas, and particularly the production of the 
 chemical principles, by a great number of convincing 
 and conclusive experiments. 
 
 In another treatise, entitled " The Imperfections of 
 the Chemical Doctrine of Qualities,"* he points out, in 
 the second section, the insufficiency of the hypotheses of 
 
 Shmw'i Boyle, ill 424* 
 
206 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 Sylvius relative to the generality of acids and alkalies. 
 He shows that the offices ascribed to them are arbitrary, 
 and the notions respecting them unsettled; that the 
 hypotheses respecting them are needless, and insuffi- 
 cient, and atibrd but an unsatisfactory solution of the 
 phenomena. 
 
 These arguments of Boyle did not immediately shake 
 the credit of the chemical system. In the year 1691, 
 a chemical academy was founded at Paris by Nicolas 
 de Blegny, the express object of which was to examine 
 .these objections of Boyle, which by this time had at- 
 tracted great attention. Boyle's experiments were re- 
 peated and continued ; but the academicians, not- 
 withstanding, came to the conclusion, that it is un- 
 necessary to have recourse to the true elements of 
 bodies ; and that the phenomena which occur in the 
 animal economy may be explained by the predomi- 
 nance of acids or alkalies. Various other publications 
 appeared, all on the same side. 
 
 In Germany, Hermann Conringius, the most skilful 
 physician of his time, opposed the chemical theory ; 
 and his opinions were impugned by Glaus Borrichius, 
 who defended not only ulrhymy, but the chemical 
 theory of medicine, with equal erudition and zeal,* 
 
 Towards the end of the sixteenth century, the che- 
 mists thought of examining the liquids of the living 
 body, to ascertain whether they really contained the 
 acids and alkalies which had been assigned them, and 
 considered as the cause of alt diseases. But at that 
 time chemistry had made so little progress, and such 
 was the want of skill of those who undertook these in- 
 vestigations, that they readily obtained every thing 
 that was wanted to confirm their previous notions. 
 John Viridct, a physician of Geneva, announced that 
 he had found an acid in the saliva and the pancreatic 
 juice, and an alkali in the gastric juice and the bile. 
 
 De Ortu tt Progress u Chemi. ////>, 1674. 
 
IICLMOXT AND TI1L lATRO-CHEMISTS. 207 
 
 But the most celebrated experiments of that period 
 were those of Kaimomi Vicussens, undertaken in 1698, 
 in order to discover the presence of an acid spirit in 
 the blood. His method was, to mix blood with a 
 species of clay, called botc. and to subject the mixture 
 to distillation, He found that the liquid distilled over 
 was acid. Charmed with this discovery, which he con- 
 sidcred as of first-rate importance, he announced it by 
 letter to the different academies and colleges in Eu- * 
 rope. Some doubts being raised about the accuracy 
 of his experiment, it having been alleged that the acid 
 came from the clay which he had mixed with the 
 blood, and not from the blood itself, Yicussens puri- 
 tied the bole from all the acid which it could contain, 
 and repeated his experiment again. The result was 
 the same the acrid salt of the fluid yielded an acid 
 spirit. 
 
 It would be needless in the present Mate of our 
 knowledge to point out the inaccuracy of such an 
 experiment, or how little it contributed to prove that 
 Mood contains a free acid. It is now well known to 
 chemist*, that blood is remarkably free from acids; 
 and, that if we except a little common salt, which ex- 
 ists in all the liquid* of the human body, there is nei- 
 ther any acid nor salt whatever in that liquid. 
 
 Michael Ettmullcr, at Leipsic, who was a chemist 
 of some eminence in his day, and published a small 
 treatise on the science, which was much sought after, 
 was also a zealous iatro-chemist ; but his opinions 
 were obviously regulated by the researches of Boyle. 
 He denies the existence of acids and alkalies in cer- 
 tain bodies, and distinguishes carefully between acid 
 and putrid fermentation. 
 
 One of the most formidable antagonists to the iatro- 
 chemical doctrines was Dr. Archibald Pitcairne, first 
 a professor of medicine in the University of Lcyden, 
 and afterwards of Edinburgh, and one of the most 
 eminent physicians of his time* He was born in Edin- 
 
208 HISTORY Or CHEMISTUV. 
 
 burgh, on the 25th of December, 1652. After finish- 
 ing his school education in Daikeith, he went to the 
 University of Edinburgh, where he improved himself in 
 classical learning, and completed a regular course of 
 philosophy. He turned his attention to the law, and 
 prosecuted his studies with so much ardour and inten- 
 sity that his health began to suffer. He was advised 
 to travel, and set out accordingly for the South of 
 France : by the time he reached Paris he was so far 
 recovered that he determined to renew his studies ; 
 but as there was no eminent professor of law in that 
 city, and as several gentlemen of his acquaintance 
 were engaged in the study of medicine, he went with 
 them to the lectures and hospitals, and employed him* 
 self in this way fur several months, till his atKiirs called 
 him home. 
 
 On his return he applied himself chiefly to mathe- 
 matics, in which, under the auspices of his friend, the 
 celebrated Dr. David Gregory, he made uncommon 
 progress. Struck with the charms of this science, and 
 hoping by the application of it to medicine to reduce 
 the healing art under the rigid rules of mathematical 
 demonstration, he formed the resolution of devoting 
 himself to the study of medicine. There was at that 
 time no medical school in Edinburgh, and no hospital 
 at which he could improve himself; he therefore re- 
 paired to Paris, and devoted himself to his studies with 
 a degree of ardour that ensured an almost unparal- 
 leled success. In 1680 he received from the faculty 
 of liheims the degree of doctor of medicine, a degree 
 also conferred on him in 1699 by t|ie University of 
 Aberdeen. 
 
 In the year 1691 his reputation was so high that 
 the University of Leyden solicited him to fill the medical 
 chair, at that time vacant ; he accepted the invitation, 
 and delivered a course of lectures at Leyden, which 
 was greatly admired by all his auditors, among whom 
 were Boerhaave and Mead. At the close of the ses~ 
 
VAN HELMOKT AtfD THE IATRO-CHMISTS. 209 
 
 gion he set out for Scotland, to marry the daughter 
 of Sir Archibald Stevenson : his friends in his own 
 country would not consent to part with him, and thus 
 he was reluctantly obliged to resign his chair in the 
 University of Leydcn. 
 
 He settled as a physician in Edinburgh, where he 
 was appointed titular professor of medicine. His 
 practice extended beyond example, and he was more 
 consulted by foreigners than any Edinburgh physician 
 cither before or after his time. He died in October, 
 1713, admired and regretted by the whole country. 
 He was a zealous supporter of iatro-mat hematics, and 
 as such a professed antagonist of the iatro-chemists. 
 He refuted their opinions with much strength of rea- 
 soning, while his high reputation pave his opinions an 
 uncommon effect ; so that he contributed perhaps as 
 much as any one, to put a period to the most dis- 
 graceful, as well as dangerous, set of opinions that 
 ever overspread the medical horizon. 
 
 Into the merits of the iatro-mathcmaticians it is not 
 the business of this work to enter; they at least dis- 
 play science, and labour, and erudition, and in all 
 these respects are far before the iatro-chemists. Per* 
 haps their own opinions were not more agreeable to 
 the real structure of the human body, nor their prac- 
 tice more conformable to reason, or more successful 
 than those of the chemists. Probably the most valu- 
 able of all Dr. Pitcairne's writings, is his vindication 
 of the claims of Hervey to the great discovery of the 
 circulation. 
 
 Boerhaave, the pupil of Pitcairne, and afterwards a 
 professor in Leyden, was a no less zealous or success- 
 ful opponent of the iatro-chemists. 
 
 Herman Boerhaave, perhaps the most celebrated 
 physician that ever existed, if we except Hippocrates, 
 was born at Voorhout, a village near Leyden, in 1668, 
 
 VOL. I. F 
 
910 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 where hi* father was the parish clergyman. Ai the 
 age of sixteen he was left without parents, protection, 
 advice, or fortune. He had already studied theology, 
 and the other branches of knowledge that are con- 
 sidered as requisite for a clergyman, to which situa- 
 tion he aspired ; and while occupied with these studies 
 he supported himself at Leydcn by teaching mathe- 
 matics to the students a branch of knowledge to 
 which he had devoted himself with considerable ardour 
 while living in his father's house. But, a report being 
 raised that he was attached to the doctrines of Spi- 
 noza, the clamour against him was so loud that he 
 thought it requisite to renounce his intention of going 
 into orders.* He turned his studies to medicine, and 
 the branches of science connected with that pursuit, 
 and these delightful subjects soon engrossed the whole 
 of his attention. In 1693 he was created doctor of 
 medicine, and begun to practise. He continued to 
 teach mathematics for some time, till his practice in- 
 creased stiiHciently to enable him to live by his fees. 
 His spare money was chiefly laid out upon books; he 
 also erected a ciifimeal laboratory, and though he had 
 no garden he paid preut attention to the study of 
 plants. His reputation 'increased with considerable 
 rapidity; but his fortune rather slowly. He was in- 
 vited to the Hague by a nobleman, who strod high in 
 the favour of \Villiain III., Kim: of Great Britain; but 
 he declined the invitation. His -three great friends, 
 to whom he was in some measure indebted for his 
 success, were James Trig land, professor of theology, 
 
 * While travelling in a tract-boat, one of his fellow-travellers 
 more orthodox than well informed, attacked the &\>teui of Spi- 
 no/.a with NO hitlr >jiirit, that iioerhaave was U mpted to ask him if 
 he had e\ rr read Spinoza. The polemic wa& obliged to confess 
 that he had not ; but he was >o much provoked at thU public ex- 
 posure of hi* ignorance, that he propagated the report of Boer- 
 lutave'* attachment to Spimuiaui, and thus bloated Lis intention 
 of becoming a clergyman. 
 
VAX IIELMONT A\D THE lATRO-CrfEMl*T*. 211 
 
 Daniel Alnhen, and John Van den Berg, both of them 
 successively chief magistrates of Leyden, and men of 
 great influence. 
 
 Van den Berg: recommended him to the situation of 
 professor of medicine in the University of Leyden, to 
 which chair he was raised, fortunately for the reputation 
 of the university, on the death of Drelincourt, in 1702. 
 He not only pave public lectures on medicine, but 
 was in the habit also of giving- private instructions to 
 his pupil*. His success as a teacher was so great, that 
 a report having been spread of his intention to quit 
 Lejtfeftj the curators of the university added consi- 
 derably to his salary on condition that he would not 
 leave them. 
 
 This first step towards fortune and eminence having 
 been made, others followed with great rapidity. He 
 w*s appointed successively professor of botany and of 
 chemistry, while rectorships and deanships were show- 
 ered upon him with an unsparing hand. And such 
 was the activity, the zeal, and the ability with which 
 ho filled all these chairs, that he raised the University 
 of Leyden to the very highest rank of all the universi- 
 ties of Europe. Students flocked to him from all 
 quarters every country of Europe furnished him with 
 pupils; Leyden was filled and enriched by an unusual 
 crowd of strangers. Though his class-rooms were 
 large, yet so great was the number of students, that it 
 u a< customary for them to keep places, just as is done 
 in a theatre when a first-rate actor is expected to per- 
 form. He died in, the year 173*, while still filling the 
 three different chairs with undiininishcd reputation. 
 
 It is not our object here to speak of Boerhaave as a 
 physician, or as a teacher of medicine, or of botany; 
 though in all these capacities he is entitled to the very 
 highest eulogium ; his practice was as unexampled as 
 hi* success as a teacher. It is solely as a chemist that 
 he claims our attention here. His system of chemistry, 
 published ID two quarto volumes ia'l 732, and of which 
 r 2 
 
212 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 we have an excellent English translation by Dr. Shaw, 
 printed in 1741, was undoubtedly the most learned 
 and most luminous treatise on chemistry that the world 
 had yet seen ; it is nothing less than a complete col- 
 lection of all the chemical facts and processes which 
 were known in Boerhaave's time, collected from a 
 thousand different sources, and from writings equally 
 disgusting from their obscurity and their mysticism. 
 Every thing is stated in the plainest way, stripped of 
 all mystery, and chemistry is shown as a science 
 and an art of the first importance, not merely to 
 medicine, but to mankind in general. The processes 
 given by him arc too numerous and too tedious to have 
 been all repeated by one man, how laborious soever he 
 may have been : many of them have been taken upon 
 trust, and, as no distinction is made in the book, be- 
 tween those which are stated upon his own authority 
 and those which arc merely copied from others, this 
 treatise has been accused, and with some justice, as 
 not always to be depended on. But the real informa- 
 tion which it communicates is prodigious, and when 
 we compare it with any other system of chemistry that 
 preceded it, the superiority of Boerhaave's information 
 will appear in a very conspicuous point of view. 
 
 After a short but valuable historical introduction 
 he divides his work into two parts; the first treats of 
 the theory vf chemistry, the second of the practical 
 processes. 
 
 He defines chemistry as follows: <fc Chemistry is an 
 art which teaches the manner of performing certain 
 physical operations, whereby bodies cognizable to the 
 senses, or capable of being rendered cognizable, and 
 of being rontaincd in vessels, are so changed by means 
 of proper instruments, as to produce certain determinate 
 effects; and at the same time discover the causes 
 thereof; for the service of various arts." 
 
 This definition is not calculated to throw much 
 light on chemistry to those who are unacquainted with 
 
VAX IIELMONT AND THE IATRO-CIIF.MISTS. 213 
 
 its nature and object. Neither is it conformable to 
 the modem notions entertained of chemistry ; but it 
 is requisite to keep in mind Bocrhaave's definition of 
 chemistry, when we examine his system, that we may 
 not accuse him of omissions and imperfections, whicn, 
 are owing merely to the state of the science when he 
 gave his system to the world. 
 
 In his theory of chemistry he begins with the 
 metals, which he treats of in the following order : 
 Gold, mercury, lead, silver, copper, iron, tin. The 
 account of them, though imperfect, is much fuller 
 and more satisfactory than any that preceded it. He 
 then treats of the salts, which are, common salt, salt- 
 petre, borax, sal ammoniac and alum. This it will be 
 admitted is but a meagre list. However other salts 
 occur in different parts of the book which are not de- 
 scribed here. He next gives an account of sulphur. 
 Here he introduces white arsenic, obtained, he says, 
 from cobalt, and not known for more than two hun- 
 dred years. He considers it as a real sulphur, and 
 takes no notice of metallic arsenic, though it had l>eeii 
 already alluded to by Paracelsus. He then treats of 
 bitumens, including under the name not merely bitu- 
 mens liquid and solid, but likewise pit-coal, amber, 
 and ambergris. An account of stones and earths 
 comes next, and constitutes the most defective part of 
 the book. It is very surprising that in this part of 
 his work he takes no notice of lime. The semi-metals 
 come next: they arc, antimony, bismuth, /inc. 
 Here he gives an account of the three vitriols or sul- 
 phates of iron, copper, and zinc. He knew the com- 
 position of sulphate of iron ; but was ignorant of that 
 of sulphate of copper and sulphate of zinc. He con- 
 siders semi-metals as compounds of a true metal and 
 sulphur, and therefore enumerates cinnabar among 
 the semi-metals. Lastly he treats of vegetables and 
 animals ; and it b needless to say that bis account is 
 very imperfect* 
 
214 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 He next treats of lite utility of chemistry, and 
 shows its importance in natural philosophy, medicine, 
 and the arts. Afterwards he describes the instruments 
 of chemistry. This constitutes the longest and the most 
 important part of the whole work. He first treats of 
 fire at great length. Here we have an account of the 
 thermometer, of the expansion produced by heat, of 
 steam, and in fact the germ of many of the most im- 
 portant parts of the science of heat, which have since 
 been expanded and applied to the improvement, not 
 merely of chemistry, but of the arts and resources of 
 human industry. The experiments of Fahrenheit re- 
 lated by him, on the change of temperature induced 
 by agitating water and mercury together at different 
 degrees of heat, gave origin to the whole doctrine of 
 specific heats. Though Boerhaave himself seemed not 
 aware of the imjiortance of these experiments, or in- 
 deed even to hare considered them with any attention. 
 But when afterwards analyzed by Dr. Black, these 
 experiments gave origin to one of the most important 
 parts of the whole science of heat. 
 
 He next treats at great length on fuel. Here his 
 opinions are often very erroneous, from his ignorance 
 of a vast number of facts which have since come to 
 light. It is curious that during the whole of his very 
 long account of combustion he makes no allusion to 
 the peculiar opinions of Stahl on the subject; though 
 they were known to the public, and had been ad- 
 mitted by chemists in general, before his work was 
 published. To what are we to ascribe this omission I 
 It could scarcely have been owing to ignorance, 
 Stahi's reputation being too high to allow his opinions 
 to be treated with neglect. We must suppose, 1 think, 
 that Boerhaave did not adopt Stahi's doctrine of com- 
 bustion ; but at the same time did not think it proper 
 to enter into any controveisy on the subject. 
 
 He next treats of the heat produced when different 
 liquids are mixed, as alcohol and water, &c. He 
 
VAN riELMO*T AKO TIIF, lATRO-CHEMlSTS. 215 
 
 gives many examples of such increase of temperature, 
 and describes the phenomena very correctly. But he 
 was unable to assign the cause of the evolution of 
 this heat. The subject was elucidated many years 
 after by Dr. Irvine, who showed that it was owing to 
 a diminution of the specific heat which takes place 
 when liquids combine chemically together. It is iu 
 this part of his work that he gives an account of phos- 
 phorus, of the action of nitric acid on volatile oils, 
 and he concludes, from all the facts which he states, 
 that elementary fire is a corporeal body. His expla- 
 nation of the combustion of Humbert's pyrophorus 
 and of common phosphorus, shows clearly that he had 
 no correct notion of the reason why air is necessary 
 to maintain combustion, nor. of the way in which that 
 elastic fluid performs its part in the great phenomena 
 of nature. 
 
 He next treats of the mode of regulating fire for 
 chemical purposes : then he treats of air, his account 
 being* chiefly taken from Doyle. He ascribes the dis- 
 covery of the law of the elasticity of air lx>th to Boyle 
 and Mariotte. Boyle, 1 believe, was the first discoverer 
 of it. The French arc in the habit of calling it the 
 law of Mariotte. He then treats of uvi/cr, and lastly 
 of earth ; but even here no mention whatever is made 
 of lime. In the last part of the theory of chemistry 
 he treats at great Iciiifth of mcnstruiims. These are 
 water, oils, alcohol, alkalies, acids, and neutral salts* 
 He mentions potash and ammonia, but takes no notice 
 of soda ; the difference between potash and soda not 
 being accurately known. Nor can we expect any 
 particular account of the difference between the pro- 
 perties of mild and caustic potash ; as this subject 
 was not understood till the time of Dr. Black. The 
 only acids which he mentions arc the acetic, sul* 
 phuric, nitric, muriatic, and aqua regia. He sub* 
 joins a disquisition on the alcahest or universal sol* 
 
 t, which it is obvious enough, however, from the 
 
216 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 way in which he speaks of it, that he was not a be* 
 lie ver in. The object of his practical part is to teach 
 the method of making all the different chemical sub* 
 stances known when he wrote. This he does in two 
 hundred and twenty-seven processes, in which all the 
 manipulations are described with considerable minute- 
 ness. This part of the work must have been long 
 considered as of great utility, and must have been 
 long resorted to by the student as a mine of practical 
 information upon almost every subject that could ar- 
 rest his attention. So immense is the progress that 
 chemistry has made since the days of Boerhaave, and 
 so different are the researches that at present occupy 
 chemists, and so much greater the degree of precision 
 requisite to be attained, that his processes and direc- 
 tions are now of little or no use to a practical student 
 of chemistry, as they convey little ^or none of the 
 knowledge which it is requisite for him to possess. 
 
 Boerhaave made a set of most elaborate experi- 
 ments, to refute the ideas of the alchymists respecting 
 the possibility of fixing mercury. lie put a quantity 
 of pure mercury into a glass vessel t and kept it for 
 fifteen years at a temperature rather higher than 100. 
 It underwent no alteration whatever, excepting that a 
 small portion of it was converted into a black powder. 
 But this black powder was restored to the state of 
 running mercury by trituration in a mortar, in this 
 experiment the air had free access to the mercuiy. It 
 was repeated in a close vessel with the same result, 
 excepting that the mercury was kept hot for only six 
 months instead of fifteen years. 
 
 To show that mercury cannot be obtained from me- 
 tals by the processes recommended by the alchymists, 
 he dissolved pure nitrate of lead in water, and, mixing 
 the solution with sal ammoniac, chloride of lead preci- 
 pitated. Of this chloride he put a quantity into a re- 
 tort, and poured over it a strong lixivium of caustic 
 potash. The whole was digested at the temperature 
 
VAX HELMOXT AXD THE IATRO-CI1EMISTS. 217 
 
 of 96 for six months and six clays. It was then dis- 
 tilled in a glass retort, by a temperature gradually 
 raised to redness, but not a particle of mercury was 
 evaporated, as it had been alleged by the alchymists 
 would be the case. 
 
 Isaac Hollandus had stated that mercury could be 
 easily obtained from the salt of lead made by means 
 of distilled vinegar. To prove this he calcined a 
 quantity of acetate of lead, ground the residue to 
 powder, and triturated it with a very strong alkaline 
 lixivium, and kept the lixivium over it covered with 
 paper for months, takinir care to add water in propor- 
 tion as it evapirated. The calx was then distilled in 
 a heat gradually raised to redness ; but not a particle 
 of mercury was obtained.* 
 
 These were not the only laborious txperimcnts which 
 he made with this nietal. He distilled it al>ove five 
 hundred times, and found that it underwent no altera- 
 tion. When IOIIJT agitated in a glass bottle it is con- 
 vertible into a black acrid powder, obviously protoxide 
 of merciirv. This black powder, when distilled, is 
 converted into running mercury. Exposure of mer- 
 cury for some months in a heat of 180, converts it 
 also into protoxide ; and if the heat be higher than 
 this, the mercury is converted into a red acrid sub- 
 stance, obviously peroxide of mercury. But this 
 peroxide, by simple distillation, is again reduced into 
 the state of running mercury.f 
 
 Boerhaave combated the opinions of the iatro-che- 
 mists with great eloquence, and with a weight derived 
 from his high reputation, and the extraordinary vene- 
 ration in which his opinions were held by his disciples* 
 His efforts were assisted by those of Bohn, who com- 
 bated the medical opinions by arguments drawn both from 
 experience and observation, and perfectly irresistible ; 
 
 Mem. Paris, 1734, p. 539. 
 
 f PhiL Trans. 1733, No. 430, p. 145. 
 
218 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 and the ruin of the chemical sect was consummated 
 by the exertions of the celebrated Frederick Hoffmann, 
 the founder of the most perfect and satisfactory sys- 
 tem of medicine that has ever appeared. His efforts 
 were probably roused into action by a visit which he 
 paid to England in 1683, during which he got ac- 
 quainted with Boyle and with Sydenham ; the former 
 the greatest experimentalist, and the latter the greatest 
 physician of the time; and both of whom were de- 
 clared enemies to iatro-chemistry. 
 
AOR1COLA AND METALLURGY* 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 OP AGRICOLA AND METALLURGY. 
 
 I HAVE been induced by a wish to prosecute the 
 history of the opinions first supported by Paracelsus, 
 and carried so .much further by Van Helmont and 
 Sylvius, to give a connected view of their effects 
 upon medical practice and medical theory; and I 
 have come to the commencement of the eighteenth 
 century, without taking notice of one of the must ex- 
 traordinary men, and one of the greatest promoters of 
 chemistry that ever existed : I mean George Agricola. 
 I shall consecrate the whole of this chapter to his la* 
 hours, and those of his immediate successors. 
 
 George Agricola was boni at Glaucha, in Misnia, 
 in the year 1494. When a young man he acquired such 
 a passion for mining and minerals, by frequenting the 
 mountains of Bohemia, that he could not he persuaded to 
 relinquish the study. He settled, indeed, as a phy- 
 sician, at Joachimstal ; but his favourite study en- 
 grossed so much of his attention, that he succeeded 
 hut ill in his medical capacity. This induced him to 
 withdraw to Chemnitz, where he devoted himself to his 
 favourite pursuits. He studied the mineralogical 
 writings of the ancients with the most minute accu- 
 racy ; but not satisfied with this, he visited the mines 
 in person, examined the processes followed by the 
 
220 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 miners in extracting the different ores, and in washing 
 and sorting them. He made collections of all the 
 different ores, aud studied their nature and properties 
 attentively: he likewise collected information about 
 the methods of smelting them, and extracting from 
 them the metals in a state of purity. The information 
 which he collected, respecting the mines wrought in 
 the different countries of Europe, is quite wonderful, 
 if we consider the period in which he lived, the little 
 intercourse which existed between nations, and the 
 total want of all those newspapers and journals which 
 now carry every new scientific fact with such rapidity 
 to every part of the world. 
 
 Auricula died at Chemnitz in the year 1555, after he 
 had reached the sixty-first year of his age. Maurice, the 
 celebrated Elector of Saxony, settled on him a pension, 
 the whole of which he devoted to his metallurgic pursuits. 
 To him we find him dedicating the edition of his works 
 which he published in the year of his death, and which 
 is dated the fourteenth before the calends of April, 1555. 
 He even spent a considerable proportion of his owu 
 estate in following out his favourite investigations. In 
 the earlier part of his life he had expressed himself 
 rather favourable to the protcsUnt opinions ; but in 
 his latter days he had attacked the reformed religion. 
 This rendered him so odious to the Lutherans, at that 
 time predominant in Chemnitz, that they suffered his 
 body to remain unburied for the days together; so 
 that it was necessary to remove it from Chemnitz to 
 Zeitz, where it was interred in the principal church. 
 
 His great work is his treatise DC He Metallica, in 
 twelve books. In this work he gives an account of 
 the instruments and machines, and every thing con- 
 nected with mining and metallurgy ; and even gives 
 figures of all the different pieces of apparatus em- 
 ployed in his time. He has also exhibited the Latin 
 and German names for all these different utensils. 
 This work may be considered as a very complete trea* 
 
AGRICOLA AND MCTALLU11GY. 221 
 
 tise on metallurgy, as it existed in the sixteenth cen- 
 tury. The first six books are occupied with an account 
 of mining and smelting. In the seventh book he 
 treats of docimasy, or the method of determining the 
 quantity of metal which can be extracted from every 
 particular ore. This he does so completely, that most 
 of his processes are still followed by miners and 
 smelters. He gives a minute and accurate account of 
 the furnaces, muftilcs, crucibles, &c., almost such as 
 are still employed, with minute directions for pre- 
 paring: the ores which are to be subjected to examina- 
 tion, the fluxes with which they must be mixed, and 
 the precautions necessary in order to obtain a satisfac- 
 tory result. In short, this book may be considered 
 as a complete manual of docimasy. How much of 
 the methods given originated with Agricola it is im- 
 possible to say. He probably did little more than 
 collect the scattered processes employed by the 
 smelters of metals, in different parts of the world, and 
 reduce the whole to a regular system. But this was 
 a great deal. Perhaps it is not saying too much, that 
 the great progress made in the chemical investigation 
 of the metals^was owing in a great measure to the 
 labours of Agricola. Certainly the progress made by 
 the moderns, in the difficult arts of mining and me- 
 tallurgy, must in a great measure be ascribed to the 
 labours of Agricola. 
 
 In the eighth book he describes the mechanical pre- 
 paration of the ores, and the mode of roasting them, 
 either in the open air or in furnaces. The ninth book 
 is occupied with an account of smelting-furnaces. It 
 contains also a description of the processes for obtain- 
 ing mercury, antimony, and bismuth, from their ores* 
 The tenth book treats of the separation of silver and 
 gold from each other, by means of nitric acid and aqua 
 regia : minute directions for the preparation of which 
 are given. The modes of purifying the precious me^ 
 tals by means of sulphur, antimony, and cementations, 
 
222 HISTORY OF CJIFMISTRY. 
 
 are also described. In the eleventh book he treats of 
 the method of purifying silver from copper and iron, 
 by means of lead. He gives an account also of the 
 processes employed for smelting and purifying copper. 
 In the twelfth book he treats of the methods of pre- 
 paring common salt, saltpetre, alum, and green vitriol, 
 or sulphate of iron : of the preparation and purification 
 of sulphur, and of the mode of manufacturing glass. 
 In short, Agricola's work De He Metallica is beyond 
 comparison the most valuable chemical work which 
 the sixteenth century produced, and places the author 
 very high indeed among the list of the improvers of 
 chemistry. 
 
 The other works of Agricola are his treatise De 
 Nat ura Fossil in in, in ten books ; De Ortu et Causis 
 Subterraneorum, in five books ; De Nat ura eorum quae 
 efiluunt ex Terra, in four books ; De veteribus et novis 
 Metallis, in two books; and his Bermannus sive de 
 re metallica Dialogus. The treatise De veteribus et 
 novis Metallis is amusing. He not only collects toge- 
 ther all the historical facts on record, respecting the 
 first discoverers of the different metals and the firsfc 
 workers of mines, but he gives many amusing anec- 
 dotes nowhere else to IM? found, respecting the way in 
 which some of the most celebrated German mines 
 were discovered. In the second book he takes a geo- 
 graphical view of every part of the known world, and 
 states the mines wrought and the metals found in each. 
 We must not suppose that all his statements in this 
 historical sketch arc accurate : to admit it would be 
 to allow him a greater share of information than could 
 possibly belong* to any one man. He frequently gives 
 us the authority upon which his statements are founded ; 
 but he often makes statements without any authority 
 whatever. Thus he says, that a mine of quicksilver 
 had been recently discovered in Scotland : the fact 
 however, is, that no quicksilver-mine ever existed in 
 any part of Britain. There was, indeed, a foolish 
 
AGRICOLA AVD METALLTTKGT. 223 
 
 8tory circulated about thirty years ago, about a vein of. 
 quicksilver found under the town of Berwick-u non- 
 Tweed ; but it was an assertion unsupported by any 
 authentic evidence. 
 
 Many years elapsed before much addition was 
 made to the processes described by Agricola. In the 
 year 1566, Pedro Fernandes de Velasco introduced a 
 method of extracting* gold and silver from their ores in 
 Mexico and Peru by means of quicksilver. But I 
 have never seen a description of his process. Alonzo 
 Barba claims for himself, and seemingly with justice, 
 the method of amalgamating the ores of gold and 
 silver by boiling. Barba was a Spanish priest, who 
 lived about the year 1609, at Tarabuco, a market- 
 town in the province of Charcso, eight miles from 
 Plata, in South America. In the year 1615 he was 
 curate at Tiaguacano, in the Province of Pacayes, and 
 in 1617, he lived at Lepas in Peru. He is said to have 
 hern a native of Lepe, a small township in Andalusia, 
 and had for many years the living of the church of St. 
 Bernard at Potosi. His work on the amalgamation of 
 gold and silver ores appeared at Madrid in the year 
 1640, in quarto.* In the year 1629 a new edition of 
 it appeared with an appendix, under the title of 
 " Trattado de las Antiquas Minas de Espaiia de Alonzo 
 Carillo Lasso." The English minister at the Court of 
 Madrid, the Earl of Sandwich, published the first 
 part of it in an English translation at London, in 
 1074, under the title of " The First Book of the Art 
 of Metal?, in which is declared the manner of their 
 generation, and the concomitants of them, written 
 in Spanish by Albaro Alonzo Barba. By E. Earl of 
 Sandwich." 
 
 The next improver of metallurgic processes was 
 Lazarus Erckcrn, who was upper bar-master at Kut- 
 
 It is entitled, " El Arte dc los Metal, en qne *e en 
 el reniadero benctkio de Jos de oro y plala por azoque," Ac. 
 
224 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 tenberg, in the year 1 588, and was superintendent of 
 the mines in Germany, Hungary, Transylvania, the 
 Tyrol, &c., to three successive emperors. His work has 
 been translated into English under the title of " Heta 
 Minor ; or the laws of art and nature in knowing, 
 
 C 1 ging, assaying, fining, refining, and enlarging the 
 iesof confined metals. To which are added essays 
 on metallic words, illustrated with sculptures. By Sir 
 J. Pettus. London, 1(583, folio." But this transla- 
 tion is a very bad one. Erckern gives a plain account 
 of all the processes employed in his time without a 
 word of theory or reasoning. It is an excellent prac- 
 tical book; though it is obvious enough that the 
 author was inferior in point of abilities to Agricola. 
 His treatment of Don Juan de Corduba, who offered, 
 in 1588, to put the Court of Vienna in possession of 
 the Spanish method of extracting gold and silver from 
 the ores by amalgamation, as related by Baron Born in 
 his work on amalgamation, shows very clearly that 
 Erckern was a very illiberal-minded man, and puffed 
 up with an undue conceit of his own superior know- 
 ledge.* Had he condescended to assist the Spaniard, 
 and to furnish him with proper materials to work upon, 
 the Austrians might have been in possession of the pro- 
 cess of amalgamation with all its advantages a couple 
 of centuries before its actual introduction. 
 
 1 need not take any notice of the docimastic treatises 
 of Schindlcrs and Schlutter, which are of a much 
 later date, and both of which have been translated into 
 French, the former by Cicoifroy, junior; the latter by 
 Hi-Hot. This lust translation, in two large quartos, 
 published in 17(14, constitutes a very valuable book, 
 and exhibits all the docimastic and inetallurgic pro- 
 cesses known at that period with much fidelity and mi- 
 nuteness. Very great improvements have taken place 
 
 * Bora's New Process of Amalgamation, translated by 
 Raspe, p. II. , 
 
AGRICOLA AND METALLT RG Y. 225 
 
 since that period, but I am nbt aware of any work 
 published in any of the European languages, that is 
 calculated to give us an exact idea of the present state 
 of the various mining and nietallurgic processes im- 
 portant as they are to civilized society. 
 
 Gellert's Metallurgic Chemistry, so far as it goes, is 
 an excellent book* 
 
 VOL. I 
 
HISTORY OF ciiEvuvraY. 4 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 OF GL AUBEE, LEMEEY, AND SOME OTHEft CHEMISTS OF THE 
 k-ND OF THE SKTEKTKEKTH CtNTt ft V. 
 
 HITIIEETO I have treated of the alchymiats, or 
 iatro-chcmists, and have brought the history of che- 
 mistry down to the beginning of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury. But during the seventeenth century there 
 existed several laborious chemists, who contributed 
 very materially by their exertions, either to extend the 
 bounds of the science, or to increase its popularity and 
 respectability in the eyes of the world. Of some of 
 the most eminent of these it is my intention to give an 
 account in this chapter. 
 
 Of John Rudolf Glauber, the first of these meri- 
 torious men in point of time, I know very few particu- 
 lars. He was a German and a medical man, and 
 spent most of his time at Salzburg, Ritzingen, Frank- 
 fort on the Maine, and at Cologne. Towards the end 
 of his life he went to Holland, but during the greatest 
 part of his residence in that country he was confined 
 to a sick-bed. He died at Amsterdam in 1(J68, after 
 having reached a very advanced age. Like Paracelsus, 
 whom he held in hi^h estimation, he was in open hos- 
 tility with the Galenical physicians of his time. This 
 led him into various controversies, and induced him 
 to publish various apologies ; most of which still re- 
 main among his writings. One of the most curious of 
 these apologies is the one against Farmer. To this 
 man Glauber had communicated certain secrets of his 
 
CHEMISTRY Of THE SEVENTEENTH CETTTrRY. 227 
 
 own, which were at that time considered a* of great 
 value; Farmer binding himself not to communicate 
 them to any person. This obligation he not only 
 broke, but publicly deprecated the skill and in- 
 tegrity of Glauber, and offered to communicate to 
 others, for stipulated sums, a set of secrets of his own, 
 which he vaunted of as particularly valuable. Glauber 
 examines these secrets, and shows that every one of 
 them possessed of any value, had been communicated 
 by himself to Farmer, and to put an end to Farmer's 
 unfair attempt to make money by selling Glauber's 
 secrets, he in this apology communicates the whole 
 processes to the public 
 
 Glauber's works were published in Amsterdam, 
 partly in Latin, and partly in the German language. 
 In the year H>89 an Knurl ish translation of them was 
 published in Ixmdon by Mr. Christopher Packe, in one 
 hro folio volume. Glauber was an alchymist and a 
 believer in the universal medicine. But he did not 
 confine his researches to these two particulars, but en- 
 deavoured to improve medicine and the arts by the 
 application of chemical processes to them. In his 
 treatise of philosophical furnaces he does not confine 
 himself to a description of the method of constructing 
 furnaces, and explaining the use of them, but jrives 
 an account of a vast manv processes, and medicinal 
 and chemical preparations, which he made by means 
 of these furnaces. One of the most important of 
 these preparations was muriatic acid, which he obtained 
 by distilling a mixture of common salt, sulphate of 
 iron, and alum, in one of the furnaces which he 
 describes. 
 
 He makes known the method of dissolving most of 
 the nu-tals in muriatic acid, and the resulting chlorides, 
 which he denominates oils of the resj.ective metals, 
 constitute in hi* opinion valuable medicines. He 
 mentions particularly the chloride of gold, and from 
 the mode of preparing it, the solution must bare been 
 Q 2 
 
228 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 strong. Yet he recommends it as an internal medi- 
 cine, which he says may be taken with safety, and is 
 a sovereign remedy in old ulcers of the mouth, tongue, 
 and throat, arising from the French pox, leprosy, 
 Rcorbute, &c. Thus we see the use of gold as a remedy 
 for the venereal disease did not originate with M. 
 Chretiens, of Montpelier. This chloride of gold is so 
 violent a poison that it is remarkable that Glauber does 
 not specify the dose that patients labouring under the 
 diseases for which lie recommends it ought to take. 
 The sesqui-chloride of iron he recommends as a most 
 excellent application to ill-conditioned ulcers and can* 
 cers. We. see from this that the use of iron in cancers, 
 lately recommended, is not so new a remedy as has 
 been supposed. 
 
 He mentions the violent action of chloride of mer- 
 cury (obviously corrosive sublimate), and says that 
 he saw a woman suddenly killed by it, being adminis- 
 tered internally by a surgeon. Butter of antimony he 
 first recognised as nothing else than a combination of 
 chlorine and antimony ; In-fore his time it had been 
 always supposed to contain mercury. 
 
 He describes the method of obtaining sulphuric 
 acid by distilling sulphate of iron ; gives an account of 
 the mode of obtaining sulphate of iron and sulphate 
 of copper, in crystals : the method of obtaining ni- 
 tric acid from nitre by moans of alum, was much im- 
 proved by him. He gives a particular detail of the 
 way of obtaining fulminating gold. This fulminating 
 gold he says is of little use in medicine ; but he gives 
 a method of preparing from it a red tincture of gold, 
 which he considers as one of the most useful and effi- 
 cacious of all medicines : this tincture is nothing else 
 than chloride of gold. It would take up too much 
 space to attempt an analysis of all the curious facts 
 and preparations described in this treatise on philoso- 
 phical furnaces ; but it will repay the perusal of any 
 person who will take the trouble to look into it. All 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 229 
 
 tlie different pharmacopoeias of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury borrowed from it largely. The third part of this 
 treatise is peculiarly interesting. It will l>e seen that 
 Glauber had already thought of the pecu liar efficacy 
 of applying solutions of sulphur, Arc. to the skin, and 
 had anticipated the various vapour and gaseous baths 
 which have l>een introduced in Vienna and other 
 places, during the course of the present century, and 
 considered as new, and as constituting an important 
 era in the healing art. In the fourth part he not only 
 treats of the docimastic processes, so well described 
 by Airricola and Erckern, but gives us the method of 
 making glass, and of imitating the precious stones by 
 means of coloured glasses. The fifth part is peculiarly 
 valuable; in it he treats of the methods of preparing 
 lutes for glass vessels, of the construction and qualities 
 of crucibles, and of the vitrification of earthen vessels. 
 Another of his tracts is called ** The Mineral Work;*' 
 the object of which is to show the method of separat- 
 ing gold from flints, sand, clay, and other minerals, 
 by the spirit of salt (muriatic ucifl), which otherwise 
 cannot be purged ; also a panacea, or universal anti- 
 monial medicine. This panacea was a solution of 
 dcutoxide of antimony in pyrotartaric acid ; (ilau- 
 bcr gives a most flattering account of its efticacy in 
 removing the most virulent diseases, particularly all 
 kinds of cutaneous eruptions. The second and third 
 parts of The Mineral \Vork are entirely alchymistical. 
 in the treatise called " Miraculum Mtindi," his chief 
 object is to write a panegyric on sulphate of sotta, of 
 which he was the discoverer, and to which he gave the 
 name of sal mirabitc. The high terms in which he 
 speaks of this innocent salt are highly amusing, and 
 serve well to show the spirit of the age, and the dreams 
 which still continued to haunt the most laborious 
 and sober-minded chemists. The sal mirabile was 
 not merely a purgative, a virtue which it certainly 
 possesses in a high degree, being a* mild a pur- 
 
230 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 gative, perhaps the very best, of all the saline prepar- 
 ations yet tried ; but it was a universal medicine, a 
 panacea, a cure for all diseases: nor was Glauber 
 contented with this, but pointed out many uses in the 
 various arts and manufactures for which in his opinion 
 it was admirably fitted. But by far the fullest ac- 
 count of this $tu mirttblle is given by him in his trea- 
 tise on the nature of salts. 
 
 I shall satisfy myself with giving the titles of his 
 other tracts. Every one of them contains facts of con- 
 siderable importance, not to be found in any chemical 
 writings that preceded him; but to attempt to connect 
 these facts into one point of view would be needless, 
 because they are not such as would be likely to in- 
 terest the general reader. 
 
 1 . The Consolation of Navigators. This gives an 
 account of a method by which sailors may carry with 
 them a great deal of nourishment in very small bulk. 
 The method consists in evaporating the wort of malt 
 to dryness, and carrying the dry extract to sea. This 
 method has been had recourse to in modem times, and 
 has IKVH found to furnish an effectual remedy against 
 the scurvy. He recommends also the use of muriatic 
 acid as a remedy for thirst, and a cure for the scurvy. 
 
 2. A true and perfect Description of the extracting 
 good Tartar from the I^es of 'Wine. 
 
 3. The first part of the Prosperity of Germany ; in 
 which is treated of the concentration of wine, corn, 
 and wood, and the more profitable use of them than 
 has hitherto been. 
 
 4. The second part of the Prosperity of Germany; 
 wherein is shown by what means minerals may be 
 concentrated by nitre, and turned into metallic and 
 better bodies. 
 
 5. The third part of the Prosperity of Germany ; 
 in which is delivered the way of most easily and plen- 
 tifully extracting saltpetre out of various subjects, 
 every where obvious and at hand. Together with a 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE SIVETfTEEXTlI CtNTf RY. 231 
 
 nuccinct explanation of Paracelsus'* prophecy; that is 
 to say, in what manner it is to he understood the 
 northern lion will institute or plant his political or civil 
 monarchy; and that Paracelsus himself will not abide 
 in his grave; and that a vast quantity of riches will 
 offer itself. Likewise who the artist Elias is, of whose 
 coming in the last days, and his disclosing abundance 
 of secrets, Paracelsus and others have predicted. 
 
 fi. The fourth part of the Prosperity of Germany ; 
 in which are revealed many excellent, useful secrets, 
 and such as are serviceable to the country; and withal 
 several preparations of efficacious cates extracted out 
 of the metals and appointed to physical uses; as also 
 various confections of golden potions. To which is 
 also adjoined a small treatise which makcth mention 
 of my laboratory; in which there shall be taught and 
 demonstrated (for the public good and benefit of man- 
 kind) wonderful secrets, and unto every body most 
 profitable but hitherto unknown. 
 
 7. The fifth part of the Prosperity of Germany; 
 clearly and solidly demonstrating and as it were show* 
 ing with the fingers, what alchymy is, and what bene- 
 fit may, by the help thereof, be gotten every where and 
 in most places of Germany. Written and published 
 to the honour of God, the giver of all good thing*, pri- 
 marily; and to the honour of all the great ones of the 
 country; and for the health, profit, and assistance 
 against foreign invasions, of all their inhabitants that 
 are by due right and obedience subject unto them. 
 
 8. The sixth and last part of the Prosperity of Ger* 
 many; in which the arcanas already revealed in the 
 fifth "part, are not only illustrated and with a clear elu- 
 cidation, but also such are manifested as are most 
 highly necessary to be known for the defence of the 
 country against .the Turks. Together with an evi- 
 dent demonstration adjoined, showing, that both ft 
 particular and universal transmutation of the imper- 
 fect mculs into more perfect ones by salt and fire, it 
 
232 ill STORY Or CHEMISTRY. 
 
 most true; and withal, by what means any one, that is 
 endued with but a mean knowledge in managing the 
 tire, may experimentally try the truth hereof in twen- 
 ty-lour hours' space. 
 
 9. The first century of Glauber's wealthy Storehouse 
 of Treasures. Many of the processes given in this 
 treatise are mystically stated, or even concealed. 
 
 10. The second, third, fourth, and fifth century of 
 Glauber's wealthy Storehouse of Treasures. 
 
 11. New chemical Light ; being a revelation of a 
 certain new invented secret, never before manifested 
 to the world. This was a method of extracting gold 
 from stones. Probably the gold found by Glauber in 
 his processes existed in some of the reagents employ- 
 ed ; this, at least, is the most natural way of account- 
 ing for the result of Glauber's trials. 
 
 15. The spagyrical Pharmacopoeia, or Dispensatory. 
 In this book he treats chiefly of medicines peculiarly 
 his own ; one of those, on which he bestows the greatest 
 praise, is secret sa* ammoniac, or sulphate of ammo- 
 nia. Me describes the method of preparing this salt, 
 by saturating sulphuric acid with ammonia. He in- 
 forms us that it was much employed by Paracekus 
 and Van 1 lelmont 9 who distinguished it by the name 
 of alkahest, 
 
 13. Book of Fires. Full of enigmas. 
 
 14. Treatise of the three Principles of Metals; viz., 
 sulphur, mercury, and suit of philosophers; how they 
 may be profitably used in medicine, alchymy, and 
 other arts. 
 
 15. A short Book of Dialogues. Chiefly relating 
 to nlchymy. 
 
 16. Proserpine, or the Goddess of Riches. 
 
 17. Of Elias the Artist. 
 
 18. Of the three most noble Stones generated by 
 three Fires. 
 
 19. Of the Purgatory of Philosophers. 
 
 20. Of the secret Fire of Philosophers. 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE SEVENTEENTH CEXTURY. 233 
 
 21. A Treatise concerning- the Animal Stone. 
 
 John Kunkel, who acquired a high reputation as a 
 chemist, was born in the Duchy of Sleswick, in the 
 year 1630 : his father was a trading chemist, or apothe- 
 cary ; and Kunkel himself had, in his younger years, 
 paid great attention to the business of an apothecary: 
 lie had also diligently studied the different processes 
 of glass-making; and had paid particular attention to 
 the assaying of metals. In the year 1 (>.">*>, he was 
 chamberlain, chemist, and superintendent of apothe- 
 caries to the dukes Francis Charles and Julius Henry, 
 of Lauenburg. While in this situation, he examined 
 many pretended transmutations of metals, and under- 
 took other researches of importance. From this situa- 
 tion he was invited, by John Gconrc II., Elector of 
 Saxony, on the recommendation of Dr. Lancelot! and 
 Counsellor Vogt, as chamberlain and superintendent 
 of the elector's laboratory, with a considerable salary. 
 From this situation he went to Berlin, where he wtis 
 chemist to the elector Frederick William ; after whoe 
 death, his laboratory and glass-house were accidentally 
 burnt. From Berlin he was invited to Stockholm by 
 Charles XI., King of Sweden, -who gave him the title 
 of counsellor of metals, and raised him to the rank 
 of a nobleman : here he died, in 1702, in the seventy- 
 second year of his age. Kunkel's greatest discovery 
 was, the method of extracting phosphorus from urine. 
 This curious substance had been originally discovered 
 by Brandt, a chemist, of Hamburg, in the year 1669, as 
 he was attempting to extract from human urine a liquid 
 capable of converting silver into gold. He showed a 
 specimen of it to Kunkel, with whom he was acquaint- 
 ed : Kunkel mentioned the fact as a piece of news to 
 one Kraft, a friend of his in Dresden, where he then 
 resided: Kraft immediately repaired to Hambunr, 
 and purchased the secret from Brandt for 200 rix-dol- 
 lars, doubtless exacting from him, at the same time, 
 a promise not to reveal it to any other person. Soon 
 
234 HISTORY or CHEMISTRY. 
 
 after, he exhibited the phosphorus publicly in Britain 
 and in France ; whether for money, or not, doee not 
 appear. Kunkel, who had mentioned to hi* friend hi* 
 intention of getting possession of the process, being 
 vexed at the treacherous conduct of Kraft, attempted 
 to discover it himself, and, after three or four years 
 labour, he succeeded, though all that he knew from 
 Brandt was, that urine was the substance from which 
 the phosphorus was procured. In consequence of this 
 success, phosphorus was at first distinguished by the 
 epithet of Kunkel added to the name. 
 
 Kunkel published, in 1078, a treatise on phosphorus, 
 in which lie describes the properties of this substance, 
 at that time a subject of great wonder and curiosity. 
 In this treatise, he proposes phosphorus as a remedy 
 of some cfticucy, and gives a formula for preparing 
 pills of it, to he taken internally. It is therefore erro- 
 neous to suppose, as has been done, that the intro- 
 duction of this dangerous remedy into medicine is a 
 modern discovery. Kunkel appears to have been ac- 
 quainted with nitric ether. One of the most valuable 
 of his books, is his treatise on glass-making, which 
 was translated into French ; and which, till nearly 
 the end of the eighteenth century, constituted by far 
 the best account of glass-making in existence. The 
 following is a list of the most important of his works: 
 
 1. Observations on fixed and volatile Salts, potable 
 Gold and Silver, Spirit us Mumli, Arc.; also of the 
 colour and smell of metals, minerals, and bitumens. 
 This tract was published at Hamburg, in 1078, and 
 has been several times reprinted since. 
 
 2. Chemical Remarks on the chemical Principles, 
 acid, fixed and volatile alkaline Salts, in the three 
 kingdoms of nature, the mineral, vegetable, and ani- 
 mal ; likewise concerning their colour and suu II, Arc. ; 
 with a chemical appendix against non-entia chymica. 
 
 3. Treatise of the Phosphorus miiabilis, and its 
 wonderful shining Pills; together with a discourse on 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 235 
 
 what was formerly rightly named nitre, but is. now 
 called the blood of nature. 
 
 4 An Epistle against Spirit of Wine without an acid. 
 
 .5. Touchstone dc Acido et Urinoso, Sale calido ct 
 fripdo. 
 
 6. Ars Vitraria experimentalis. 
 
 7. Collegium Physico-chymicum experimental, or 
 Laboratorium chymicum.* 
 
 Nicolas Lcmery, the first Frenchnian who completely 
 stripped chemistry of its mysticism, and presented it to 
 the world in all it* native simplicity, deserves our par- 
 ticular attention, in consequence of the celebrity which 
 he acquired, and the benefits which he conferred on 
 the science. He was born at Rouen on the 17th of 
 November, 1645. His father, Julian Lemery, was 
 prociircurof the Parliament of Normandy, and a pro- 
 testant. His son, when very you-njy, showed a decided 
 partiality for chemistry, and repaired to an apothecary 
 .in Rouen, a relation of his own, in hopes of being/ 
 initiated into the science ; but finding that little in- 
 formation could be procured from him, young Lcmery 
 left him in IfifiO, and went to Paris, where he boarded 
 himself with M. Glaser, at that time demonstrator of 
 chemistry at the Jardtn du Roi. 
 
 Glaser was a true chemist, according to the mean- 
 ins: at that time affixed to the term full of obscure 
 notions unwilling to communicate what knowledge 
 he possessed and not at all sociable. In two months 
 Lemery quitted his house in disgust, and set out with a 
 resolution to travel through France, and pick up che- 
 mical information a* he best could, from those who 
 were capable of giving him information on the subject. 
 He first went to Montpelier, where he boarded in the 
 house of M. Vershant, an apothecary in that town* 
 
 I hare never seen a copy of this last work: it roust hare 
 been valuable, as it wa the book from which Scheele dented 
 the first nidi menu of his knowledge. 
 
236 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 With his Situation there he was so much pleased, that 
 he continued in it for three years : he employed him- 
 self assiduously in the laboratory, and in teaching 
 chemistry to a number of young students who boarded 
 with his host. Here his reputation gradually increased 
 so much, that he drew round him the professors of the 
 faculty of medicine of Montpclier, and all the curious 
 of the place, to witness his experiments. Here, too, 
 he practised medicine with considerable success. 
 
 After travelling through all France, he returned to 
 Paris in 167*2. Here he frequented the different 
 scientific meetings at that time held in that capital, 
 and soon distinguished himself by his chemical know- 
 ledge. In a few years he got a laboratory of his own, 
 commenced apothecary* and began to give public lec- 
 tures on chemistry, which were speedily attended by 
 great crowds of students from foreign countries. For 
 example, we are told that on one occasion forty Scotch- 
 men repaired to Paris on purpose to hear his lectures, 
 and those of M. Du Verney on anatomy. The medi- 
 cines \vhirh he prepared in his laboratory became 
 fashionable, and brought him a great deal of money. 
 . The magistery of bismuth (or pearl-white), which he 
 prepared as a cosmetic, was sufficient, we are told, to 
 support the whole expense of his house. In the year 
 1675 he published his Cours de Chimie, certainly one 
 of the most successful chemical books that ever ap- 
 peared ; it ran through a vast number of editions in a 
 few years, and was translated into Latin, .German, 
 Spanish, and English. 
 
 In 1681 he began to be troubled in consequence of 
 his religious opinions. Louis XIV. was at that time in 
 the height of his glory, entirely under the control of 
 his priests, and zealously bent upon putting an end to 
 the reformed religion in his dominions. Indeed, from 
 the infamous conduct of Charles II. of England, and 
 the bigotry of his successor, a prospect -was opened to 
 him, and of which he was anxious to avail himself, of 
 
CHEMISTRT OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 237 
 
 annihilating the reformed relijrion altogether, and of 
 plunging Europe a second time into the darkness of 
 Roman Catholicism. 
 
 Lemery found it expedient, in 1683, to pass over into 
 England. Here he was well received by Charles 11.: 
 l>ut England was at that time convulsed with those 
 religious and |>olitical struggles, which terminated five 
 years afterward* in the revolution. Lemery, in conse- 
 quence of this state of things, found it expedient to 
 leave England, and return to France. He took a doc- 
 tor's degree at Caen, in Normandy; and, returning to 
 Paris, he commenced all at once practitioner in medi- 
 cine and surgery, apothecary, and lecturer on chemis- 
 try. The edict of Nantes was revoked in 1685, when 
 James II. had assured Louis of his intention to over- 
 turn the established religion, and bring Great Britain 
 atrain under the dominion of the pope. Lemery was 
 obliged to give up practice and conceal himself, in 
 order to avoid .persecution. Finding his success hope- 
 less, as long as he continued a protestant, he changed 
 his religion in 1686, and declared himself a Roman 
 catholic. This step secured his fortune : he was now 
 as much caressed and protected by the court and the 
 clergy, as he had been formerly persecuted by them. 
 In l()0i) when the Academy of Sciences was new 
 modelled, he was appointed associated chemist, and, 
 on the death of Bourdclin, before the end of that year, 
 he became a pensioner. He died on the 19th of June, 
 171.5, at the age of seventy, in consequence of an at- 
 tack of palsy, which terminated in apoplexy. 
 
 Besides his System of Chemistry, which has been 
 already mentioned, he published the following works : 
 
 1. Pharmacopee iiiuverselle, contenant toutes les 
 Operations de Pharmacie qui sont en usage dans la 
 Medicine. 
 
 2. Traite univcrsclle des Drogues simples mis en 
 ordre alphabetique. 
 
938 HISTORY or CHEMISTRY. 
 
 3. Traite de rAntimoine, contenant 1'analyse chi- 
 mique de ce mineral. 
 
 Besides these works, five different papers by Le 
 mery were printed in the Memoirs of the French Aca- 
 demy, between 1700 and 1709 inclusive. These are 
 as follow : 
 
 1. Explication physique et chimique des Feux sou- 
 terrains, des trcnu>leinensdeTerre,desOuragans, de* 
 Eclairs et duTonnere. This explanation is founded 
 on the heat and combustion produced by the mutual 
 action of iron tilings and sulphur on each other, when 
 mixed in large quantities. 
 
 2. Du Cumphre. 
 
 3. Du Micl ct de son analyse chimique. 
 
 4. De T Urine de Vache, de ses eftets en medicine 
 et de son analyse chimique. 
 
 5. Reflexions et Experiences surle Sublime Corro- 
 sive. It -appears from this paper, that in 1709, when 
 Lemery wrote, corrosive sublimate was considered as 
 a compound of mercury with the sulphuric and mu- 
 riatic acids. Lemery's statement, that he made cor- 
 rosive sublimate simply by heating a mixture of mer- 
 cury anil decrepitated salt, is not easily explained. 
 Probably the salt which he had employed was impure. 
 This is the more likely, because, from his account of 
 the matter which remained at the bottom j>f the ma- 
 trass after sublimation, it must have either contained 
 peroxide of iron or peroxide of mercury, for its colour 
 he says was red. 
 
 M. Lemery left a son, who was also a member of 
 the French Academy; an active chemist, and author 
 of various papers, in which he endeavours to give a 
 mechanical explanation of chemical phenomena. 
 
 Another very active member of the French Aca- 
 demy, at the same time with Lemcry, was M. William 
 Hotnberg, who was born on the 8th of January, 1652, 
 at 13 aia via, in the island of Java. His lather, John 
 
Clir.MISTRT OF THE SKVrXTrF.KTII CI XTVRY. 239 
 
 Homberg, was a Saxon gentleman, who had been 
 stripped of all his property during, the thirty years 
 Mar. After receiving some education by the care of 
 a relation, he went into the service of the Dutch East 
 India Company, ancj cot the command of the arsenal 
 at Datavia. There he married the widow of an officer, 
 by whom he had four children, of whom William was 
 the second. 
 
 His father quitted the service of the India Com- 
 pany and repaired to Amsterdam with his family. 
 Young Homberg studied with avidity : he devoted 
 himself to the law, and in 1674 was admitted advo- 
 cate of Magdeburg; but his taste for natural history 
 and science was great. He collected plants in tho 
 neighbourhood, and made himself acquainted with 
 their names and uses. At night he studied the Mars, 
 and learned the names and positions of the different 
 constellations. Thus he became a self-taught bo- 
 tanist and astronomer. He constructed a hollow 
 transparent celestial globe, on which, by means of a 
 IL'ht placed within, the principal fixed stars were seen 
 in the same relative positions as in the heavens. 
 
 Otto Guericke was at that time burgomaster of 
 Magdeburg. His experiments on a vacuum, and his 
 invention of the air-pump, are universally known. 
 Homberg attached himself to Otto Gucrickc, and this 
 philosopher, though fond of mystery, either explained 
 to him his secrets, in consequence of his admiration 
 of his genius, or was unable to conceal them from 
 hi* penetration. At last Homberg, quite tired of his 
 profession of advocate, left Magdeburg and went to 
 itiily. He sojourned for some time at Padua, where 
 he devoted himself to the study of medicine, anatomy, 
 and botany. At Bolouna he examined the famous Bo- 
 logna stone, the nature of which had been almost 
 forgotten, and succeeded in making a pvrophonis 
 out of it. At Rome he associated particularly with 
 Mare-Anton j Celio, famous for the largo glasses 
 
240 HISTORY or CHEMISTRY. 
 
 for telescopes which he was able to grind. Nor 
 did he neglect painting, sculpture, and music; pur* 
 suits in which, at that time, the Italians excelled all 
 other nations. 
 
 From Italy he went to France, and thence passed 
 into England, where he wrought for some time in the 
 laboratory of Mr. Boyle, at that time one of the most 
 eminent schools of science in Europe. He then 
 passed into Holland, studied anatomy under De 
 Graaf, and after visiting his family, went to Wittem- 
 berg, where he took the degree of doctor of me- 
 dicine. 
 
 After this he visited Baldwin and Kunkel, to get 
 more accurate information respecting the phosphorus 
 which each had respectively discovered. He pur- 
 chased a knowledge of Kunkel's phosphorus, by 
 giving in exchange a meteorological toy of Otto 
 Guericke, now familiarly known, by which the mois- 
 ture or dryness of the air was indicated a little man 
 came out of his house and stood at the door in dry 
 weather, but retired under cover in moist weather. He 
 next visited the mines of Saxony, Bohemia, and 
 Hungary : he even went to Sweden, to visit the cop- 
 per-mines of that country. At Stockholm he wrought 
 in the chemical laboratory, 'lately established by the 
 king, along with lljerna, and contributed consider- 
 ably to the success of that new establishment. 
 
 He repaired a second time to France, where ho 
 spent some time, actively engaged with the men of 
 science in Paris. His father strongly pressed him to 
 return to Holland and settle as a physician : he at 
 last consented, and the d-iy of his departure was 
 come, when, just as he was going into his carriage, he 
 was stopped by a message from M. Colbert on the 
 part of the king. Oilers of so advantageous a nature 
 were made him if he would consent to remain in 
 France, that, after some consideration, he was in- 
 duced to embrace them. 
 
CHEMISTRY OP THE SEVENTEENTH CENT If RT. 241 
 
 In 1682 he changed his religion and became Ro- 
 man catholic : this induced his father to disinherit 
 him. In 1688 he went to Rome, where he practised 
 medicine with considerable success. A few years 
 after he returned to Paris, where his knowledge and 
 discoveries gave him a very high reputation. In 1691 
 he became a member of the Academy of Sciences, 
 and got the direction of the laboratory belonging: to the 
 academy : this enabled him to devote his undivided 
 attention to chemical investigations. In 170*2 he was 
 taken into the service of the Duke of Orleans, who 
 gave him a pension, and put him in possession of the 
 most splendid and complete laboratory that had ever 
 been seen. He was presented with the celebrated 
 burning-glass of M. Tchirnhaus, by the Duke of Or- 
 leans, and wa* enabled by moans of it to determine 
 many |x>ints that had hitherto been only conjectural. 
 
 In 1704 he was made first physician to the Duke 
 of Orleans, who honoured him with his particular 
 esteem. This appointment obliging him to reside out 
 of Paris, would have made it necessary for him to re- 
 sign his seat in the academy, had not the king made 
 a special exemption in his favour. In 1708 he mar- 
 ried a daughter of the famous M. Dodart, to whom 
 he had been long attached. Some years after he was 
 attacked by a dysentery, which was cured, but re- 
 turned from time to time. In 1715 it returned with 
 great violence, and Hombcrg died on the 24th of 
 Sopteml>er. 
 
 His knowledge was uncommonly great in almost 
 every department of science. His chemical papers 
 were very numerous; though there are few of them, 
 in this advanced period of the science that are likely 
 to claim much attention from the chemical world. 
 His pyrophonis, of which he has given a description 
 in the Memoircs de l f Academic,* was made by mixing 
 
 Forini, p. 238. 
 VOI. I. R 
 
942 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 together human firccs and alum, and roasting the 
 mixture till it was reduced to a dry powder. It was 
 then exposed in a matrass to a red heat, till every 
 thing combustible was driven on". Any combustible 
 will do as a substitute for human ftcces gum, Hour, 
 sugar, charcoal, may be used. When a little of this 
 phosphorus is poured upon paper, it speedily catches 
 lire and kindles the paper. Davy first explained the 
 nature of this phosphorus. The potash of the alum 
 is converted into potassium, which, by its absorption 
 of oxygen from the atmosphere, generates heat, and 
 sets fire to the charcoal contained in the powder. 
 
 Homberg's papers printed in the Memoirs of the 
 , French Academy amount to thirty-one. They are to 
 be found in the volumes for 1699 to 1714 inclusive. 
 
 M. ticoflroy, who was a member of the academy 
 about the same time with Lemery and Homberg, 
 though he outlived them both, and who was an active 
 chemist for a considerable number of years, deserves 
 also to be mentioned here. 
 
 Stephen Francis Ceoffroy was born in Paris on the 
 13th of February, 167*2, where his father was an 
 apothecary. While a young man, regular meetings 
 of the most eminent scientific men of Paris were held 
 in his father's house, at which he was always present. 
 This contributed very much to increase his taste for 
 scientific pursuits. After this he studied botany, 
 chemistry, and anatomy in Paris. la 1692 his fa- 
 ther sent him to Montpelier, to study pharmacy in the 
 house of a skilful apothecary, who at the same time 
 sent his son to Paris, to acquire the same art in the 
 house of M. Cieoflroy, senior. Here he attended the 
 dhierent classes in the university, and his name began 
 to be known as a chemist. After spending some time 
 in Montpelier, he travelled round the coast to seethe 
 principal seaports, and was at St. Malo's in 1693, 
 when it was bombarded by the British Heel. 
 
 In 1698 Count Tallard being appointed ambassador 
 
CHEMISTRY O? TFlR StVtXTEEytll CEXTl'RY. 243 
 
 extraordinary to London, made choice of M. Geoffiroy 
 as his physician, though he had not taken a medical 
 degree. Here he made many valuable acquaintance*, 
 and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. From 
 London he went to Holland, and thence into Italy, in 
 1700, where he went in the capacity of physician to 
 M. cle Louvois. The great object of M. Gcoflroy waa 
 always natural history, and matcria medica. In 1693 
 he had subjected himself to an examination, and he 
 had been declared qualified to act as an apothecary ; 
 but his own object was to be a physician, while that 
 of his father was that he should succeed himself as an 
 apothecary: this in some measure regulated his 
 education. At last he declared his intentions, and 
 his father agreed to them; he became bachelor of 
 medicine in 1702, and doctor of medicine in 1704. 
 
 In 1709 he was made professor of medicine in the 
 Royal College. In 1707 he began to lecture on 
 chemistry, at the Jardin du Roi, in place of M. Fa- 
 ran, and continued to teach this important class during 
 the remainder of his life. In 1726 he was chosen 
 dean of the faculty of medicine; and, after the two 
 years for which he was elected was finished, he was 
 again chosen to fill the same situation. There existed 
 at that time a lawsuit between the physicians and 
 surgeons in Paris; a kind of civil war very injurious 
 to both ; and the mildness and suavity of his manners 
 fitted him particularly for being at the head of the 
 body of physicians during its continuance. He became 
 a member of the academy in 1699, and died on the 
 6th of January, 1731. 
 
 The most important of all his chemical labours, and 
 for which he will always be remembered in the annals 
 of the science, was the contrivance which he fell upon, 
 in 1718, of exhibiting the order of chemical decom- 
 positions under the form of a table. This method 
 
 Mem. Paris, 1719, p. 202 ; and 1 720, p. 20. 
 R 2 
 
244 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 was afterwards much enlarged and improved. Such 
 tables arc now usually known by the name of tablet 
 of affinity ; and, though they have been of late years 
 somewhat neglected, there can be but one opinion of 
 their importance when properly constructed. 
 
 M. GeoHVoy first communicated to the French che- 
 mists the mode of making Prussian blue, as Dr. 
 Woodward did to the English. 
 
 Claude Joseph GeotfVoy, the younger brother of the 
 preceding, was also a member of the Academy of 
 Sciences, and a zealous cultivator of chemistry. Many 
 of his chemical papers arc to be found in the memoirs 
 of the French Academy. He demonstrated the com- 
 position of sal ammoniac, which however was known 
 to Glauber. He made many experiments upon the 
 combustion of the volatile oils, by pouring nitric acid 
 on them. He explained the pretended property which 
 certain waters have of converting iron into copper, by 
 Showing that in such cases copper was held in solu- 
 tion in the water by an acid, and that the iron merely 
 precipitated the copiKT, and was dissolved and com- 
 bined with the acid in its place. He pointed out the 
 constituents of the three vitriols, the green, the blue, 
 and the \\hite; showing that the two former were 
 combinations of sulphuric acid with oxides of iron and 
 copper, and the latter a solution of lapis ealaminaris 
 (cailxnmtc of zinc, in the same acid. He has also a 
 memoir on the emetieity of antimony, tartar emetic, 
 and kermes mineral ; but it is rather medical tlum 
 chemical. He determined experimentally the nature 
 of the salt of Seigncttc, or Roehelle salt, and showed 
 that it was obtained by saturating cream of tartar with 
 carbonate of soda, and crystallizing. It is curious that 
 this discovery was made about the same time by M. 
 Boulduc. 1 have noticed only a few of the papeYs of 
 JVI. GeotFroy, junior; because, though they all do him 
 credit, and contributed to the improvement of che- 
 y, yet none of them contain any of those great 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 545 
 
 discoveries, which stand as landmarks in the progress 
 of science, and constitute an era in the history of 
 mankind. For the same reason I omit several other 
 names that, in a more minute history of chemistry, 
 would deserve to be particularized. 
 
246 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Of THE ATTEMPTS TO ESTABLISH A THEORY IK CHEMISTET. 
 
 BACON, Lord Verulam, as early as the commence* 
 ment of the 17th century, had pointed out the im- 
 portance of chemical investigations, and had predicted 
 the immense advantages which would result from the 
 science, when it came to be properly cultivated and 
 extended ; but he did not himself attempt either to 
 construct a theory of chemistry, or even to extend it 
 beyond the bounds which it hud reached before he 
 begun to write. Neither did Boyle, notwithstanding 
 the importance of his investigations, and his compa- 
 rative freedom from the prejudices of the ulchymists, 
 attempt any thing like a theory of chemistry ; though 
 the observations which he made in his Sceptical Che- 
 mist, had considerable effect in overturning, or at least 
 in hastening the downful of the absurd chemical opi- 
 nions which at that time prevailed, and the puerile 
 hypotheses respecting the animal functions, and the 
 pathology and treatment of diseases founded on these 
 opinions. The first person who can with propriety be 
 said to have attempted to construct u theory of che- 
 mistry, was Beccher. 
 
 John Joachim Beccher, one of the most extraordi- 
 nary men of the age in which he lived, was born at 
 Spires, in Germany, in the year 1635. His father, as 
 
THEORY IX CHEMISTRY. 247 
 
 Bccchcr himself informs us, was a very learned Lutheran 
 preacher. As he lost his father when he was very 
 young, and as that part of Germany where he lived 
 had been mined by the thirty years' war, his family 
 was reduced to great poverty. However, his passion 
 for information was so great, that he contrived to 
 educate himself by studying what books he could 
 procure, and in this way acquired a great deal of 
 knowledge. Afterwards he travelled through the 
 greatest part of Germany, Italy, Sweden, and Holland. 
 In the year 16(i(i he was appointed public professor 
 of medicine in the University of Merit/, and soon after 
 chief physician to the elector. In that capacity he 
 took up his residence in Munich, where he was fur- 
 nished by the elector with an excellent lalwratory : 
 hut he soon fell into difficulties, the nature of \\hich 
 does not appear, and was obliged to leave the place. 
 He took refucre in Vienna, where, from his knowledge 
 of finance, he was appointed chamberlain to Count 
 Xinzendorf, and through him acquired so much im- 
 portance in the eyes of the court, that he was named 
 a memlxT of the newly-erected College of Commerce, 
 and obtained the title of imperial commercial coun- 
 sellor and chamberlain. But here also he speedily 
 raised up so many enemies against himself, that he 
 found it necessary to leave Vienna, and to carry with 
 him his wife and children. He repaired to Holland, 
 and settled at Haerlcm in 1678. Here he was likely to 
 have been successful; but his enemies from Vienna 
 followed him, and obliged him to leave Holland. In 
 1()80 we find him in Great Britain, where he examined 
 the Scottish lead -mines, and smelt ing- works; -and in 
 1681, and 1682, he traversed Cornwall, and studied 
 the mines and smelt ing- works of that great mining 
 county; here he suggested several improvements 
 and ameliorations. Soon after this an advantageous 
 proposal was made to him by the Duke of Mecklen- 
 burg Gustrow, by means of Count Zinzendorf ; but all 
 
248 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 his projects were arrested by hU death, which took 
 place in the year 1682. It is said that he died in 
 London, but 1 have not been able to find any evidence 
 of this. 
 
 It would be a difficult task to particularize his 
 various discoveries, which are scattered through a mul- 
 tiplicity of writings. He was undoubtedly the first 
 discoverer of boracic acid, though the credit of the 
 discovery has usually been given to Homberg.* But 
 then he gives no account of boracic acid, nor does he 
 seem to have attended to its qualities. The following 
 is a list of Becc tier's writings : 
 
 1 . Metallurgia, or the Natural Science of Metals. 
 
 2. Institutioiics Chy micro. 
 
 3. Parnassus Medicinalis illustrata. 
 
 4. Gulipus Chymicti* seu Institutions Chymicte. 
 
 5. Acta laboratorii Chymici Monucensis seu Physica 
 Subterraiica. This, which is the most important of all 
 his works, is usually known by the name of ** Physica 
 Subterranea." This is the sole title affixed to it in the 
 edition published at Lcipsic, in 1703, to which Stahl 
 has prefixed a long introduction. It is divided into 
 seven sections. In the first lie treats of the creation 
 of the world ; in the second he gives a chemical ac- 
 count of the motions and changes which are constantly 
 going on in the earth ; in the third he treats of the 
 three principles of all bodies, which he calls earths. 
 The first of these principles of metals and stones is the 
 fusible or stony earth ; the second principle of mine- 
 rals is the fat earth, improperly called sulphur ; the 
 third principle is the jftaid earth, improperly called 
 mercury ; in the fourth section he treats of the action 
 
 * In the sixth chemical thesis, in the second supplement to 
 the I'hyMi-a Suhterranea (page 791, Suhl's Edition. Lipsiv, 
 1703} , he says, '* uhi etiam, cuntinyato igne, ip&uiu sal volatile 
 acquires, quod eadem methodo cum ritriolo seu spilitu aui olco 
 vilrioli, e^. oleo UrUri, vcl toracc succedit." 
 
THEORY 13? CHEMISTRY. 249 
 
 of subterraneous principles, or the formation otmixts; 
 in the filth he treats of the solution of the three 
 classes of inixts, animals, vegetables, and metals ; 
 in the sixth he treats of mixts, in which he gives their 
 chemical .constituents. This section is very curious, 
 because it gives Beccher's views of the constitution of 
 compound bodies. It will be seen from it that he 
 had much more correct notions of the real objects of 
 chemistry, than any of hU contemporaries. In the 
 seventh and last section he treats of the accidents and 
 physical affections of subterraneous bodies. 
 
 (>. Expcrimentum Chymicum novum quo artiticialis 
 et instantanca mctallorum gcneratio et transmutatio, 
 ad oculum dcmonstratur. This constitutes the first 
 supplement to the Physica Subterranca. 
 
 7. Supplemcntum sccundum in Physicam subtcr- 
 raneam, dcmonstratio philosophica sen Theses Chy- 
 micio, veritatem et possibilitatcm transmutationis mc- 
 tallorum in aurum evincentes. 
 
 8. Trifolium Becchcrianum llollandicum. 
 
 0. Kxpcrimcntum novum et curiosum de Mincra 
 arenaria pcrpctua, sivc prodromus historitc sen propo- 
 sitionis Prtcp. D.D. Hollanditc ortlinibus ab authore 
 factir, circa auri extractionem mcdiante arena littoralt 
 per modum minera? pcrpetufc sen operation is magnrc 
 fusoriac cum cmolumento. Loco supplementi tertii in 
 Physicam suam subterraneam. 
 
 10. Chemical Luckpot, or great chemical agreement ; 
 in a collection of one thousand five hundred chemical 
 processes. 
 
 11. Foolish Wisdom and wise Folly. 
 
 12. Magnalia Natura?. 
 
 13. Tripus Hermeticus fatidicus pandcns oracula 
 chemica; sen I. Laboratorium portatilc, cum methodo 
 vere spagyricoe seu juxtaexigentiam natunc laborandi. 
 Accessit pro praxi et exemplo ; II. Centrum mundi 
 concatenatum sen Duumviratus hcrmcticus 8. magno* 
 rumduorum productorum nitri et sails texturaet ana* 
 
$50 UISTORT OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 tomia atque in omnium praecedentium confirmationem 
 adjunct urn tit; HI. Alphabetum Minerale seu viginti 
 quatuor theses de subterraneorum mineralium genesi, 
 textura et analyst ; his accessit concordant ia mercurii 
 Junue et menstruum in. 
 
 14. Chemical Rose-garden. 
 
 15. Pantaieon delarvatus. 
 
 16. Beccheri, Laiicelotti, etc. Epistolx quatuor Che- 
 micu. 
 
 Beccher*s great merit was the contrivance of a che- 
 mical theory, by which all the known facts were con* 
 nected together and deduced from one general prin- 
 ciple. But as this theory was adopted and considerably 
 modified by Staid, it will be better to lay a sketch of 
 it before the reader, after mentioning a few particulars 
 of the life and labours of one of the most extraordinary 
 men whom Germany has produced ; a man who, in 
 spite of the moroseness and haughtiness of his cha- 
 racter, and in spite of the barbarity of his style, raised 
 himself to the very first rank as a man of science; 
 and had the rare or almost unique fortune of giving 
 laws at the same time to two different and important 
 sciences, which he cultivated together, without letting 
 his opinions respecting the one influence him with 
 regard to the other. These sciences were chemistry 
 ar.d medicine. 
 
 George Ernest Stahl was born at Anspach, in the 
 year 1660. He studied medicine at Jena under 
 George Wolfgang Wedel ; and got his doctor's degree 
 at the age of twenty-three. Immediately after this he 
 began his career as a public lecturer. In 1687 the 
 Duke of Weimar gave him the title of physician to 
 the court. In 1694 he was named, at the solicitation 
 of Frederick Hoffmann, second professor of medicine 
 in the University of Halle, which had just been esta- 
 blished. Hoffmann and he were at that time great 
 friends, though they afterwards quarrelled. Both of 
 them were men of the very highest talents, and both 
 
THEORY 15 CIIEM1STY. 251 
 
 were the founders of medical systems which, of course, 
 each was anxious to support. Hoffmann had greatly 
 the superiority in elegance and clearness of style, 
 and in all the amenities of polite manners. But per- 
 haps the morosencss of Stahl, and the obscurity, or 
 rather mysticism of his style, contributed equally with 
 the more amiable qualities of I lot! maun to excite the 
 attention and produce the veneration with which he 
 was viewed by his pupils, and, indeed, by the world 
 at lurjre. 
 
 At Halle he continued as a teacher of medicine for 
 twenty-two years. In 171(> he was appointed phy- 
 sician to the Kinjr of Prussia. In consequence of this 
 appointment he left Halle, and resided in Berlin, 
 where he died in the year 1734, in the seventy-fifth 
 year of his age. Notwithstanding the prcat figure 
 that Stahl made as a chemist, there is no evidence 
 that he ever taught that science in any public school. 
 The Berlin Academy had been founded under the su- 
 perintendence of Leibnitz, who was it.* first president; 
 and therefore existed when Stahl wan in Berlin : but, 
 till it was renovated in 1745 by Frederick the Great, 
 this academy possessed but little activity, and could 
 scarcely, therefore, have stimulated Stahl to attend 
 to chemical science. However, his Chymia rationalis 
 et experimental was published in 17*20, while he re- 
 sided in Berlin. The same date is appended to the 
 preface of his Fundamenta Chymia; ; but, from some 
 expressions in that preface, it must, I should think, 
 have been written, not by Stahl, but by some other 
 person. I suspect that the book had been written by 
 some of his pupils, from the lectures of the author 
 while at Halle. If this was really the case, it is obvious 
 
 * "Primus in bis facera prxtnlit Becrhtrus ; eumque magno 
 cum'artis progressa wqnentrm videmus in ostrndrnda corporum 
 analyst et ivnthcsi cbytnica rersatisftinium Ct acutissimum 
 StaMmm." 
 
252 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY, 
 
 that Stah I must have taught chemistry as well as 
 medicine in the University of Halle, 
 
 Stahl'tt medical theory is not less deserving of notice 
 than his chemical. But it is not the object of this 
 work to enter into medical speculations. Like Van 
 Helmont, he resolved all diseases into the actions of 
 the sot//, which was not merely the former of the body, 
 but its ruler und regulator. When any of the func- 
 tions are deranged, the soul exerts itself to restore 
 them again to their healthy state ; and she accom- 
 plishes this by what in common language is called 
 disease. The business of a medical man, then, is not 
 to prevent diseases, or to stop them short when they 
 appear ; because they are the efforts of the soul, the 
 vis mcdlcatrix ntitunr, to restore the deranged state of 
 the functions : but he must watch these diseases, and 
 prevent the symptoms from becoming too violent. He 
 must assist nature to produce the intended effect, and 
 check her exertions when they become abnormal. It 
 was a kind of modification of this theory, or rather a 
 mixture of the Stahlian and Hoifmannian theories, that 
 Dr. Cullca afterwards taught in Edinburgh with so 
 much eclat. And tiiese opinions, so far as medical 
 theories have any influence on practice, still continue 
 in some measure prevalent. Indeed, much of the 
 vulgar practice followed by medical men, chiefly in 
 consequence of the education which they have re- 
 ceived, is deduced from these two theories. But 
 it would be too great a digression from the object 
 of this work to enter into any details : suffice it to 
 say, that the rival theories of Hoffmann and Stah! for 
 many years divided the medical world in Germany, if 
 not in the greater part of Europe. It was no small 
 matter of exultation to so young a medical school as 
 Halle, to have at once within its walls two such emi- 
 nent teachers as Hoffmann and Stah!. 
 
 Let us turn our attention to the chemical writings of 
 StaLl. Of these the most important is his Fundameiiu 
 
THEORY IS CHEMISTRY* 253 
 
 Chymhe dogmatics et experimentalist. It is divided, 
 Jike the chemistry of Boerhaave, into a theorKical and 
 practical part. The penisal of it is very disagreeable, 
 as it is full of German words and phrases, and symbols 
 arc almost constantly substituted for words, as was at 
 that time the custom. 
 
 His definition of chemistry is much more exact 
 than Boerhaave's. It is, according to him, the art of 
 resolving: com pound bodies into their constituents, and 
 of again forming them by uniting these constituents 
 together. 
 
 He is inclined to }>elieve with Bccchrr, that the 
 simple principles are four in number. The mixts are 
 compounds of these principles; and he shows by the 
 doctrine of |>crmutations that if wo suppose the simple 
 principles four, then the number of mixU M'ill be 
 40,340. He treats in the first place of mixts, com- 
 po'nifls, and ayf/ref/atcs. 
 
 The first object of chemistry is corruption, the se- 
 cond f/encrtition. Of these he treats at considerable 
 length, giving an account of the different chemical 
 processes, and of the apparatus employed. 
 
 He next treats of salts,, which he defines mixts 
 composed of water and earth, both simple and pure, 
 and intimately united. The salts arc vitriol, alum, 
 nitre, common salt, and sal ammoniac. He next treats 
 of more compound salts. These are sugar, tartar, sj*lts 
 from the animal and salts from the mineral kingdom, 
 and quicklime. 
 
 After this comes sulphur, cinnabar, antimony, the 
 sulphur of vitriol, the sulphur of nitre, resins, and 
 distilled oils, Then he treats of water, which he di- 
 vides into aqua Itnmirffi or common water, and aqua 
 ticca or mercury. Next he treats of earths, which 
 are of two kinds, \\z.^ friuble ctirths* such as c/ffjy, 
 foam, sand, &c., and metallic earths constituting the 
 bases of the metals. 
 
 He next treats of the metals ; and, as a preliminary, 
 
254 HI STO R Y OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 mre have a description of the method of smelting, tnd 
 operating upon the different metals. The metals are 
 then described successively in the following order: 
 Gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, lead, bismuth, zinc, 
 antimony* 
 
 To this part of the system are added three sections. 
 The first treats of mercuries, the second of the philoso- 
 pher's stone, and the third of the universal medicine. 
 We must not suppose that Stahl was a believer in these 
 ideal compositions; his object is merely to give a 
 history of the different processes which had been re- 
 commended by the alchy mists. 
 
 The second part of his work is divided into two 
 tracts. The first tract contains three sections. The first 
 of these treats of the nature of solids and fluids, of solu- 
 tions and menstrua, of the effects of heat and fire, 
 of effervescence and boiling, of volatilization, of fu- 
 sion and liquefaction, of distillation, of precipitation, 
 of calcination and incineration, of detonation, of 
 amalgamation, of crystallization and inspissation, and 
 of the fixity and firmness of bodies. In the second 
 section we have an account of salts, and of their 
 generation and transmutation, of sulphur and in- 
 flammability, of phosphorus, of colours, and of the 
 nature of metals and minerals. In this article he 
 gives short definitions of these bodies, and shows how 
 they may be known. The bodies thus defined are 
 gold, silver, iron, copper, lead, tin, mercury, anti- 
 mony, sulphur, arsenic, vitriol, common salt, nitre, 
 alum, sal ammoniac, alkalies, and salts ; viz., muriatic 
 acid, sulphuric, nitric, and sulphurous. 
 
 In the third section he treats of the method of re- 
 ducing metallic cakes, of the mode of separating me- 
 tals from their scoria?, of the mode of making artificial 
 gems, and finally of the mode of giving copper a 
 golden colour. 
 
 The second tract is divided into two parts. The first 
 part is subdivided into four sections. In the first 
 
THEORY I* CHEMISTRY. 255 
 
 Section he treats of the instruments of chemical mo- 
 tion, of fire, of air, of water, of the most subtile earth or 
 salt. In the second section he treats de $ubject\s, under 
 the several heads of dissolving aggregates, of tritura- 
 tions and solutions, and of calcinations and combus- 
 tions. In the third section he treats of the object of 
 chemistry under the following heads : Of chemical 
 corruption, consisting of compounds from liquids, of 
 the separation of solids and fluids, of mixts, of the 
 solution of compounds from solids. In the fourth 
 section he treats of fermentation. 
 
 The second part of this second tract treats of che- 
 mical generation, and is divided into two sections. In 
 the first section he treats of the aggregate collection 
 of bodies into fluids and solids. The section treats of 
 compositions under the heads of volatile and solid 
 bodies. He gives in the last article an account of the 
 combination of mixts. 
 
 The third and last part of this elaborate work dis- 
 cusses three subjects; viz. zymotcchniaorfcrmentntion^ 
 halotcchnia, or the production and properties of salts, 
 andpyrotcchnifi, in which the whole of the Stahlian 
 doctrine of phlogiston is developed. This third part 
 lias all the appearance of having been notes written 
 down by some person during the lectures of Stahl : for 
 it consists of alternate sentences of Latin and Ger- 
 man. It is not at all likely that Stahl himself would 
 have produced such a piebald work ; but if he lec- 
 tured in Latin, as was at that time the universal cus- 
 tom, it was natural for a person occupied in taking 
 flown the lectures, to write as far as was possible in 
 Latin, but when any of the Latin phrases were lost, or 
 did not immediately occur to memory, it were equally 
 natural to write down the meaning of what the pro* 
 fcssor stated in the language most familiar to the 
 writer, which was undoubtedly the German. 
 
 Another of Stahl's works is entitled " Opnsculum 
 Chymico-physico-medicum,'' published at Halle in a 
 
256 HISTORY or 
 
 thick quarto volume, in the year 1715. It contains a 
 great number of tracts, partly chemical and partly 
 medical, which it is needless to specify. Perhaps the 
 most curious of them all is his dissertation to show the 
 way in which Moses ground the golden calf to powder, 
 dissolved it in water, and obliged the children of Israel 
 to drink it. He shows that a solution of hepar sul- 
 phuris (tiiljjhuret of j*)/fftt<f/i) has the property of 
 dissolving gold, and he draws as a conclusion from his 
 experiments that this was the artifice employed by 
 Moses. We have in the same volume a pretty detailed 
 treatise on metallurgic pyrotechny and docimasy. This 
 is the more curious, because Stall! never appears to 
 have frequented the mines and smeltinr-hou*es of 
 Germany. He must, therefore, have drawn his in- 
 formation from books and from exj>eriment. 
 
 Another of his l>ooks is entitled ** EXJK rimcnta, Ob- 
 servationes, Animadversioncs, CCC. Nuincro." An 
 octavo volume, printed at Berlin in 1731. Another of 
 his books is entitled "Specimen Beccherianum." There 
 are also two chemical books of Stall I, which I have 
 seen only in a French translation, viz., 7Yi/r tie 
 Soujrc and Tralti.de Sels. These are the otily che- 
 mical writings of Stahl that 1 have seen. There are 
 probably others ; indeed 1 have .seen the titles of se- 
 veral other chemical works ascribed to him. But as it 
 is doubtful whether he really wrote them or not, I 
 think it unnecessary to specify them here. 
 
 Stald's writings evince the great progress which 
 chemistry had made even since the time of Beccher. 
 But it is difficult to say what particular new tacts 
 which appear first in. his writings were discovered by 
 himself, and \\hat by others. 1 shall not, therefore, 
 attempt any enumeration of them. His reasoning is 
 more subtile, and his views much more extensive and 
 profound than those of his predecessors. The great 
 improvement which he introduced into chemistry was 
 the employment of phloyistvn, to explain the phc- 
 
THEORY IX CIIEM SlUt. 257 
 
 norncna of combustion and calcination. This theory 
 had been originally broached by Bccchcr, from whom 
 Stahl evidently borrowed it, but he improved and sim- 
 plified it so much that the whole credit of it was sriven 
 to him. It was called the Stahlian theory, and raised 
 him to the highest rank among chemists. The sole 
 objects of chemists for thirty or forty years after his 
 time was to illucidate and extend his theory. It applied 
 so happily to all the known facts, and was supported 
 by experiments, which appeared so decisive that no- 
 body thought of calling it in question, or of interro- 
 gating nature in anv other way than he had pointed 
 ^ut. It will be requisite, therefore, before proceeding 
 further with this historical sketch, to lay the outlines 
 of the phlogistic theory before the reader. - 
 
 It was conceived by Beccher and Stahl that all 
 combustible bodies arc compounds. One of the con- 
 stituents they supposed to be dissipated during the 
 combustion, while the other constituent remained lie- 
 hind. Now when combustible bodies are subjected to 
 combustion, some of them leave an acid behind them ; 
 while other* leave a fixed powdery matter, possessing 
 the properties of an earth, and called usually the 
 calx of the combustible body. The metals are the 
 substances which leave a calx behind them when 
 burnt, and sulphur and phosphorus leave an acid. 
 With respect to those bodies that would not burn, 
 chemists did not speculate much at first ; but after- 
 wards they came to think that they cons : stcd of the 
 fixed substance that remained after combustion. 
 Hence the conclusion was natural, that they had 
 already undergone combustion. Thus quicklme 
 possessed properties very similar to the calces of motaU. 
 It was natural, therefore, to consider it as a calx, and 
 to believe that if the matter dissipated during com- 
 bustion could be again restored, lime would be con- 
 verted into a substance similar to the metals. 
 
 Combustibility then, according to this view of the 
 
 VOL. I. S 
 
958 HUTORY p? cm MISTBY. 
 
 subject, depends upon a principle or material sub- 
 stance, existing in every combustible body, and dis- 
 sipated during the combustion. This substance was 
 considered to be absolutely the same in all combus- 
 tible bodies whatever; hence the difference between 
 combustible bodies proceeded from the other principle 
 or number of principles with which this common sub- 
 stance is combined. In consequence of this identity 
 Stah! invented the term /;/</<><; t>*toM, by which he de- 
 noted this common principle .of combustible bodies. 
 JuHumniation, with the several phenomena that attend 
 it, depended on the gradual separation of this prin- 
 ciple, which being once separated, what remained of 
 the body could no longer be an inflammable substance, 
 but must be similar to the other kinds of matter. It 
 was this opinion that combustibility is owing to the 
 presence of phlogiston, and inflammation to its escape, 
 that constituted the peculiar theory of becchcr, and 
 which was afterwards illustrated by Stahl with so much 
 clearness, and cx|>erimeuU to prove its truth were ad- 
 v.im-i d by him of so intirh force, that it came to be 
 distinguished by the name of the Stahlian theory. 
 
 The identity of phlogiston in all combustible bodies 
 was founded upon observations and experiments of so 
 decisive, a nature, that at UT the existence of the prin- 
 ciple itself was admitted, they could not fail to be 
 satisfactory. When phosphorus is made to burn it gives 
 out a strong flame, much heat is evolved, and the phos- 
 iihorus is dissipated in a white smoke: but if the com- 
 bustion be conducted within a irluss vessel of a proper 
 shape, this white smoke will l>c deposited on the inside 
 of tin* glass; it quickly absorbs moisture from the atmo- 
 sphere, and runs into an acid liquid, known by the name 
 of phosphoric acid. If tins liquid IK- put into a platinum 
 crucible, and gradually heated to redness, the water 
 is dissipated, and a substance remains which, on cool* 
 ing, congeals into a transparent colourless body like 
 glass : this is dry phosphoric acid. If now we mix 
 
THEORY IK CIIFMISTRY. 259 
 
 phosphoric acid with a quantity of charcoal powder, 
 and neat it sufficiently in a glass report, taking care to 
 exclude the external air, a portion or the whole of the 
 charcoal will disappear, and phosphorus will be form- 
 ed possessed of the same properties that it had before 
 it was subjected to combustion. The conclusion de- 
 duced from this process appeared irresistible; the 
 charcoal, or a port : on of it, had combined with the 
 .phosphoric acid, and both together had constituted 
 phosphorus. 
 
 Now, in changing phosphoric acid into phosphorus, 
 we may employ almost any kind of combustible sub- 
 stance that we please, provided it be capable of bear- 
 ing the requisite heat; they will all equally answer, 
 and will all convert the acid into phosphorus. Instead 
 of charcoal we may take lamp-black, or sugar, or resin, 
 or even several of the metals. Hence it was con- 
 cluded that all of these bodies contain a common prin- 
 ciple which they communicate to the phosphoric acid ; 
 and since the new body formed is in all cases identical, 
 the principle communicated must also be identical* 
 Hence combustible Unlics contain an identical prin- 
 ciple, and this principle is phlogiston. 
 
 Sulphur by burn'mir is converted into sulphuric acid ; 
 and if sulphuric acid be heated with charcoal, or phos- 
 phorus, or even sulphur, it is again converted into 
 sulphur. Several of the metals produce the same 
 rflect. The reasoning here was the same as with 
 regard to phosphoric acid, and the conclusion was 
 similar. . 
 
 When lead is kept nearly at a red heat in the open 
 air for some time, being constantly stirred to expose 
 new surfaces to the air, it is converted into the beau- 
 tiful piument called red lead ; this is a calx of lead. 
 To restore this calx a^ain to the state of metallic lead, 
 we have only to heat it in contact with almost any com- 
 bustible matter whatever. Pit-coal, peat, charcoal, 
 sugar, flour, iron, zinc, &c., all these bodies then mutt 
 $2 
 
260 HISTORY Or CIIEMISTRT. 
 
 contain one common principle, which they communi- 
 cate to red lead, and by so doing convert it into lead. 
 This common principle is phlogiston. 
 
 These examples are sufficient to show the reader the 
 way in which Stahl proved the identity of phlogiston 
 in all combustible bodies. And the demonstration 
 was considered as so complete that the opinion was 
 adopted by every chemist without exception. 
 
 \Vhen we inquire further, and endeavour to learn 
 what qualities phlogiston was supposed to have in its 
 separate state, we find this part of the subject very 
 unsatisfactory, and the opinions very unsettled. Bee* 
 cher and Stahl represented phlogiston as a dry sub* 
 stance, or of an earthy nature, the panicles of which 
 are exquisitely subtile, and very much disposed to be 
 agitated and set in motion with inconceivable velocity. 
 This was called by Stahl inutu* rei7ici////ri*. When 
 the particles of any body are agitated with this kind of 
 motion, the body exhibits the phenomena of heat 
 or ignition, or inflammation, according to the violence 
 and rapidity of the motion. 
 
 This very crude opinion of the earthy nature of 
 phlogiston, appears to have been deduced from the 
 insolubility ot most combustible substances in water. 
 If we except alcohol, and ether, and pnnis very few 
 of them are capable of being dissolved in that liquid. 
 Thus the nutaU, t>nlphur, .phosphorus, oils, resins, bi- 
 tumens, charcoul, &c., are well known to be insoluble. 
 Now, at the time that Deceit* r and Stahl lived, inso- 
 lubility in water was considered as a character pecu- 
 liar to earthy bodies ; and as those bodies which con- 
 tain a' great deal of phlog ston are insoluble in water, 
 though tlu other constituents l>e very soluble in that 
 liquid, it was natural enough to conclude that phlo- 
 giston itself was of an earthy nature. 
 
 Dut though the opinions of chemists about the na- 
 ture and properties of phlogiston in a separate state 
 were unset tkd, no doubts were entertained respecting 
 
THFORT IV CHEMISTRY. 261 
 
 its existence, and respecting its identity in all com- 
 bustible bodies. Its presence or its absence produced 
 almost all the chants which bodies undergo. Hence 
 chemistry and combustion came to be in some measure 
 identified, and a theory of combustion was considered 
 as the same thing with a theory of chemistry. 
 
 Metals were compounds of calces and phlogiston. 
 The different species of metals depend tij>on the dif- 
 ferent species of cnlx which each contains; for there 
 arc as many caters (each simple and peculiar) as there 
 are metals. These calces are capable of uniting with 
 phlogiston in indefinite proportions. The calx united 
 to a little phlogiston sill retains its earthy appearance 
 a certain additional portion restores the calx to the 
 state of a metal. An'enormous quantity of phlogiston 
 with which some calces, as calx of manganese, arc 
 capable of combining, destroys the metallic appear* 
 ance of the body, and renders* it incapable of dissolv- 
 ing in acids. 
 
 The affinity between a metallic calx and phlogiston 
 is strong ; but the facility of union is greatly promoted 
 when the calx still retains a little phlogiston. If we 
 drive off the whole phlogiston we can scarcely unite 
 the calx with phlogiston again, or bring it back to the 
 state of a metal: hence the extreme difficulty of re- 
 ducing the calx of zinc, and even the red calx of iron. 
 
 The various colours of bodies arc owing to phlogis- 
 ton, and these colours vary with every alteration in the 
 proportion of phlogiston present. 
 
 It was observed very early that when a metal was 
 converted into a calx its weight was increased. But 
 this, though known to Beccher and Stahl, does not 
 seem to have had any effect on their opinions. Boyle, 
 who does not seem to have been aware of the phlogis- 
 tic theory, though it had been broached before his 
 death, relates an experiment on tin which he made. 
 He put a given weight of it into an open glass vessel, 
 and kept it melted on the fire till a certain portion of 
 
262 HISTORY or CHEMISTRY. 
 
 it was converted into a calx : it was now found to 
 have increased considerably in weight. This experi- 
 ment he relates in order to prove the materiality of 
 heat : in his opinion a certain quantity of heat had 
 united to the tin and occasioned the increase of weight. 
 Tins opinion of Boyle was incompatible with the Stah- 
 lian theory : for the tin had not only increased in 
 weight, but had been converted into a calx. It was 
 therefore the opinion of Doyle that calx of tin was a 
 combination of tin and heat. It could not consequently 
 be true that calx of tin was tin deprived of phlogiston. 
 
 When this tlitliciilty struck the phlogistians, which 
 wii4 not till lonir after the time of Stalil, they endea- 
 voured to evade .it by assigning new properties to 
 phlnu'Mon. According to them it is not only desti- 
 tute of weight, but endowed with a principle of levity. 
 In consequence of this property, a body containing; 
 phlogiston is always lighter than it would otherwise be, 
 and it becomes heavier when the phlogiston makes its 
 escape: hence the reason why calx of tin is heavier 
 than the same tin in the metallic state. The increase 
 of weight is not owing, as Boyle believed, to the 
 fixation of heat in the tin, but to the escape of phlo- 
 giston from it. 
 
 Those philosophic chemists, who thus refined upon 
 the properties of phlogiston, did not perceive that by 
 endowing it with a principle of levity, they destroyed 
 all the other characters which they had assigned to it. 
 What is gravity ? Is it not an attraction by means of 
 which bodies are drawn towards each other, and remain 
 united ' And is there any reason for supposing that 
 chemical attraction differs in its nature from the other 
 kinds of attraction which matter possesses ? If, then, 
 phlogiston be destitute of gravity, it cannot possess 
 any attraction for other bodies; if it be endowed with 
 a principle of levity, it must have the property of 
 repelling other bodies, for that is the only meaning 
 that can be attached to the term. But if phlogiston 
 
tntOUT IX CflF.MIVTRT. 263 
 
 has the property of repelling all other substances, how 
 comes it to he fixed in combustible bodies ? It must 
 be united to the calces or the acids, which constitute 
 the other principle of these bodies ; and it could not 
 be united, and remain united, unless a principle of 
 attraction existed between it and these bases ; that is 
 to say, unless it possessed a principle the very oppo- 
 site of levity. 
 
 Thus the fact, that calces are heavier than the metals 
 from which they are formed, in reality overturned the 
 whole doctrine of phlogiston ; and the only reason 
 why the doctrine continued to IH admitted after the 
 fact was known is, that in these early days of che- 
 mistry, the balance was scarcely ever employed in 
 experimenting : hence alterations in weight were little 
 attended to or entirely overlooked. We shall sec 
 afterwards, that when Lavoisier introduced a more 
 accurate mode of experimenting, and rendered it ne- 
 cessary to compare the original weights of the sub- 
 stances employed, with the weights of the products, 
 he made use of this very experiment of Boyle, and a 
 similar one made with mercury, to overturn the whole 
 doctrine of phlogiston. 
 
 The phlogistic school beinj thus founded by StahY, 
 in Berlin, a race of chemists succeeded him in that 
 capital, who contributed in no ordinary decree to the 
 improvement of the science. The most deservedly 
 celebrated of these were Neumann, Pott, Margraaf, and 
 Eiler. 
 
 Caspar Neumann was born at Zullichau, in Ger- 
 many, in 1682. He was early received into favour by 
 the Kinir of Prussia, and travelled at the expense of 
 that monarch into Holland, England, France, and 
 Italy. During these travels he had an opportunity of 
 making; a personal acquaintance with the most eminent 
 men of science in all the different countries which he 
 visited. On his return home, in 1724, he was appointed 
 professor of chemistry in the Royal College of Physic 
 
264 HISTORY 07 CHEMISTRY. 
 
 and Surgery at Berlin, where he delivered a course of 
 lectures annually. During the remainder of his life 
 he enjoyed the situation of superintendent of the Royal 
 Laboratory, and apothecary to the King of Prussia. 
 He died in 1737, He was a Fellow of the Royal 
 Society, and several papers of his appeared in the 
 Transactions of that learned body. The following if 
 a list of thc.sc papers, all of which were written in 
 Latin : 
 
 1. DisquiMtio de camphora. 
 
 2. l)e e\|H*rimento probandi spiritum vini Gallic!, 
 per quant usituto, sed revera falso et fallaci. 
 
 Some merchants in Holland, England, Hamburg, 
 and Dant/ie, were in possession of what they con- 
 sidered an infallible test to distinguish French brandy 
 from every other kind of spirit. It was a dusky yel- 
 lowish liquid. When one or two drops of it were let 
 fall into u glass of French brandy, u beautiful blue 
 colour appeared at the bottom of the glass, and when 
 the brandy is stirred, the whole liquid becomes azure. 
 But if the spirit tried be malt spirit, no such colour 
 appears in the glass. Neumann ascertained that the 
 test liquid was merely a solution of sulphate of iron 
 n water, and that the blue colour was the consequence 
 of the brandy having been kept in oak casks, and thus 
 having dissolved a portion of tannin. Every spirit 
 will exhibit the same colour, if it has been kept in oak 
 casks. 
 
 3. De salibus alkalino-fixb. 
 
 4. DC camphora thy mi. 
 
 5. DC ambragrysea. 
 
 His other paj>ers, published in Germany, are the fol- 
 lowing : 
 
 In the Ephemerides. 
 
 1. De oleo distillate formicorum tethereo. 
 
 2. De albumine ovi succino simili. 
 
 In the Misccllania Berolinensia. 
 1. Mcditatioucs in binas observatione* de aqua per 
 
THEORY I* CHEMISTRY. 265 
 
 putrefactionem rubra, vulgb pro tali in sanguinem 
 versa habita. 
 
 2. Succincta rrlatio cxactis Pomcraniis tie prodigio 
 san^uinis in palude viso. 
 
 3 De pro'linio sanguinis ex Pomeranio nunciato. 
 
 4. Dis(|iiisitio de camphora. 
 
 .0. DC experimento prohandi spiritum vini Gallicum. 
 
 6. l)c spiritu urinoso caustico. 
 
 7. Demons! ratio synipum violarum ad probanda 
 licjuida non siiftirerc. 
 
 8. Examcn correct ionis olci raparurn. 
 
 9. De vi caustica et convcrsionc saiiiim alkalino* 
 fixorum aeri cxpositorum in salia ncutra. 
 
 He published separately, 
 
 1. De salibus alkalino-flxis et camphora. 
 
 2. De succino, opio, caryophyliis aroniaticis et 
 castoreo. 
 
 3. Oh saltpetre, sulphur, antimony, and iron. 
 
 4. On tea, coftVe, beer, and wine. 
 
 5. Dist juisitio dc ambra<;ry$ea. 4 
 
 6. On common salt, tartar, sal ammoniac and ants. 
 
 After Neumann's death , two copies of his chemical 
 lectures were published. The first consisting of notes 
 taken by one of his pupils, intermixed with incoherent 
 compilations from other authors, was printed at Berlin 
 in 1740. The other was printed by the booksellers of 
 the Orphan Hospital of Zullichau (the place of Neu- 
 mann's birth), and is said to have been taken from the 
 original papers in the author's handwriting. Of this 
 last an excellent translation, with many additions and 
 corrections, was published by Dr. Lewis, in London, 
 in the year 1759; it was entitled, 4< The Chemical 
 Wotks of Caspar Neumann, M. D., Professor of Che- 
 mistry at Berlin, F. R. S., &c. Abridged and me- 
 thodized ; with large additions, containing: the later 
 discoveries and improvements made in Chemistry, and 
 the arts depending thereon. By William Lcwu/M.B., 
 
266 BISTORT OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 F.R.S. London, 1759." This is an excellent book, 
 and contains many things that still retain their value, 
 notwithstanding the improvements which have been 
 made since in every department of chemistry. 
 
 I have reason to believe that the laborious part of 
 this translation and compilation wa* made by Mr. 
 < 'hit holm, whom Dr. Lewis employed as his assistant. 
 Mr. Chichoim, when a younir man, went to London 
 from Aberdeen, where lie had studied at the univer- 
 sity, and acquired a competent knowledge of Greek 
 and Latin, but no means of supporting himself. On 
 his arrival in London, one of the tirst things that struck 
 his attention was a Greek hook, placed open against 
 the pane of a bookseller's window. Chicholm went up 
 to the window, at which he continued standing till he 
 had perused the whole Greek page thus exposed to 
 his view. Dr. Lewis happened to he in the shop : he 
 had been looking out for a young man whom he could 
 employ to take charge of his laboratory, and manage 
 his processes, and who should possess sufficient intel- 
 ligence to read chemical works for him, and collect 
 out of each whatever deserved to l>e known, either 
 from its novelty or ingenuity. The ap|>earance and 
 manners of Chicholm struck him, and made him think 
 of him as a man likely to answer the purposes which 
 he had in view, lie called him into the shop, and 
 after some conversation with him, took him home, 
 anil kept him all his life as his assistant and operator. 
 Chirhoim was a laborious and painstaking man, and 
 by continually working in Lewis's laboratory, soon 
 acquired a coni|>etent knowledge of chemistry. He 
 compiled several manuscript volumes, partly consisting 
 of his own experiments, and partly of collections from 
 other authors. At Dr. Lewis's death, all his books 
 were sold by auction, and these manuscript volumes 
 among the rest. They were purchased by Mr. Wedge- 
 wood, senior, who at the same time took Mr. Chicholm 
 into his service, and gave him the charge of his own 
 
, THEORY IX CHEMISTRY. 267 
 
 laboratory. It was Mr. Chichnlm that was the con- 
 structor of the well-known piece of apparatus known 
 by the name of Wedgwood's pyrometer. After his 
 death the instrument continued still to be constructed 
 for some time; but so many complaints were made of 
 the unequal contraction of the pieces, that Mr. Wedge- 
 wood, junior, who had succeeded to the |mttcry in con- 
 sequence of the death of his father, put an end to the 
 manufacture of them altogether. 
 
 John Henry Pott was born at Halbcrstadt, in the 
 year 169*2. He was a scholar of Hoffmann and Stahl, 
 nnd from this last he seems to have imbibed his taste 
 for chemistry. He settled at Berlin, where he became 
 assessor of the Roval College of Medicine and Surgery, 
 inspector of medicines, su|>erintendent of the Koyal 
 Laboratory, and dean of the Academy of Sciences of 
 Berlin. He was chosen professor of theoretical che- 
 mistry at Berlin; and on the death of Neumann, in 
 1737, he succeeded him as professor of practical che- 
 mistry. He was beyond question the most learned 
 and laborious chemist of his day. His erudition, in- 
 deed, was very jrreat ; and his historical introductions 
 to his dissertation displays the extent of his reading 
 on every subject of which he had occasion to treat. 
 It has often struck me that the historical introductions 
 which Bcrirmann has prefixed to his papers, are several 
 of them borrowed from Pott. The Litho^eojrnosia of 
 Pott is one of the most extraordinary productions of 
 the ajre in which he lived. It was the result of a re- 
 quest of the Kin of Prussia, to discover the injrredients 
 of which Saxon porcelain was made. Mr. Pott, not 
 being able to procure any satisfactory information re- 
 lative to the nature of the substances employed at 
 Dresden, resolved to undertake a chemical examina- 
 tion of all the substances that were likely to be em- 
 ployed in such a manufacture. He tried the effect of 
 tire upon all the stones, earths, and minerals, that he 
 could procure, both separately and mixed together in 
 
268 HISTORY or CHEMISTRY* 
 
 various proportions, He made at least thirty thousand 
 experiments in six years, and laid the foundation for a 
 chemical knowledge of these bodies.* It is to this work 
 of Pott that we are indebted for our knowledge of the 
 effects of heat upon various earthy bodies, and upon 
 mixtures of them. Thus he found that pure white 
 clay, or mixtures of pure clay and quartz-sand, would 
 not fuse at any temperature which he could produce ; 
 but day, mixed with lime or with oxide of iron, enters 
 speedily into fusion. Clay also fuses with its own weight 
 of borax ; it forms a compact mass with half its weight, 
 and does not concrete into a hard body when mixed with 
 a third of its weight of that salt. Clay fuses easily 
 with fluor spar ; it fuses, also, with twice its weight of 
 protoxide <,f lead, and with its own weight of sulphate of 
 lime, but with no other proportion tried. It was a know* 
 ledge of these mutual actions of bodies on each other, 
 when exposed to heat, that gradually led to the me- 
 thods of examining minerals by the blowpipe. These 
 methods were brought to the present state of perfection 
 by Assessor Gahti, of Fahlun, the result of whose la* 
 bours has been published by Berzelius, in his treatise 
 on the blowpipe. Pott died in 1777, in the eighty- 
 fifth year of his age. 
 
 His different chemical works (his Uthogeognosia ex- 
 cept ed) were collected and translated into French by 
 M. Demachy, in the year 1759, and published in four 
 small octavo volumes. The chemical papers contained 
 in these volumes are thirty-two in number. Some of 
 these papers cannot but appear somewhat extraordinary 
 to a modern chemist: for example, M. Duhamel had 
 
 There is a French translation of this work, entitled " Lithe- 
 Ognosie, ou Kxamen Chymique de* Pierres et des Terres en 
 general, et du Talc de la Topaz, et de la Steatite en particulier ; 
 avec une Dissertation ur ie rYu et fcur la Lu mitre." Paris, 1753. 
 With a continuation, constituting!: a second volume, in uhic.h all 
 the experiment! iu the first volume arc exhibited in the form of 
 tables. 
 
THEORY IN CHEMISTRY. 269 
 
 published in the memoirs of the French Academy, in 
 the year 1737, a sot of experiments on common salt, 
 from which he deduced that its basis was a fixed al- 
 kali, which possessed properties different from those 
 of potash, and which of course required to be distin- 
 guished by a peculiar name. It is sufficiently known 
 that the term soda was afterwards applied to this al- 
 kali ; by which name it is known at present. Pott, 
 in a very elaborate and Ions: dissertation on the base 
 of common salt, endeavours to refute these opinions 
 of Duhamel. The subject was afterwards taken up 
 by Marjrraaf, who demonstrated, by decisive ex|>en- 
 ments, that the base of common salt is sodft ; and that 
 soda differs essentially in its properties frym potash. 
 
 Pott's dissertation on bismuth is of considerable 
 value. He collects in it the statements and opinions 
 of all preceding writers on this metal, and describes 
 its properties with considerable accuracy and minute- 
 ness. The same observations apply to his dissertation 
 on zinc. 
 
 John Theodore Eller, of Brockuser, was born on 
 the 29th of November, 1689, at Pletzkau, in the prin- 
 cipality of Anhalt Bernbur^. He was the fourth 
 son of Jobst Hermann Eller, a man of a respectable 
 family, whose ancestors were proprietors of consider- 
 able estates in Westphalia and the Netherlands. 
 Younjr Eller received the rudiments of his education 
 in his father's house, from which he went to the Uni- 
 versity of Quedlinburjr ; and from thence to the 
 University of Jena, in 1709. He was sent thither to 
 study law ; but his passion was for natural philosophy, 
 which led him to devote himself to the study of medi- 
 cine. From Jena he went to Halle, and finally to 
 Leyden, attracted by the reputation of the older Al- 
 ^ hiniis, of Professor Senjrerd and the celebrated Boer- 
 >r haave, at that time in the height of his reputation. 
 The only practical anatomist then in Leyden, was 
 M. Bidloo, an old man of eighty, and of course 
 
$70 HISTORY OF Clf Ell ISTRT. 
 
 unfit for teaching. This induced EHer to repair to 
 Amsterdam, to study under Ran, and to inspect the 
 anatomical museum of Ruysch. Bidloo soon dying, 
 Rau was appointed his successor at Leyden, whither 
 Elier followed him, ami dissected under him till the 
 year 1716. After taking his degree at Leyden, Eller 
 returned to Germany, and devoted a considerable 
 time to the study and examination of the mines of 
 Saxony and the Hartz, and of the mctalltirgic pro* 
 cesses connected with these mines. From these mines 
 he repaired to France, and resumed his anatomical 
 studies under Du Verney and Winslow. Chemistry 
 also attracted a good deal of his attention, and he fre- 
 quented the laboratories of Grosse, Lemery, Bolduc, 
 and Homberg, at that time the most eminent chemists 
 in Paris. 
 
 From Paris he repaired to London, where he formed 
 an acquaintance with the numerous medical men of 
 eminence who at that time adorned this capital. On 
 returning to Germany in 1721, he was appointed phy- 
 sician to Prince Victor Frederick of Anhalt Bernburg. 
 From Bernburg ho went to Magdeburg ; and the 
 King of Prussia called him to Berlin in 17:24; to teach 
 anatomy in the great anatomic theatre which had been 
 just erected. Soon after he was appointed physician 
 to the. king, a counsellor and professor in the Royal 
 Medico-Cliirurgical College, which had been just 
 founded in Berlin. He was also appointed dean of 
 the Superior College of Medicine, and physician to 
 the army and to the great llo>pital of Frederick. In 
 the year 175/> Frederick the (treat made him a privy- 
 counsellor, which is the highest rank that a medical 
 man can attain in Prussia. The same year he was 
 made director of the Royal Academy 'of Sciences of 
 Berlin. He died in the year 17<>0, in the seventy-first 
 year of his age. He was twice married, and his second 
 wife survived him. 
 
 'Many chemical papers of Eller are to be found iu 
 
THEORY IX CIIF.MI5TRT. 271 
 
 the memoirs of the Berlin Academy. They were of 
 sufficient importance, at the time when he published 
 them, to add considerably to his reputation, though 
 not sufficiently so to induce me to give a catalogue of 
 them here. I am not aware of any chemical discovery 
 for which we are indebted to him ; but have been in- 
 duced to give this brief notice of him, because he is 
 usually associated with Pott and Margraaf, making 
 with them the three celebrated chemists who adorned 
 Berlin, during the splendid reign of Frederick the 
 Great. 
 
 Andrew Sigismund Margranf was born in Berlin, 
 in the year 1709, and acquired the first principles 
 of chemistry from his father, who was an apothecary 
 in that city. He afterwards studied under Neumann, 
 and travelling in quest of information to Frankfort, 
 Strasbunr, Halle, and Freyburg, he returned to Ber- 
 lin enriched with all the knowledge of his favourite 
 science which at that time existed. In 17(>0, on the 
 death of Eller, he was made director of the physical 
 class of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. He. died 
 in the year 178*2, in the seventy-third year of his 
 aire. He gradually acquired a brilliant reputation 
 in consequence of the numerous chemical papers 
 which he successively published, each of which usually 
 contained a new chemical fact, of more or less im- 
 portance, deduced from a set of experiments generally 
 satisfactory and convincinjr. His papers have a greater 
 resemblance to thoso of Scheele than of any other 
 chemist to whom we can compare them, lie may 
 h(^ considered as in some measure the beginner of 
 chemical analysis; for, before his time, the chemical 
 analysis of bodies had hardly been attempted. His 
 methods,. as minht have been expected, were not very 
 fKTlect ; nor did he attempt numerical results. His 
 experiments on phosphorus and on the method of 
 extracting it from urine are valuable; they com- 
 municated the first accurate notions relative to this 
 
272 HISTORY Or CHEMISTRY. 
 
 substance and to phosphoric acid. He first deter* 
 mined the properties of the earth of alum, now known 
 by the name of Alumina ; showed that it differed from 
 every other, and that it existed in clay, and gave 
 to that substance its peculiar properties. He de- 
 monstrated the peculiar nature of soda, the base of 
 common salt, which Pott had cal'ed in question, and 
 thus verified die conclusions of DuhameL He gives 
 an easy process for obtaining pure silver from the 
 chloride of that metal : his method is to dissolve 
 the pure chloride of silver in a solution of caustic 
 ammonia, and to put into the liquid a sufficient 
 quantity of pure mercury ; the silver is sjieedily reduced 
 and converted into an amalgam, and when this 
 amalgam is exposed to a red heat the mercury is 
 driven oti and pure silver remains. The usual method 
 of reducing the chloride of silver is to heat it in a 
 crucible with a sufficient quantity of carbonate of 
 potash, a process which was first recommended by 
 K u iik el. But it is scarcely possible to prevent the 
 loss of a portion of the silver when the chloride is 
 reduced in this way. The modern process is un- 
 doubtedly the simplest and the best, to reduce it 
 by means of hydrogen. If a few pieces of zinc be 
 put into the bottom of a beer-rla<s and some dilute 
 Sulphuric aeid be poured over it an effervescence 
 takes place, and hydrogen gas is disengaged. Chlo- 
 ride of silver, placed above the zinc in the same 
 glass, is speedily rvdueed by this hydrogen and con- 
 verted into metallic stiver. 
 
 Margraaf's chemical papers, dcwn to the time of 
 publication, were collected toother, translated into 
 French and published at Paris in the year 1762, 
 in two very small octavo volumes, they consist of 
 twenty-six different papers: some of the most curious 
 and important of which are those that have been 
 iust particularized. Several other papers written by 
 him appeared in the memoirs of the Berlin Academy, 
 
THEORY iy CIIF.MISTRY. 273 
 
 after this collection of his works was published, par- 
 ticularly ** A demonstration of the possibility of draw- 
 ing fixed alkaline salts from tartar by means of acids, 
 without employing the action of a violent fire." It 
 was this pa|>er, probably, that led Scheele, a few 
 years after, to his well-known method of obtaining 
 tartaric acid, a modification of which is still followed 
 by manufacturers. 
 
 " Observations concerning a remarkable volatiliza- 
 tion of a portion of a ki.id of stone known by the 
 names of flosse, flussc, fluor spar, and likewise by that 
 of lu'Spcros: which volatilization was fHcrtuated by 
 means of acids." Poit had already shown the value 
 of fluor spar as a flux. Three years after the appear- 
 ance of Alargraaf *s paper, Schcele discovered the 
 nature of fluor spar, and first drew the attention of 
 chemists to the peculiar properties of fluoric acid. 
 
 In France, in consequence chiefly of the regu- 
 lations established in the Academy of Science*, in the 
 year 1G99, a race of chemists always existed, whose. 
 specific object wa to cultivate chemistry, and extend 
 and improve it. The most eminent of these chemical 
 labourers, after th Stahlinn theory was fully ad- 
 mitted in France till its credit In can t > be shaken, 
 were Reaumur, Ilellot, Duhamel, Rouclle, and Mac- 
 qucr. Besides these, who were the chief chem sts 
 in the academy, there were a few other* to whom 
 we arc indebted for chemical discoveries that deserve 
 to be recorded. 
 
 Rene Antoine Fcrchault, Esq., Seigneur de Reau- 
 mur, certainly one of the mtjst extraordinary men 
 of his a^e, was ht,rn at Rr,ehelle, in 1683.' He vent 
 to the school of Rochellc, and afterwards studied 
 philosophy under the Jesuits at Poitiers. Hence he. 
 went to Bourses, to which one of his uncles, canon 
 of the holy chapel in that city, had invited him. At 
 this time he was only seventeen years of aire, yet 
 his parents ventured to intrust a younger brother 
 
 VOL. i. T 
 
274 HISTORY or CHEMISTRY. 
 
 to his care, and this care he discharged with all the 
 fidelity and sagacity of a much older man. Here 
 he devoted himself to mathematics and physics, and 
 he soon after went to Paris to improve the happy 
 talents which he hud received from nature. He was 
 fortunate enough to meet with a friend and relation 
 in the president, Hcnault, equally devoted to study 
 with himself, equally eager for information, and 
 possessed of equal honour and integrity, and equally 
 promising talents. 
 
 He came to Paris in 1703. In 1708 he was ad* 
 mittcd into the Academy of Sciences, in the situation 
 of lire*. of M. Yariirnon, vacant by the promotion of 
 M. Saur'n to the rank of associate. 
 
 The tir-t papers of his which were inserted in the 
 Memoirs of the Academy were geometrical : he gave 
 a general method of rinding an intinitv of curves, 
 described by the extremity of a straight line, the 
 other extremity of which, passing along the surface 
 of a given curve, is always obliged to pass through the 
 saint- point, Next year he gave a geometrical work on 
 Derelopea; but this was tin* last of his mathematical 
 tracts. He was charged by the academy with the task 
 of giving a description of the arts, and his taste for 
 natural history beiro.ii to draw to th it study the greatest 
 part of his attention. His tirst work as a naturalist 
 wa-i his observation* on the formation of shells. It was 
 unknown whether shells increase by intussusception, 
 like animal bodies, or by the exterior and successive 
 addition of new parts. By a set of delicate observa- 
 tions he showed that shells are formed by the addition 
 of new puts and that this was the cause of the 
 variety of colour, shape, and si/e which they usually 
 affect. His observations on snails, with a view to 
 the way in which their shells are tunned, led him 
 to the discovery of a singular insect, which not only 
 lives on snails, but in the inside of their bodies, fiom 
 which it never stirs till driven out by the snail. 
 
THEORY "V CHEMISTRY. 275 
 
 During the same year, he wrote his curiou? paper 
 on the silk of spiders. The experiments of M. Bohn 
 had shown that spiders could spin a silk that might 
 he usefully employed. But it remained to be seen 
 whether these creatures could be fed with profit, and. 
 in sufficiently great numbers to produce a sufficient 
 quantity of silk to be of use.. Reaumur undertook 
 this disagreeable task, and showed that spiders could 
 not he fed together without attacking and destroying 
 one .mother. 
 
 The next research which he undertook, was to dis- 
 cover in what way certain sen-animals are capable 
 of attaching 1 themselves to fixed Ixxlies, and again 
 disengaging themselves at pleasure. He discovered 
 the various threads and pinntc which some of them 
 possess for this purpose, and the prodigious number of 
 limbs by which the sea-star is enabled to attach itself 
 to solid bodies. Other animals employ a kind of 
 cement to glue themselves to those substances to 
 which they are attached, while some fix themselves 
 hy forming a vacuum in the interval between them- 
 selves and the solid substances to which they arc 
 attached. 
 
 It was at this period that he found great quantities 
 of the buccinum, which yielded the -purple dye of 
 the ancients, upon the coast of Poiton. He observed* 
 ais<>, that the stones and little sandy ridges round 
 which the shellfish had collected were covered with 
 a kind of oval grains, some of which were white, and 
 others of a yellowish colour, and having collected 
 and squeezed some of these upon the sleeve of his 
 shirt, so as to wet it with the liquid which they con* 
 tinned, he was agreeably surprised in about half an 
 .hour to find the wetted spot assume a beautiful purple 
 colour, which was not discharged by washing. He 
 collected a number of these grains, and carrying them 
 to his apartment, bniised and squeezed different par- 
 cels of them upon bits of linen; but to his great 
 
276 HISTOKY OF CHEMISTRY* 
 
 surprise, after two or three hours, no colour appeared 
 on the wetted part ; but, at the same time, two or three 
 spots of the piaster at the window, on which drops of 
 the liquid had fallen, had become purple ; though the 
 day was cloudy. On carrying the pieces of linen to 
 the window, and leaving them there, they also acquired 
 a purple colour. It was the action of light, then, on 
 the liquor, that caused it to tin^e the linen. He found, 
 likewise, that when the colouring matter was put into 
 a phial, which tilled it completely, it remained un- 
 changed ; but u hen the phial was not full, and was 
 badly corked, it acquired colour. From these facts 
 it is evident, that the purple colour is owin<? to the 
 joint action of the li^lit and the oxygen of the at 
 ni<j >liriv upon the liquor of the shellfish. 
 
 About this time, likewise, he made experiments 
 upon a subject which attracted the attention of me- 
 chuniciai.s to determine whether the strength of a 
 cord was greater, or less, or equal to the joint strength 
 of all tin; fibres which compose it. The result of 
 Keamnur's experiments was, that the strength of the 
 cord is lc>s than that of all the fibres of which it is com- 
 posed. Hence it follows, that the less that a cord 
 .tiiticrs lYuii an assemblage of straight fibres, the 
 stronger it l>. This, at that time considered as a sin- 
 gular mechanical paradox, was afterwards elucidated 
 by .M Dnhaiuel. 
 
 it v\i'.- a popular opinion cf all the inhabitants of the 
 lea-shore, that when the claws of crabs, lobsters, &c., 
 are le>t by any means, they are gradually replaced 
 by uthi*:>, aiui the animal in a short time becomes 
 as pesiVct as at tirst. This opinion was ridiculed by 
 men of science as inconsistent with all our notions ol* 
 true r-hilo-ophv. Reaumur subjected it to the test 
 of experiment, by removing the* claws of the>e ani- 
 mals, and keeping them alone for the requisite time 
 in. 8'M-v. ater : new claws soon sprang out, and per- 
 fectly replaced those that had been removed. Thus 
 
THEORY IX CIir.MISTRY. 277 
 
 the common opiiron was verified, and the contemptuous 
 smile of the half-learned man of science was shown to 
 be the result of ipiorance, not of knowledirv. 
 
 Reaumur was not so fortunate in his attempts to ex- 
 plain the nature of the shock jriven by the tor) Kilo ; 
 which we now know to be an electric shock produced 
 by a peculiar apparatus within the ariimol. Reaumur 
 endeavoured to prove, from di>section, that the shock 
 was owing: to the prodigious rapidity of the blow jriveu 
 by the animal in consequence of a peculiar structure 
 of its muscles. 
 
 The turquoise was at that time, as it still is, con- 
 siderably admired in consequence of the beauty of it* 
 colour. Persia was the country from which this pre- 
 cious stone came, and it was at that time considered as 
 the only country in the universe where it occurred. 
 Reaumur made a set of experiments on the subject 
 and showed that the fossil lx>nes found in Lanrruedoc, 
 when exposed to a certain heat, assume the same 
 beautiful creen colour, and become turquoises equally 
 beautiful with the Persian. It is now known, that the 
 true Persian turquoise, the catamite of mineralogists, i* 
 quite different from fossil fames coloured with copper. 
 So far, therefore, Reaumur deceived himself by the>c 
 experiments; but at that time chemical knowledge 
 was too imperfect to enable him to subject Persian 
 turquoise to an analysis, and determine it* constitution. 
 
 About the same period, he undertook an investigation 
 of the nature of imitation pearls, which resemble the 
 true pearls so closely, that it is very difficult, from ap- 
 pearances, to distinguish the true from the false. He 
 showed that the substance which save the false pearls 
 their colour and lustre, was taken from a small fish 
 called by the French able, or ablctte. He likewise 
 undertook an investigation of the origin of true 
 pearls, and showed that they were indebted for their 
 . production to a disease of the animal. It is now known, 
 that the introduction of any solid body, as a grain of 
 
278 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 and, within the shell of the living pearl-shellfish, gives 
 occasion to the formation of pearl. U mix us boasted 
 that he knew a method of forming artificial pearls; and 
 doubtless his process was merely introducing some 
 solid particle of matter into the living shell. Pearls 
 consist of alternate layers of carbonate of lime and 
 animal membrane; and the colour and lustre to which 
 they owe their value depends upon the thinness of the 
 alternate coats. 
 
 The next paper of Reaumur was an account of the 
 rivers in France whose sand yielded <jold-dust, and the 
 method employed to extract "the old. This paper will 
 well repay the labour of a perusal ; it owes its interest 
 in a srreat measure to the way in which the facts are 
 laid letore the reader. 
 
 Mis paper on the prodigious bank of fossil shells at 
 Touraine, from which the inhabitants draw manure in 
 such quantities for their fields, deserves attention in a 
 geok cical point of view. But his paper on tiint* and 
 stones is not so valuable; it consists in speculations, 
 which, from the infant state of chemical analysis when 
 he wrote, could not be expected to lead to conect con* 
 elusions. 
 
 1 pass over many of the papers of this most inde- 
 fatigable man, because they are not connected with 
 crumistry; but his history of insects constitutes a 
 charming book, and contains a prodigious number of 
 facts of the most curious and important nature. This 
 book alone, supposing Reaumur had done nothing 
 else, would ha\e been sufficient to have immortalized 
 the author. 
 
 In the year 17*2*2 he published his work on the art 
 of converting iron into steel, and of softening cast- 
 tr< it. At that time no steel whatever was made in 
 France ; the nation was supplied with that indispensa- 
 ble article from foreign countries, chiefly from Ger- 
 many. The object of Reaumur's book was to teach 
 his countrymen the art of making steel, and, if possible, 
 
TnronT iv cirrMisTRY. 379 
 
 to explain the nature of tlie process by which iron is 
 changed into steel. Reaumur concluded from his ex- 
 periments, that steel is iron impregnated with *M/- 
 phitrcous and .<ali ic matter*. The word .w//>Awrrovf, 
 as at that time u*ed, was nearly synonymous with our 
 present term combustible. The process which he found 
 to answer, and which he recommends to be followed, 
 was to mix together 
 
 4 parts of soot 
 
 2 parts of charcoaUpowdrr 
 
 2 parts of wood- ashes 
 
 H parts of common salt. 
 
 The iron Mrs to be converted into steel were surround- 
 e'l with this nmturts and kept red-hot till converted 
 into steel. Reaumur's notion of the difference be- 
 tween iron and steel was an approximation to the 
 truth. The saline matters which he added do not 
 enter into the compositi n of steel: and if they did, so 
 far from improving, they would injure its qualities. 
 But the charcoal and s ot, which consist chicriy of 
 carbon, really produce the desired ellcci ; for steel is 
 a combination of iron and carbon. 
 
 In consequence of the*e exp rimer.ts of Reaumur, it 
 came to be an opinion entertained by chemists, that 
 steel differed from iron merely by containing a greater 
 proportion of phlogiston ; for the charcoal and soot 
 with which the iron bars were surrounded was consi- 
 dered a* ccnUtin;r almost entirely of phloiri*ton ; and 
 the only useful purpose which they could serve, was 
 supposed to be to furnish phlogiston. This opinion 
 continued prevalent till it was overturned towards the 
 end of the last century, first by the experiments of 
 Bersmann, and afterwards by those of Berthollet, 
 Vandermond, and Monsre, publ shed in the Memoirs of 
 the French Academy for 17f5 (pasre 132). In this 
 e)al>orate memoir the authors take a view of all the 
 different processes followed in bringing iron from the 
 ore to the state of steel : they then give an account of 
 
280 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 the researches of Reaumur and of Herrmann; and lastly 
 relate their own experiments, from which they finally 
 draw, as a conclusion, that >teel is a compound oi'iron 
 and carbon. 
 
 The recent Orleans, who at that time administered 
 the ariairs of France, thought that this work of Reau- 
 mur was deserving a reward, and accordingly offered 
 him a pension of 1*2 ,000 livrts. Reaumur requested 
 of the recent that thi> pension .should be jriven in the 
 name of the academy, uid that aitt r his death it should 
 continue, and be devoted to defray the necessary ex- 
 penses towards brintrin^ the arts iiilo a state of perfec- 
 tion. The request was granted, and tlie letters patent 
 made out on the *2*2d of December, 1?'2*2. 
 
 At that time tin-plau , as well as steel, w.as not made 
 in France; but all the tin-| lau> wanted were brought 
 from Germany, where the processes followed were 
 kept profoundly secret. Reaumur undertook to dis- 
 cover a method of tinning iron sufficiently cheap to 
 admit the article to be manufactured in France and 
 he succeeded. The <;ilHeulty c i>!*ted in removing 
 the scales with which the irt/n plates, us prepared, were 
 always covered. These scales cons^t of a vitrified 
 oxide of iron, to which the tin will not unite. Reaumur 
 found, that when these plates are steeped in water 
 acidulated by means of bran, and then allowed to ru*t in 
 stoves, the scale* !M c<.:ne loose,' and are easily detached 
 by rubbtnir the plaUs with sand. If after bein^r thus 
 cleansed they are plunged into' melted tin, covered with 
 a little tallow to prevent oxidizement, they are easily 
 tinned. In conse<|uence of this explanation of the 
 process by Reaumur, tin-plate manufactories were 
 speedily established in different parts of France. It 
 was about the same time, or only a little before it, 
 that tin-plate manufactories were first started in Eng- 
 land. The English tin-plate was much more beautiful 
 than the German, mid therefore immediately preferred 
 to it ; because in Germany the iron was converted into 
 
THEORY I* CIIEMISTRT. 281 
 
 plates by hammering:, whereas in Ensrland it was rolled 
 out. This made it much smoother, and consequently 
 more beautiful. 
 
 Another art. at that time unknown in France* and 
 indeed in every part of Europe except Saxony, was 
 the art of making porcelain, a nnrw tfivcn to the 
 beautiful translucent stoneware which is brought from 
 China and Jupan. R^umur undertook to discover 
 the process employed in miking it. He procured 
 specimens of porcelain from Chins and Japan, and 
 also of the imitation* of those vessel* at that time 
 made in various p.irts of France and other European 
 countries The true porcelain remained unaltered, 
 though exposed to the most violent heat which he was 
 capable of producing ; but the imitations, in a fur- 
 nace heated by no mean* violently, rneltrd into a 
 perfect srla^s. Hence he concluded, that the imita- 
 tion-porcelains were merely <rla*s. not heated suffi- 
 ciently to be brought into fusion ; but tn!e porcelain 
 he concc'ved to be composed of tv.*o different ingre- 
 dients, one of winch is capable of resist in;r the most 
 violent heat which can be rai-ed, but the other, when 
 heated sufficiently, melts into a class. It is this last 
 inzre.'Iirnt that irixes porcelain its tran*luccucy, while 
 the other makes it refractory in the tire. This opinion 
 of Reaumur was soon after confirmed by Father 
 d'Entrecolles, a French missionary in China, who 
 sent some time after a memoir to the academy, de- 
 scribing the mode followed by the Chinese in the ma- 
 nufactory of their porcelain. Two substances are 
 employed by them, the one called kaolin and the 
 other pctfift$f. It is now known that kaolin is what 
 we call porcelain-clay, and that pcfvnfc is a fine 
 white felspar. Felspar is fusible in a violent heat, but 
 porcelain-clay is refractory in the highest temperatures 
 that we have it in our power to produce in furnaces. 
 
 Reaumur made another curious observation on 
 glass, which has been, since his time, employed very 
 
382 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 successfully to explain the appearances of many of 
 our trap-rocks. If a glass vessel, properly secured in 
 sand, be raised to a red heat, and then allowed to 
 cool very slowly, it puts off the apjiearunce of glass 
 and assumes that of stoneware, or porcelain. Vessels 
 thus altered have received the name of Reaumur's 
 porcelain. They are much more refractory than glass, 
 and therefore may be exjxjsed to a pretty strong red 
 heat without any danger of softening or losing their 
 shape. This change is occasioned by the jrlass being 
 kept long in a soft state : the various substances of 
 which it is composed are at liberty to exercise their 
 affinities and to crystallize. This makes the vessel lose 
 iU glassy structure altogether. In like manner it was 
 found by Sir James Hall and Mr. Gregory Watt, that 
 when common greenstone was heated sufficiently, 
 and then rapidly cooled, it melted and concreted into 
 a glass; but if after having been melted it was allowed 
 to cool exceedingly slowly, the constituents again 
 crystallized and arranged themselves as at first so 
 that a true greenstone was again formed. In the same 
 way lavas from a volcano either assume the appearance 
 of slag or of stone, according as they have cooled ra- 
 pidly or slowly. Many of the lavas from Vesuvius 
 cannot be distinguished from our yrecnstones. 
 
 Reaumur*! labours upon the thermometer must not 
 be omitted here ; because he gave his name to a ther- 
 mometer, which was long used in France and in other 
 parts of Europe. The first person that brought ther- 
 mometers into a state capable of being compared with 
 each other was Sir Isaac Newton, in a paper published 
 in the Philosophical Transactions for 1701. Fahren- 
 heit, of Amsterdam, was the first person that put 
 Newton's method in practice, by fixing two points on 
 his scale, the freezing-water point and the boiling* 
 water point, and dividing the interval between them 
 into one hundred and eighty degrees. 
 
 But no fixed point existed in the thermometers em- 
 
THEORY IX CIItMISTRT. 283 
 
 ployed in France, every one graduating 1 them accord- 
 ing to his fancy ; so that no. two thermometer* could 
 be compared together. Keumntir irradnated his ther- 
 mometers by plunging them into freezing water or a 
 mixture of snow and water. This point was marked 
 zero, and was called the freezing-water point. The 
 liquid used in his thermometers was spirit of wine : 
 he took care that it should be always of the same 
 strength, and the interval between the point of frcez- 
 inr and boiling water was divided into eighty decree*. 
 Deluc afterwards rectified thi* thermometer, by sub- 
 stituting mercury fur spirit of wine. This nut only en- 
 abled the thermometer to be used to measure hither 
 temperatures, but corrected an obvious error which 
 txi>tcd in all the .thermometers constructed upon 
 Reaumur's principle : for spirit of wine cannot bear a 
 temperature of eighty degrees Reaumur without being 
 dissipated into vapour absolute alcohol boiling at a 
 hundred and sixty-two degree* two-thirds. It is ob- 
 vious from this, that the boiling: point in Reaumur's 
 thermometer could not be accurate, and that it would 
 vary, accord in 7 to the quantity of empty space left 
 above the alcohol. 
 
 Finally, he contrived a method of hatching chickens 
 by means of artificial heat, as K practised in Egypt. 
 
 We are indebted to him also for a set of important 
 observations on the organs of digestion in birds. lie 
 showed, that in bird* of prey, which live wholly upon 
 animal food, digestion is performed by solvents in the 
 stomach, as is the case with digestion in man : while 
 those birds that live upon vegetable food have a very 
 powerful stomach or gi/zard, capable of triturating 
 the seeds which they swallow. To facil tate this tri- 
 turating process, these fowls are in the habit of swal- 
 lowing small pebbles. 
 
 The moral qualities of M. Reaumur seem not to have 
 been inferior to the extent and variety of his acquire* 
 ments. He was kind and benevolent, and remarkably 
 
284 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 disinterested. He performed the duties of intendant 
 of the c rder of St. Louis from the year 1735 till his 
 death, without accepting any of the emoluments of 
 the office, all of which were most religiously given to 
 the JHTMHI to whom they belonged, had she been ca- 
 pable of peitouuiii'.: the duties of the place. M. 
 Keaumur died on the 1 7th of October, 1750, after 
 having lived very nearly seventy-rive years. 
 
 John Hellot. was bora in Purls in the year 16R5, on 
 the *'0th of November. His father, Michael Hellot, 
 was of a respectable family, ami the early iiart of Kb 
 sou's education was at home: it >eems to have been 
 excellent, as you HIT IK Hot acquired the difficult ait 
 of writiniron all manner of subjects in a precise, clear, 
 and -elcjrant *t>lc. His father intended him for the 
 church ; but his own taste ltd him decidedly to the 
 study of chemistry. He had an uncle a physician, 
 some of whose papers on chemical subjects fell into 
 his hands. This circumstance kindled his natural taste 
 into a H nne : he formed an acquaintance with M. 
 Georlioy, whose reputation as a chemist was at that 
 time hitnh, and this friendship was afterwards cemented 
 by (icotiroy marrying the niece of M. Hcilot. 
 
 His rirrunistances l>einir ea<y, he went over to 
 Kiiirland. to form a j>crsonal acquaintance with the 
 many eminent philosophers who at that time adorned 
 that country. His fortune was considerably deransred 
 by Law's celebrated scliemt* during the reirehcy of the 
 Duke of Orleans.. This obliged him to look out for 
 some resource: he became editor of the Gazette dc 
 France, and continued in this employment from 1718 
 to 173*2. Duriiiir these fourteen years, however, he 
 did not m gleet chemistry, though his process was 
 not no rapid as it would ha\e been, could he have de- 
 voted to that science his undivided attention. In 17-TJ 
 he was put forward by his friends as a candidate for u 
 place in the Academy of Sciences; and in the year 
 1735 he was chosen adjunct chemist, vacant by the 
 
THEORY I!f CIItMISTRT. 285 
 
 promotion of M. de la Condamine to the place of as- 
 sociate. Three years after he was declared a super- 
 numerary pensioner, without passing; through the step 
 of associate. His reputation as a chemist was already 
 considerable, and after he became a member of the 
 academy, he devoted himself to the investigations 
 connected with his favourite science. 
 
 Hi? first labours were on zinc; in two successive 
 papers he endeavoured to decompose this metal, and 
 to ascertain the nature of its constituents. Though 
 his labour was unsuccessful , yet he pointed out many 
 new properties of this metal, and various new com- 
 pounds into which it enters. Neither was he more 
 successful in hi* attempt to account for the origin of 
 the red vapour* which arc exhaled from nitre in 
 certain circumstances. _ Ilt ascribed them to the 
 presence of ferruginous matters in the nitre;'' whereas 
 they are owins: to the expulsion and partial decompo- 
 sition of the nitric acid of the nitre, in consequence of 
 the action of *om more powerful acid. 
 
 His paper on sympathetic ink i* of more importance. 
 A Ge'nnan chemist had shown him a saline solution of 
 a red colour which bee. tme blue when heated : this 
 led him to form a sympathetic ink. which was p.ile 
 red, while the papjr was moist', but became blue upon 
 drying it by holding it to the tire. This sympathetic 
 ink wasa solution of cobalt in muriatic acid. It does 
 not appear from HeJIot's piper that he was exactly 
 aware of the chemical constitution of the liquid which 
 constituted hi< sympathetic ink; though it is clear he 
 knew that cobalt constitutes an essential part of it.. 
 
 Kunkei's phosphorus, though it had been originally 
 discovered in Germany 4 could not lx prepared by any 
 of the processes which had been iriven to the public. 
 Boyle had taught his operator, Godfrey Hankwitz, the 
 method of making it. This man hail, after Boyle** 
 death, opened a chemist's shop in London, and it was 
 be that supplied all Europe with this curious article ; 
 
286 HISTORY or CHEMISTRY. 
 
 on that account it was usually distinguished by the 
 name of English phosphorus. But in the year 1737 
 a stranger appeared in Paris, who ottered for a stipu- 
 lated reward to communicate the method of manufuc- 
 t iinni? this substance to the Academy of Sciences. 
 The offer was accepted by the French government, 
 and a committee of the academy, at the head of which 
 was Hellot, was appointed to witness the process, and 
 ascertain all its steps. The process was repeated with 
 success ; and Hcllot drew up a minute detail of the 
 whole, which was inserted in the Memoirs of the Aca- 
 demy, for the year 1737. The publication of this 
 paper constitutes an era in the preparation of phos- 
 phorus : it was henceforward in the power of every 
 chemist to prepare it for himself. A few years after 
 the process was much improved by M;irirraaf ; and, 
 within little more than twenty years after, the very 
 convenient process still in use was suggested bySchecle. 
 Hi-Hot's experiments on the comparative merits of the 
 salts of Peyrac, and of Pccais were of importance, 
 because they decided a dispute they may also per- 
 haps be considered as curiosities in an historical |x>int 
 of view ; I M cause \ve see from them the methods which 
 Hellot had recourse to at that early period in order to 
 determine the purity of common salt. They are not 
 entitled, however* to a more particular notice here. 
 
 In the year U40 M. Hellot was charged with the 
 'genera! insjjection of dyeing; a situation which 
 M. du Foy had held till the time of his death in 1739. 
 It was this appointment, doubtless, which turned his 
 attention to the theory of dyeing, which he tried to 
 explain in two memoirs read to the academy in 1740 
 and 1741. The subject was afterwards prosecuted by 
 him in subsequent memoirs which were published by 
 the academy. 
 
 In 174<> he was named to go to Lyons in order to 
 examine with care the processes followed for refining 
 gold and silver. Before hi* return he took care to 
 
THEORY I* CHEMISTRY. 287 
 
 give to these processes the requisite precision and ex- 
 actness. Immediately after his return to Paris he was 
 appointed to examine the different mines and assay 
 the different ores in France; this appointment led him 
 to turn his thoughts to the subject. The result of this 
 was the publication of an excellent work on assaying 
 and metallurgy, entitled ** De la Fonte des Mines, des 
 Fondcrics. &c. Trad nit de I'AIIemanddc Christophe- 
 Andre Selilutter." The first volume of this book 
 appeared in 17.50. and the second in 1753. Thoujrh 
 this book is railed by Hellot a translation, it contains 
 in fact a great deal of original matter; the arrange* 
 ment is quite altered ; many processes not noticed by, 
 Schliitter are {riven, and many essential articles arc 
 introduced, which had been totally omitted in the 
 original work. He begins with an introduction, in 
 which he gives a short sketch of all the mines existing 1 
 in every part of France, together with some notice of 
 the present state of each. The first volume treats en- 
 tirely of docimasy, or the art of assaying the different 
 metallic ores. Though this art has been much im- 
 proved since Hellot's time, yet the processes given in 
 this volume are not without their value. The second 
 volume treats of the various mttailurgic processes fol- 
 lowed in order to extract metals from their ores. This 
 volume is furnished with no fewer than fifty-five plates, 
 in which all the various furnaces, Arc. used in these 
 processes are exhibited to the eye. 
 
 While occupied in preparing this work for the press 
 he was chosen .to endeavour to brinq: the porcelain ma- 
 nufactory at Sevre to a. greater state of perfection than 
 it had yet reached. In this he was successful. He 
 even discovered various new colours proper for paint- 
 ing upon porcelain ; which contributed to give to this 
 manufactory the celebrity which it acquired. 
 
 In the year 1763 a phenomenon at that time quite 
 new to France took place in the coal-mine of Brianqon. 
 A quantity of carburettcd hydrogen gas had collected 
 
888 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 in the bottom of the mine, and being kindled by the 
 lights employed by the miners, it exploded with great 
 violence, and killed or wounded every person in the 
 mine. This destructive gas, distinguished in this 
 country by the naincof/r/T -damp, had been long known 
 in Great Britain and in the Jjow Countries, though 
 it had not before been known in France. The Duke 
 de Choiseul, informed of this event, had recourse to 
 the academy for assistance, who appointed Messrs, de 
 Montigny, Duhamel, and lit Hot, a committee to 
 endeavour to discover the remedies proper to prevent 
 any such accident from happening for the future. The 
 report of these gentlemen was published in the Me- 
 moirs of the Academy ;* they give an account both of 
 the tire-damp, and cltoke-dttittp, or carbonic acid yas> 
 which sometimes also makes its appearance in coal- 
 mines. They very justly observe that the proper way 
 to obviate the iiiconvcnienry of these gases is to venti- 
 late the mine properly; and tlu-y irive various methods 
 by which this ventilation may be promoted by means 
 of tires lighted at the bottom of the shaft, Ac. 
 
 In 1?(>.'J M. Hellot was appointed, conjointly with 
 M.Tillet,to examine the process followed for assaying 
 pold and silver. They ihowed that the cupels always 
 retained a small portion of the silver assayed, and 
 that this loss, ascribed to the presence of a foreign 
 metal, made the purity of the silver be always reckoned 
 under the truth, which occasioned a lo.-s to the pro- 
 prietor. 
 
 His health continued tolerably good till he reached 
 his eightieth year: he was then struck with palsy, but 
 partially recovered from the first attack ; but a second 
 attack, on the 13th of February, 17G5, refused to 
 yield to every medical tieatment, and he died on 
 the 15th of that month, at an age a little beyond 
 eighty, 
 
 1763, p. 235. 
 
THEORY IX CIir.MISTRY. 289 
 
 Henry Louis Dui.amel du Monccau was horn at 
 Paris in the .vear 1700. He was descended from 
 Loth Duhamel, a Dutch gentleman, who came to 
 France in the suite of the infamous Duke of Bur- 
 gundy, about the year 1400. Young Duhamel was 
 educated in the College of Harcourt ; hut the course 
 of study did not suit his taste. He left it with only 
 one fact engraven on his memory that men, by ob- 
 serving nature, had created a science called physics; 
 and he resolved to profit by his freedom from restraint 
 and turn the whole of his attention to that subject. 
 He lodged near the Jardin du Roi, where "alone, at 
 that time, physics were attended to in Paris. Dufoy, 
 Geoff roy, Lcmcry, Jus-icu, and Vaillant, were the 
 friends with whom ho -associated on coining to Paris. 
 His industry was stimulated solely by a love of study, 
 and by the pleasure which he derived from the increase 
 of knowledge ; love of fame does not appear to have 
 entered into his account. 
 
 In the year 1718 saffron, which is much cultivated 
 in that part of France formerly distinguished by the 
 name of Gaf inois, where Duhamcf s property lay, was 
 attacked by a malady which appeared contagious. 
 Healthy bulbs, when placed in the neighbourhood of 
 those that were diseased, soon, became affected with 
 the same malady.- Government consulted the aca- 
 demy on the subject ; and this learned body thought 
 they co'ild not do better than request M. Duhamel to 
 investigate the cause of the disease ; though he was 
 only eighteen year* of age, and not even a member 
 of the academy. He ascertained that the malady 
 was owing to a'parasitical plant, which attached itself 
 to the bulb of the saffron, and drew nourishment from 
 it. This plant extended under the earth, from one 
 bulb to another, and thus infected the whole saffron 
 plantation?. 
 
 M. Duhamel formed the resolution at the com- 
 mencement of bis scientific, career to devote himself 
 
 VOL. I. V 
 
290 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY* 
 
 to public utility, and to prosecute those subjects which 
 were likely to contribute most effectually to the com- 
 fort of the lower ranks of men. Much of his time 
 was spont in endeavouring to promote the culture of 
 vegetables, and in rendering that culture more useful 
 to society. This naturally led to a careful study of 
 the physiology of trees. The fruit of this study he 
 gave to the world in the year 1758, when his Physique 
 des Arbres was published. This constitutes one of 
 the nu.st important works on the subject which has 
 ever ajl|>earcd. It contains a grout number of new 
 and original facts ; and contributed very much indeed 
 to advance this difficult, but must important branch 
 of science : nor is it It ss remarkable for modesty than 
 for value. The facts gathered from other sources, 
 even those which make auainst his own options, are 
 most carefully and accurately stated : the experiment! 
 that preceded his are repeated and verified with much 
 care; and the reader is left to disc-over the new facts 
 and new views of the author, without any attempt 
 on his part to claim the in as his own. 
 
 M. Dultamel had been attached to the department 
 of the marine by Al.de Maurepas, who had given him 
 the title of l$pecfar~QtncraL This led him to turn 
 his attention to naval science in general. The con- 
 struction of vessi-ls, the weaving of sailcloths, the 
 construction of ropes and cables, the method of pre- 
 serving the wood, occupied his attention successively, 
 and 'gave birth to several treatises, which, like all his 
 works, contain immense collections of facts and exjKTi- 
 ments. lie endeavours always to discover which is 
 the best practice, to reduce it to fixed rules, and to 
 support it by philosophical principles ; but abstains 
 from all theory when it can be supported only by 
 hypothesis. 
 
 From tlu k year 1740, when he became an academi- 
 cian, till his death in 1781, he made a regular set of 
 meteorological observations at Pitlmiers, with details 
 
TIirOHT IN CHEMISTRY. 291 
 
 relative to the direction of the needle, to agriculture, 
 to the medical constitution of the year, and to the time 
 of nest-building, and of the postage of birds. 
 
 Above sixty memoirs of his were published in the 
 Transactions of the French Academy of Sciences. 
 They are so multifarious in their nature, and embrace 
 such a variety of subjects, that 1 shall not attempt 
 even to give their titles, but satisfy myself with stating 
 such only as bear more immediately upon the science 
 of chemistry. 
 
 It' will be proper in conducting this review to notice 
 the result of his labours connected with the ossification 
 of bones; because, though not strictly chemical, they 
 throw light upon some branches of the animal economy, 
 more closely connected with chemistry than with any 
 other of the sciences. He examined, in the first place, 
 whether the ossification of INMICS. and their formation 
 and reparation, did not follow the same law that he 
 had assigned to the increments of trees, and lie esta- 
 blished, by a set of experiments, that bones increase 
 by the ossification of layers of the periosteum, as trees 
 do by the hardening of their cortical layers. Hones in 
 a soft state increase in every direction, like the young 
 branches of plants ; but after their induration they in-' 
 erease only like trees, by successive additions of suc- 
 cessive layers. This organization was incompatible 
 with the opinion of those, who thought that hone* in* 
 creased by the addition of an earthy matter deposited 
 in the meshes of the organized network which form* 
 the texture of bones. 31. Duhamel combated this 
 opinion by an inironious experiment. He had been 
 informed by Sir Hans .Sloane that the lx>nes of young 
 animals fed UJKHI madder were tinned red. He con<- 
 ceived the plan of feeding them alternately with food 
 mingled with madder, and with ordinary food. The 
 bones of animals thus treated were found to present 
 alternate concentric layers of red and white, corre- 
 sponding to the different periods in which the animal 
 u 2 
 
292 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 had been fed with food containing or not containing 
 madder. When these bones are sawn longitudinally we 
 see the thickness of the coloured layers, greater or less, 
 according to the number of plates of the periosteum 
 that have ossified. As for the portions still soft, or 
 susceptible of extending themselves in every direction, 
 such as the plates in the neighbourhood of the mar- 
 row, the reservoir of which increases during a part of 
 the time that the animal continues to grow, the red 
 colour marks equally the progress of their ossification 
 by coloured points more or less extended. 
 
 This opinion was attacked by Hal hi, and defended 
 by M. Fougeroiix, nephew of M. Duhamel ; but it is 
 not our business here to inquire how fur correct. 
 
 One of the most import ant of M. DuhanuTs papers, 
 which will secure Ins name a proud station in the 
 annals of chemistry, is that which was inserted in 
 the Memoirs of the Academy for 1737, in which he 
 shows that the b.ise of common salt is a true fixed 
 alkali, different in some respects from the alkali ex- 
 tracted from land plants, and known by the name of 
 jjotush, but similar to that obtained by the incinera- 
 tion oi* marine plants. \Ve are surprised that a tact 
 so simple and elementary was disputed by the French 
 chemists, and rather indicated than proved by Stahl 
 and his followers. The conclusions of Duhamel were 
 disputed by Pott ; but finally confirmed by Margraaf. 
 M. Duhamel carried hi* .researches further, lie wished to 
 know ii'thcditicreiice between potash and soda dt pemls 
 on the plants that produce them, or on the nature of 
 the soil in which they grow. He sowed kali at iKauin- 
 villiers, and continued his experiments tinting a great 
 number of years. M. Cadet, at hi* request, examined 
 the salts t ontaineJ in the ashes of the k.ili of Denaln- 
 villii is. He found that during the first year soda pre- 
 dominated iu these ashes. Dining the successive 
 years the potash increased rapidly, and at last the 
 soda almost entirely disappeared, It was obvious from 
 
TIirORY IN* CHEMISTRY. 293 
 
 this, that the alkalies in plants arc drawn at least 
 chiefly from the soil in which they vejretate. 
 
 The memoirs of M. Duhamcl on ether, at that time 
 almost unknown, on soluble tartars, and on lime, con- 
 tain many facts both curious and accurately stated ; 
 though our present knowledge of these bodies is so 
 much greater than his the new farts ascertained re^ 
 sptTtin:r them are so numerous and important, that the 
 contributions of this early experimenter, which pro- 
 bably had a considerable share in the success of sub- 
 sequent investigation*, are now almost forgotten . Nor 
 would many readers bear patiently with an attempt 
 to enumerate them. 
 
 There is a curious paper of his in the Memoirs of 
 the Academy for 1757. In this he jrive* the details 
 of a spontaneous combustion of larjc pieces of 
 cloth soaked in oil and strongly pressed. Cloth thus 
 prepared had often produced similar accidents. Those 
 who were fortunate enough to prevent them, took care 
 to conceal the facts, partly from ignorance of the real 
 cause of the combust ion, and partly from a fear that if 
 they were to state what they saw. their testimony would 
 not piin credit. If the combustion had not been pre- 
 vented, then the public voice would Inve charged those 
 who had the care of the cloths with culpable ne^li^ence, 
 or even with criminal conduct. The observation of 
 M. Duhamel, therefore, was useful, in order to prevent 
 such unjust suspicions from hindering those concerned 
 from takinir the requisite precautions. Yet, twenty 
 years after the publication of his pajx?r, two accidental 
 spontaneous combustions, in Russia, were ascribed to 
 treason. The empress Catharine II. alone suspected 
 that the combustion was spontaneous, and experi- 
 ments made by her orders fully confirmed the evidence 
 previously advanced by the French philosopher. 
 
 One man alone would have been insufficient for all 
 the labours undertaken by M. Duhamel ; but he had 
 a brother who lived upon his estate at Dcnainv illien* 
 
$94 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 (the name of which he bore), and divided his time be- 
 tween the performance of benevolent actions and 
 studying the operations of nature. AI. Ucnainvillier* 
 prosecuted in his retreat the observations and experi- 
 ments intrusted by his brother to his charge. Thus 
 in fact the memoirs of Duhamcl exhibit the assi- 
 duous labours of two individuals, one of whom con- 
 tentedly remained, unknown to the world, satistied 
 with the good which he did, and the favours which he 
 Conferred upon his country and the human race. 
 
 The works of AI. Duhumcl are very voluminous, 
 and are all written with the utmost plainness. Every 
 thing is elementary, no previous knowledge is taken 
 for granted. His writings are not addressed to philo- 
 sophers, but to all those who are in quest of practical 
 knowledge. He has been accused of dirlusentss of 
 style, and of want of correctness; but his style is 
 simple and clear; and as his object was to inform, not 
 philosophers, but the common people, greater con- 
 ciseness would have been highly injudicious. 
 
 Neither he n *r his brother ever married, but thought 
 it better to devote their undivided attention to study. 
 Both were assiduous in no .ordinary degree, but the 
 ardour of Duhumel himself continued nearly undi- 
 minished till within a year of his death ; when, though 
 he still attended the meetings of the academy, he no 
 longer took the same interest in its proceedings. On 
 the 2'2d of July, 1781, just after leaving the academy, 
 he was struck with apoplexy, and died after lingering 
 twenty-two days in a state of coma.- 
 
 He was without doubt One of the most eminent men 
 of the aire in which he lived ; but his merits as a che- 
 mist will chierly be remembered in consequence of hi* 
 being the tir>t person who demonstrated by satisfac- 
 tory evidence the peculiar nature of soda, which had 
 been previously confounded with potash. His merits 
 as a vegetable physiologist and n<?n"jUn?i$t were of a 
 vc-rj - t ian. * 
 
TlirORY IV CIIFMISTRY. 295 
 
 Peter Joseph Marcjuer was born at Paris, in 1718. 
 His father, Joseph Macnucr, was descended from a 
 noble Scottish family, which had sacrificed its property 
 and its country, out of attachment to the family of 
 the Stuarts.* Youit Alac|uer made choice of medi- 
 cine as a profession, and devoted himself chicHy to 
 chemistry, for which he showed early a decided taste, 
 lie was admitted a member of the Academy of 
 Sciences in the year I74.J, when he was twenty-seven 
 years of aj;e. Original researches in chemistry, the 
 com[Mition of chemical elementary works, and the 
 study of the arts conncetcd with chemistry, occupied 
 the whole remainder of his l.fe. 
 
 His iir>t piper treated of the effect produced by 
 heating a mixture of salt pet re and white arsenic. It was 
 previously known, that when such a mixture is distilled 
 nitric acid comes over tinned with a blue colour; but 
 nobody had thought of examining the residue of this 
 distillation. Mac<|tier found it soluble in water and 
 capable of crystal I i/.inr into a neutral salt composed 
 of potash (the base of saltpetre), and an acid into 
 which the arsenic was changed by the nitric acid com- 
 municating oxyiren to it. 
 
 Macrpicr found that a similar salt mi^ht be obtained 
 with soda or ammonia for its base. Thus he was the 
 first person who pointed out the existence of arsenic 
 ac ; d, and ascertained the proj>erties of some of the 
 salts which it forms. But he made no attempt to ob- 
 tain arsenic acid in a separate state, or to determine its 
 properties. That very important step was reserved 
 for Scheele, for Macquer seems to have had no sus- 
 picion of the true nature of the salt which he had 
 formed. 
 
 * I do not know what the true name was of which Macqner 
 is a corruption. Ker is a Scottish name belonging to two noble 
 families, the Duke of Roxburgh and the Marquis of Lothian ; 
 but I am not aware of M'Krr brine a Scottish name: besides, 
 neither of these families was attached to the house of Stuart. 
 
296 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 His next set of experiments was on Prussian blue. 
 He made the first step towards the discovery of the na- 
 ture of the principle to which that pigment owes its 
 colour. Prussian blue had been accidentally dis- 
 covered by Diesbach, an operative chemist of Berlin, 
 in 1710, but the mode of producing it was kept secret 
 till it was published in 17*24, by Dr. Woodward in- the 
 Philosophical Transactions. It consisted in mixing 
 potash and blood together, and heating the mixture in 
 a covered crucible, having a small hole in the lid, till 
 it ceased to give out smoke. The solution of this mix- 
 ture in water, when mixed with a solution of sulphate 
 of iron, threw down a green powder, which became 
 blue when treated with muriatic acid : this blue mat- 
 ter was Prussian Hue. Macquer ascertained that 
 when Prussian blue is exposed to a red heat its blue 
 colour disappears, and it is converted into common 
 peroxide of iron. Hence he concluded that Prussian 
 blue is a compound of oxide of iron, and of some- 
 thing which is destroyed or driven oft' by a red heat. 
 He showed that this something possessed the charac- 
 ters of an acid ; for when Prussian blue is boiled with 
 caustic potash it loses its blue colour, and if the potash 
 be boiled with successive port ons of Prussian blue, 
 as long as it is capable of discolouring them, it loses 
 the characters of an acid and assumes those of a neu- 
 tral salt, and at the same time acquires the property 
 of precipitating iron from the solutions of the sul- 
 phate at once of a blue colour. Marqticr ascribed 
 the green colour thrown down, by mixinir the blood- 
 lie and sulphate of iron to the potash in the blood lie, 
 not being sat uruted with the colouring matter of Prus- 
 sian blue. Hence a portion of the iron is thrown 
 down in the state of Prussian blue, and another por- 
 tion in that of yellow oxide of iron: these two being 
 mixed form a green. The muriatic acid dissolves the 
 yellow oxide and leaves the Prussian blue untouched. 
 Macquer, however, did not succeed in determining the 
 
THEORY IK CHEMISTRY. 297 
 
 nature of the colouring matter; a task reserved for 
 Scheele, whose lot it was to take up the half- finished 
 investigations of Macquer, and throw upon them a. 
 now and brilliant lijrht. Macquer thought that this 
 colouring matter \vas/iA/m/i.</m. On that account the 
 potash saturated with it, which was employed by che- 
 mists to detect the presence of iron by forming with 
 it Prussian blue, was called phloyisticatcd alkali. 
 
 Macquer, conjointly with Baume, subjected the 
 irrains of crude platinum, to which the attention of 
 chemists had been newly drawn, to experiment. Their 
 principle object was to examine its fusibility and duc- 
 tility. They succeeded in fusing it imperfectly, by 
 means of a burning 1 mirror, and found that the grains 
 thus treated were not destitute of ductility. But upon 
 the whole the experiments of the-e chemists threw 
 but little light upon the subject. Many years elapsed 
 before chemists were able to work this refractory metal, 
 and to make it into vessels fitted for the uses of the 
 laboratory. For this important improvement, which 
 constitutes an era in chemistry, the chemical world 
 was chiefly indebted to Dr. Wo'llaston. 
 
 In the year 17.50 M. Macquer was charged with a 
 commission by the court. There existed at that time 
 in Brittany a man, the Count de la Garaie, who, 
 .yield ing to a passion for benevolence, had for forty 
 years devoted himself to the sen ice of suffering hu- 
 manity. He had built an hospital by the side of a 
 chemical laboratory: betook care of the patien s in" 
 the hospital himself; and treated them with medicines . 
 prepared in his laboratory. Some of these were new, 
 and, in his opinion, excellent medicines ; and he 
 offered to sell them to government for the service of 
 ins hospital. Macquer was charged by government 
 with the examination of these medicines. The project 
 of the Count de la Garaie was to extract the salutary 
 parts of minerals, by a long maceration with neutral 
 
398 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 salts. Among other things he had prepared a mer- 
 curial tincture, by a process which lasted several 
 mouths: but this tincture was merely a solution of 
 corrosive sublimate in spirit of wine. Such is the 
 history of most of those boasted secrets ; sometimes 
 they are chimejical, and SOUK- times known to aii the 
 world, except to those who purchase them. 
 
 M. Alac| HIT had the fortune to live at a time when 
 chemistry began to be freed from the reveries of ai- 
 chymists ; but methodical arrangement was a merit 
 still unknown to the elementary chemical hooks, t s- 
 pecially in France, where a residue of CaiUsianism 
 ail' led to the natural obscurity of the science, by sur- 
 charging it with pretended mechanical explanations. 
 Macqucr was the h'rst French chemist who gave to an 
 elementary treatise the same clearness, simplicity, and 
 method, which is to be found in the other branches of 
 science. This was no small merit, and undoubtedly 
 contributed considerably to the rapid improvement of 
 the science which so speedily followed. His elements 
 of chemistry were translated into different languages, 
 especially into English ; and long- constituted the text- 
 book employed in the different European universities. 
 Dr. Black recommended it for many years in the Uni- 
 versity of Edinburgh. Indeed, it was only superseded 
 in consequence of the new views introduced into che- 
 mistry by Lavoisier, which, requiring a new language 
 to render them intelligible, naturally superseded all 
 the elementary chemical books which had preceded 
 the introduction of that language. 
 
 Macqucr, during a number of years, delivered re- 
 gular courses of chemical lectures, conjointly with 
 liaume. In these courses he preferred that arrange- 
 ment which appeared to him to require the least pre- 
 liminary knowledge of chemistry. He described the 
 experiments, stated the facts with clearness and pre- 
 cision, and explained them in the way which appeared 
 
THEORY IX CHEMISTRY. 299 
 
 to him most plausible, according to the opinions gene- 
 rally received ; but without placing much confidence 
 in the accuracy of these explanations. He thought it 
 necessary to theorize a little, to enable his pupils the 
 better, to connect the facts and to remember them; 
 and to put an end to that painful state of uncertainty 
 which always result* from a collection of facts without 
 any theoretical links to bind them together. When 
 the discoveries of Livoisier bc^aii to shake the foun- 
 dation of the Stahliun theory, Mac<juer was old ; and 
 it ap|>ears from a letter of his, published by Dela- 
 .inctltcric in the Journal de Physique, that he was 
 alarmed at the prophetic announcements of Lavoisier 
 in the academy that the reign of Phlogiston was 
 drawing towards an end. M. Condorcct assures us 
 that his attachment to theory, by which he means 
 phlogiston, was by no means strong;* but his own 
 letter to Delametherie rather shows that this state- 
 incut was not cjuite correct. How, indeed, could he 
 fail to experience an attachment to opinions which it 
 iiad been the business of his whole life to inculcate f 
 
 Macquer also published a dictionary of chemistry, 
 which was very successful, and which was translated 
 into most of the Kurop'-an languages. This mode of 
 treating chemistry was well suited to a science still in 
 its infancy, and which did not yet constitute a com- 
 plete whole. It enabled him to discuss the different 
 topics in succession, and independent of each other : 
 and thus to introduce much important matter which 
 could not easily have been introduced into a systematic 
 work on chemistry. The second edition of this dic- 
 tionary was published just at the time when the pases 
 began to attract the attention of scientific men ; when 
 tacts began to multiply with prodigious rapidity, and to 
 shake the confidence of chemists in all received theo- 
 ries. He acquitted himself of the difficult task of 
 
 Hist, de 1* Acad. R. des Sciences, 1/84, p. 24. 
 
300 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 collecting and stating these new facts with consider- 
 able success ; and doubtless communicated much new 
 information to his countrymen : for the discoveries 
 connected with the gases originated, and were chiefly 
 made, in England, from which, on account of the re- 
 volutionary American war, there was some difficulty 
 of obtaining early information. 
 
 M. Hellot, who was commissioner of the counsel 
 for dyeing, and chemist to the porcelain manufacture, 
 requested to have M. Macquer for an associate. This 
 request did much honour to Hellot, as he was conscious 
 that the reputation of Macquer as a chemist was su- 
 perior to his own. Macquer endeavoured, in the first 
 place, to lay down the true principles of the art of 
 dyeing, as the best method of dissipating the obscurity 
 which still hung over it. A great part of his treatise 
 on the art of dyeing silk, published in the collection 
 of the Academy of Sciences, has these principles for 
 its object. He gave processes also for dyeing silk 
 with Prussian blue, and for giving to silk, by means 
 of cochineal, as brilliant a scarlet colour as can be 
 given to woollen cloth by the same dye-stuff. He 
 published nothing on the porcelain manufacture, 
 though he attended particularly to the processes, and 
 introduced several ameliorations. The beautiful por- 
 celain earth at present used at Sevre, was discovered in 
 consequence of a premium which he offered to any 
 person who could point out a clay in every respect 
 proper for making porcelain. 
 
 Macquer passed a great part of his life with a bro- 
 ther, whom he a Meet ion at el y loved : after his death 
 he devoted himself entirely to his wife and two chil- 
 dren, whose education he superintended. He was 
 rather averse to society, but conducted himself while 
 in it with much sweetness and affability. He was 
 fond of tranquillity and independence. Though his 
 health had been injured a good many years before his 
 death, the calmness and serenity of his temper pre- 
 
THEORY IN CHEMISTRY. 301 
 
 vented strangers from bein<; aware that he was afflicted 
 with any malady. He himself was sensible that his 
 strength was gradually sinking ; he predicted his ap- 
 proaching end to his 'wife, whom he thanked for the 
 happiness which she had spread over his life. He left 
 orders that his body should be opened after his cle- 
 reasc, that the cause of his death micht be discovered. 
 He died on the 1.5th of February, 1784. An ossifi- 
 cation of the aorta, and several calculous concretions 
 found in the cavities of the heart, had been the cause 
 of the disease under which he had suffered for several 
 years before his death. 
 
 Thee four chemists, of whose lives a sketch has 
 just been pven, were the most eminent that France 
 ever produced bclonginc: to the Stahlian school of che- 
 mistry. Baron. Malouin, Rouelle senior, Tillet, 
 Cadet, Baume, Saye, and several others whose names 
 I purposely omit, likewise cultivated chemistry, during 
 that period, with assiduity awl success; and were each 
 of them the authors of papers which deserve attention, 
 hut which it would be impossible to particularize 
 without swelling this work into a size greatly beyond 
 its proper limit*. 
 
 Hilaire-Marin Roucllc, who was born at Caen in 
 1718, was, however, too eminent a chemist to be 
 passed over in silence. His elder brother, William 
 Francis, was a member of the Academy of Sciences, 
 and (lejnonstrator to Macquer. who crave lectures in the 
 .Jardin du Roi. At the death of Macqiicr, in 1770, 
 Hilairc- Maria Rouelle succeeded him. He devoted the 
 whole of his time and money to tlti* situation, and quite 
 altered the nature of the experimental course of che- 
 mistry iven in the Jan I in du Hoi. He was in some 
 measure the author of the chemistry of animal bodies, 
 ut least in France. When he published his experi- 
 ments on the salts of urine, and of blood, he had 
 scarcely any model ; and though he committed some 
 considerable mistakes, he ascertained several essential 
 
302 HISTOET OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 and important facts, which have been since fully coo* 
 finned by more modern experimenters. He died on the 
 7th of April, 1779, aged sixty-one years. His temper 
 was peculiar, and he was too honest and too open for 
 the situation in which he was placed, and for a state 
 of society in which every thing was carried by intrigue 
 and finesse. This is the reason why, in France, his 
 reputation was lower than it ought to have been. It 
 accounts, too, for his never becoming a member of the 
 Academy of Sciences, nor of any of the other nume- 
 rous academies which at that time swarmed in France. 
 Nothing is more common than to find these unjust 
 decisions raise or depress men of science far above 
 or far below their true standard. Rome de Lisle, the 
 first person who commenced the study of crystals, and 
 placed that study in a proper point of \ie\v, was a man 
 of the same stamp witli the younger Houelle, and 
 never on that account, became a member of any aca- 
 demy, or acquired that reputation during his lifetime, 
 to which his laborious career justly entitled him. It 
 would be an easy, though an invidious task, to point 
 out various individuals, especially in France, whose 
 reputation, iu consequence of accidental and adventi- 
 tious circumstances, rose just as much atove their 
 dest rts, as those of Uoucllc, and Home de Lisle were 
 sunk below. 
 
CIIE.MISTRT i* CHEAT BRITAIN. 303 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 OF THE FOrXDATIOX ANI> PROr.RF.3 OF SCIENTIFIC 
 CHEMISTRY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 TIIF spirit which Newton had infused for the ma- 
 thematical science was so great. that during many years 
 thoy drew within their vortex sdmo<f all the scientific 
 im n in Great Britain. Dr. Stephen Hales is almost the 
 only remarkable exception, dnrinir the early part of the 
 eighteenth century. His vegetable states constituted 
 a most ingenious and valuable contribution to vegeta- 
 ble physiology. His lurninstatics was a no less valu- 
 able contribution to iatro-mathcmatics, at that time 
 the fashionable medical theory in (treat Britain. While 
 his nn'itysif ttf w/r, and experiments on the animal 
 calculus constituted, in all probability, the foundation- 
 stone of the whole discoveries respecting: the irases to 
 which the great subsequent progress of chemistry is 
 chiefly owinsr- 
 
 Dr.* Willhun Cullen, to whom medicine lies under 
 deep oblivions, and who afterwards raised the 
 medical celebrity of the College of Edinburgh to so 
 high a pitch, had the merit of first perceiving the 
 importance of scientific chemistry, and the reputa- 
 tion which that man was likely to earn, who should 
 devote himself to the cultivation of it. Hitherto che- 
 mistry in Great Britain, and on the continent also, 
 was considered as a. mere appendage to medicine, and 
 ixt'u 1 only so far as at contributed to the formation of 
 
304 HISTORY OP CH F M1STR Y. 
 
 new and useful remedies. This was the reason why it 
 came to constitute an essential part of the education 
 of every medical man, and why a physician was con- 
 sidered as unfit for practice unless he was also a 
 chemist. But Dr. Culien viewed the science as far 
 more important ; as capable of throwing light on the 
 constitution of bodies, and of improving and amending 
 of those arts and manufactures that are most useful 
 to man. lie resolved to devote himself to its cultiva- 
 tion and improvement; and he would undoubtedly 
 have derived celebrity from this science, had not his 
 fate led rather to the cultivation of medicine. But 
 Dr. Culien, as the true eommeneer of the study of 
 scientific chemistry in ( livat Britain, claims a conspi- 
 cuous place in this historical sketch. 
 
 William Culien was born in Lanarkshire, in Scot- 
 land, in the year 1712, oa the 1 1th of December. HU 
 father, though chief magistrate of Hamilton, was not 
 in circumstances to lay out much money on his son. 
 William, therefore, after. serving an apprenticeship to 
 a surgeon in Glasgow, went several voyages to the 
 West Indies, as surgeon, in a trad ing- vessel from 
 London ; but tiring of this, he settled, when very 
 young, in the parish of Shotts ; and after residing 
 tor a short time among the farmers and country people, 
 he went to Hamilton, with a view of practising as a 
 physician. 
 
 While he resided near Shotts, it happened that 
 Archibald, Duke of Argyle, \vho at that time bore the 
 chief political sway in Scotland, paid a visit to a 
 gentleman of rank in that neighbourhood. The duke 
 was fond of science, and was at that time en imaged in 
 some chemical researches which required to be eluci- 
 dated by experiment. Kager in these pursuits, while 
 on his visit he found himself at a loss for some piece 
 of chemical apparatus which his landlord could not 
 furnish ; but he mentioned young Culien to the duke 
 us a person fund of chemistry, and likely therefore to 
 
CHEMISTRY IX GREAT BRITAIN. 305 
 
 possess the required apparatus. He was accordingly 
 invited to dine, and introduced to his Grace. The 
 duke was so pleased with his knowledge, politeness, 
 and address, that an acquaintance commenced, which 
 l.iid the foundation of all CtillciTs future advancement. 
 
 His residence in Hamilton naturally made his name 
 known to the Duke of Hamilton, whose palace is 
 situated in the immediate vicinity of that town. His 
 (iraco being taken with a sudden illness, sent for 
 Cullen, and was highly delighted with the sprightly 
 character, and ingenious conversation of the young 
 physician. He found no difficulty, especially as young 
 Cullen was already known to the Duke of Argyle, in 
 getting him appointed to a place in the University of 
 (ilasgow, where his singular talents as a teacher soon 
 became very conspicuous. 
 
 It was while Dr. Cullen was a practitioner in Shotts 
 that he formed a connexion with William, afterwards 
 Doctor Hunter, the famous lecturer on anatomy in 
 London, who was a native of the same part of the 
 country as Cullen. These two young men, stimulated 
 by genius, though thwarted by the narrowness of their 
 rireiimstanoes, entered into a copartnery business, as 
 surgeons and apothecaries, in the country. The chief 
 nbjeet of their contract was to furnish I ho parties with 
 the means of carrying on their medical studies, which 
 they WITO not able to do separately. It was stipulated 
 that one of them, alternately, should !H allowed to study 
 in whuteuT eollego ho preferred, during the winter, 
 while the other carried on the common business in h $ 
 absence. In consequence of this agreement, Cullen 
 was first allowed to study .in the University of Edin- 
 burgh, fora winter. When it camr to Hunter's turn 
 next winter, he rather chose t<> 1:0 to txmdon. Thero 
 ins singular neatness in dissecting, and uncommon 
 dexterity in making anatomical preparations, his assi- 
 duity in study, his mild manners, and easy temper, 
 drew upon him the attention of Dr. Douglas, who at 
 
 VOL. i. x 
 
306 BISTORT OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 that time read lectures on anatomy and midwifery in 
 the capital, lie en^asred him as hi* assistant, and 
 he afterwards succeeded him in the same department 
 with much honour to himself, and advantage to the 
 public. Thus was dissolved a copartnership of per- 
 haps as singular a kind as any that occurs in the 
 annals of science. Cullen was not disposed to let any 
 en^asTt-nunt with him prove a bar to his partner's 
 advancement in the world. The articles were aban- 
 doned, and Cullen and Hunter kept up ever after a 
 friendly correspondence; though there is reason to 
 believe that they never afterwards met. 
 
 It was while a .country practitioner that young: Cul- 
 len married a Miss Johnston, daughter of a neighbour- 
 ing clergyman. The connexion was fortunate and last- 
 ing. She brought her husband a numerous family, and 
 continued his faithful companion through ail the altera- 
 tions of his fortune. She died in the summer of .1786. 
 
 In the year 1746 Cullen, who had now taken the de- 
 gree of doctor of medicine* was appointed lecturer on 
 chemistry in the University of G!a*2Tow; and in the 
 mouth of Octi>ber -bt-^an a course on that science. 
 His singular talent for arranirement, his distinctness 
 of enunciation, his vivacity of manner, and his know- 
 ledge of the science which he taught, rendered his 
 lecturer interesting' to a decree \\hich had been till 
 then unknown in that university : he was a< lured 
 by the students. The former professors were eclipsed 
 by the brilliancy of his reputation, and he had to 
 encounter all those little rubs and insults that dis- 
 appointed envy naturally threw in his way. But he 
 proceeded in his career re-jan Hess of these petty mor- 
 tifications; ami *upjx.rU'd by the public, he was more 
 than consoled for the contumely heaped upon him by 
 the illnatiire and pitiful malignity of his colleagues. 
 His practice us .a physician increased every day, and a 
 vacancy occurring in the chair in 17.">1, he was ap- 
 pointed by the crown professor of medicine, which put 
 
cnr*nsTHT iv GREAT BRITAIN*. 307 
 
 him on a footing of equality with his colleagues in the 
 university. This new appointment called forth powers 
 which he was not before known to posses*, and thus 
 served still further to increase his reputation. 
 
 At that time the patrons of the University of Edin- 
 burgh were eagerly bent on raising the reputation of 
 their medical school, and were in consequence on the 
 look out for men of abilities and reputation to rill their 
 respective chairs. Their attention was soon drawn 
 towards Cullen, and on the death of Dr. Plummer, in 
 17/36. he was unanimously invited to fill the vacant 
 chemical cfiftir. He accepted the invitation, and be- 
 pn hi* academical career in the College of Edinburgh 
 in October of that year, and here he continued during 
 tlir remainder of hi* life. 
 
 The appearance of Dr. Cullen in the College of 
 E linhunrh constitutes a memorable era in the progress 
 of that celebrated school. Hitherto chemistry b ( Ai\% 
 reckoned of little importance, had been attended by 
 very few students ; when Cullen be^an to lecture it 
 became a favourite study, almost all the students 
 Hocking to hear him, and the chemical class becoming 
 immediately more numerous than any other in the 
 collesre, anatomy alone excepted. The students in 
 irrneral spoke of the new professor with that rapturous 
 ardour so natural to youns: men when highly pleased. 
 Tho^e eulo<rmms were doubtless extravagant, and 
 proved di-:ru-tin<r to his colleagues. A party was 
 termed to oppose thi< m w favourite of the public. 
 Hi* opinions were misrepresented, it was affirmed 
 that he tanjrht doctrines which excited the alarm 
 of some of the mn*t moderate and conscientious 
 of his colleagues. Thus a violent ferment was ex- 
 cited, and some time elapsed before the malignant 
 arts by which this flame had been blown up were dis- 
 covered. 
 
 During: this time of pnblic ferment Cullen went 
 steadily forward : he never cave an car to the gossip 
 x 2 
 
30S . union? or CHEMISTRY. 
 
 brought him respecting the conduct of his colleagues, 
 nor did he take any notice of the doctrines which they 
 taught. Some of their unguarded strictures on him- 
 self might occasionally have come to his ears; but if 
 it was so, he took no notice of them whate%-er; they 
 seemed to have made no impression on him. 
 
 This futile attempt to lower his character being thus 
 baffled, his fame as a professor, and his reputation as 
 a physician, increased daily : nor could it be other* 
 wise ; his professional knowledge was always great, 
 and his manner of lecturing singularly clear and in- 
 telligible, lively, and entertaining. To his patients his 
 conduct was so pleasing, his address so affable and 
 engaging, and his manner so open, so kind, and so 
 little regulated by pecuniary considerations, that those 
 who once applied to him for medical assistance could 
 never afterwards dispense with it: he became the friend 
 and companion of every family he visited, and his fu- 
 ture Acquaintance could not be dispensed with. 
 
 His private conduct to his students was admirable, 
 and deservedly endeared him to every one of them. 
 He was so uniformly attentive to them, and took so 
 much interest in the concerns of those who applied 
 to him for advice; was so cordial and so warm, 
 that it was imrjosMble for any one, who had a heart 
 susceptible of generous emotions, not to be delighted 
 with a conduct so uncommon and so kind, it was 
 this which served more than any'thiu** else to extend 
 his reputation over every civilized quarter of the j> ;lobe. 
 Among ingenuous youth gratitude easily devrenerates 
 into rapture; hence the popularity which he enjoyed, 
 and which to those who do not well weiirh the causes 
 which operated on the students mu-^t aj>|>ear excessive. 
 The general conduct of Cullen t- his students was 
 this: with all such as he observed to be attentive 
 and diligent he formed an early acquaintance, by in- 
 viting the'n bv twos, by threes, and by f >urs at a time 
 to sup with him; conversing with them at such time* 
 
CHEMISTRY IN' GREAT BRITAIN*. 309 
 
 with the most en^airini: case, entering freely -vith them 
 into the subject of their studies, their aini'scments, 
 their difficulties, their hopes and future prospect*. In 
 this way he usually united the whole of his numerous 
 class till he made himself acquainted with their pri- 
 vate character, their abilities, and their object? of pur- 
 suit. Those of whom he formed the highest opinion 
 were of course invited most frequently, till an intimacy 
 was gradually formed which proved highly beneficial 
 to them. To their doubts and difficulties he listened 
 with the most obliiins: condescension/and he solved 
 them to the utmost of his power. His library was at 
 all times open for their accommodation: in short, he 
 treated them as if they had been all his relatives and 
 friends. Few men of distinction left the University of 
 Edinburgh, in his time, with whom he did not keep up 
 a correspondence till they were fairly established in 
 business. This enabled him gradually to form an ac- 
 curate knowledge of the state of medicine in every 
 country, and the knowledge thus acquired put it in 
 his power to direct students in the choice of places 
 where they mijht have an opportunity of engaging in 
 business with a reasonable prospect of success. 
 
 Nor was it in this way alone that he befriended the 
 students in the University of Edinburgh. Remembering 
 the difficulties with which lie had himself to struggle 
 in his younger days, he was at all times singularly 
 attentive to the pecuniary wants of the students. From 
 the general intimacy which he contracted with them he 
 found no difficulty in discovering those whose circum- 
 stances were contracted, or who laboured under any 
 pecuniary embarrassment, without being under the 
 necessity of hurting their feeling* by a direct inquiry. 
 To such persons, when their habits of study admitted 
 it, he was peculiarly attentive : they were more fre- 
 quently invited to his house than others, they were 
 treated with unusual kindness and familiarity, they 
 were conducted to his library and encouraged by the 
 
310 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 most delicate address to borrow from it freely whatever 
 books he thought they had occasion for; and as persons 
 under such circumstances are often extremely shy, 
 books were sometimes pressed upon them as a sort 
 of task, the doctor insisting upon knowing their opinion 
 of such and such passages which they had not r^ ad, 
 and desiring tin m to carry the book home for that pur- 
 pose : in short, he behaved to them as if he had courted 
 their company. He thus raised them in the opinion 
 of their acquaintances, which, to persons in their cir- 
 cumstances, was of no little consequence. They were 
 inspired at the same time with a secret sense of dignity y 
 which elevated their minds, and excited an uncommon 
 ardour, instead of that desponding inactivity so natural 
 to depressed circumstances. Nor was he less delicate 
 in the manner of *up|jlyittg their wants: he oiteu 
 found out some polite excuse for rcfuMiig to take 
 money for a first course, and never was at a loss for 
 one to an after course. Sometimes (as his lectures 
 were never written) he would request the favour of a 
 sight of their notes, if he knew that they were taken 
 with care, in order to refresh his memory. Sometime < 
 he would express a wish to have their opinion of a parti* 
 cular part of his course, and presented them with a ticket 
 for the purpose. By such delicate pieces of address, 
 in which he greatly excelled, he took care to anticipate 
 their wants. Thus he not only gave them the benefit 
 of his own lectures, but by refusing to take money 
 enabled them to attend such others as were necessary 
 for completing their course of medical study. 
 
 He introduced another general rule into the uni- 
 versity dictated by the same spirit of disinterested be* 
 nevolence. Before he came to Edinburgh, it was the 
 custom of the medical professors to accept of fees for 
 their medical attendance when wanted, even from 
 medical students themselves, though they were per- 
 haps attending the professor's lectures at the time* 
 But Dr. Culku never would take a fee from any &tu 
 
CHEMISTRY I* GREAT BRITAIN. 311 
 
 dent of the university, though he attended them, when 
 called on as a physician, with the same assiduity and 
 : care as if they had been person* of the first rank who 
 paid him most liberally. This gradually led others to 
 follow Ins example ; and it has now Income a general 
 rule for medical professors to decline taking any feet 
 when their assistance is necessary to a student. For 
 this useful reform, as well as for many others, the stu- 
 dents in the University of Edinburgh are entirely in- 
 debted to Dr. Cullen. 
 
 The first lectures which Dr. Cullen delivered in 
 Edinburgh were on chemistry ; and for many years he 
 also gave lectures on the cases that occurre 1 in the 
 infirmary. In the month of February, 17<3, Dr. Alston 
 died, after ha vinj Iteirun his usual course of lectures 
 on the materia medica. The magistrates of Edin- 
 burgh, who are the patrons of the university, appoint- 
 ed Dr. Cullen to that chair, requesting that he would 
 finish the course of lectures that had been In'gun by 
 his predecessor. This he agreed to do, and, though he 
 had only a few days to prepare himself, he never once 
 thought of reading the lectures of his predecessor, but 
 resolved to deliver a new course, which -should be en- 
 tirely his own. Some idea may be, formed of the popu- 
 larity of Cullen, by the increase of student's to a class 
 nearly half finished : Dr. Alston had been lecturing 
 to ten ; as soon as Dr. Cullen began, a hundred new 
 students enrolled themselves. 
 
 Some years after, on the death of Dr. \Vhytt, pro- 
 fessor of the theory of medicine, Dr. Cullen was ap- 
 pointed to give lectures in his stead. It was then that 
 he thought it requisite to resign the chemical chair in 
 favour of Dr. Black, his former pupil, whose talentf 
 in that department of science were well known. Soon 
 after, on the death of Dr. Rutherford, professor of the 
 practice of medicine, Dr. John Ctregory hating be- 
 come a candidate for this place, along with Dr. Cul- 
 len, a sort of compromise took place between them, by 
 
312 . HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY* 
 
 which they agreed to give lectures alternately* on the 
 theory afid practice of medicine, during their joint 
 lives, the longest survivor being allowed to hold either 
 of the classes he should incline. Unluckily this ar- 
 rangement was soon destroyed, by the sudden and 
 unexpected death of Dr. Gregory, in the Mower of his 
 age. Dr. Cuilcn thenceforth continued to give lec- 
 tures on the practice of medicine till withhi a few 
 months of his death, which happened on the 5th of 
 February, 1790, when he was in the seventy-seventh 
 year of his age. 
 
 It is not our business to follow Dr. Cullcn's medical 
 career, nor to point out the great !>enctits which he 
 conferred on nosology and the practice of medicine. 
 He taught four different classes ia the University of 
 Edinburgh, which we are not aware to have happened 
 to any other individual, except to professor Dugald 
 Stewart. 
 
 Notwithstanding the important impulse whieh he 
 gave to chemistry, he published nothing upon that 
 cience, except a short paper on the cold produced by 
 .he eva|>oration of ether, which made its appearance 
 'n one of the volumes of the Edinburgh Physical and 
 Literary Essays. Dr. Cullen employed Dr. Dobsou 
 of Liverpool, at that time his pupil, to make experi- 
 ments on the heat and cold produced by mixing 
 liquids and solids with each other. Dr. Dobson, in 
 making these experiments, observed that the ther- 
 mometer, when lifted out of many of the liquids, and 
 suspended a short time in the air beside them, fell to a 
 lower decree than indicated by another thermometer 
 which had undergone no such process. After vary- 
 ing his observations on this phenomenon, he found 
 reason to conclude that it was occasioned by the eva- 
 poration of the last drop of liquid which adhered to the 
 bulb of the thermometer; the sinking of the thermome- 
 ter being always greatest when this instrument was 
 taken out of the most volatile liquids* Dr. Cuilcn had 
 
CHEMISTRY IN GREAT BRITAIX. 313 
 
 the curiosity to try whether the same phenomenon 
 would appear on repeating these experiments under 
 the exhausted receiver of an air-pump. To satisfy 
 himself, he put on the plate of the air-pump a glass 
 goblet containing water; and in the goblet he placed a 
 wide-mouthed phial containing sulphuric ether. The 
 whole was covered with an air-pump receiver, having 
 at the upper end a collar of leathers in a brass socket, 
 through which a thick smooth wire could be moved ; 
 and from the lower end of this wire, projecting into 
 the receiver, was suspended a thermometer. By 
 pushing down the wire, the thermometer could be dip- 
 ped into the ether ; by drawing it up it could be taken 
 out, and suspended over the phial. 
 
 The appaiatus being thus adjusted, the air-pump 
 was worked to extract the air. An unexpected phe- 
 nomenon immediately appeared, which prevented the 
 experiment from being made in the way intended. 
 The ether was thrown into a violent agitation, which 
 Dr. Cullen ascribed to the extrication of a great 
 quantity of air: in reality, however, it was boiling 
 violently. What was still more remarkable, the ether, 
 by this boiling or rapid evaporation, became all of a 
 sudden so cold, as to freeze the water in the goblet 
 around it ; though the temperature of the air and of all 
 the materials were at the fifty-fourth degree of Fahren- 
 heit at the beginning of the experiment. 
 
 I have been particular in giving an account of this 
 curious phenomenon, as it was the only direct contri- 
 bution to the science of chemistry which Dr. Cullen 
 communicated to the public. The nature of the phe- 
 nomenon was afterwaids explained by Dr. Black ; in 
 addition to Dr. Cullen, a philosopher, whom the grand 
 stimulus which his lectures gave to the cultivation of 
 scientific chemistry in this country, had the important 
 merit of bringing forward. 
 
 Joseph Black was born in France, on the banks of 
 the Garonne, in the year 1728 : his father, Mr. John 
 
314 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY* 
 
 Black, was a native of Belfast, but of a Scottish family 
 which had been for some time settled there. Mr. Black 
 resided for the most purt at Bordeaux, where he was 
 engaged in the wine trade. He married a daughter of 
 Mr. Robert Gordon, of the family of Hilhead, in Aber- 
 deenshire, who was also engaged in the same trade at 
 Bordeaux. Mr. Black was a gentleman of most 
 an:iahlc manners, candid and liberal in his sentiments, 
 and of no common information. These qualities, to* 
 get her with the warmth of his heart, appear very con- 
 spicuous in a scries of letters to his son, which that 
 son preserved with the nicest care. His good qualities 
 did not escape the discerning eye of the great Montes- 
 quieu, one of the presidents of the court of justice in 
 that province. This illustrious and excellent man 
 honoured Mr. Black with a friendship and intimacy 
 altogether rare; of which his descendants were justly 
 proud. 
 
 Long before Mr. Black retired from business, his 
 son Joseph was sent home to Belfast, that he mi-jht 
 have the education of a British subjert. This was in 
 the year 1740, when he was twelve years of age. After 
 the ordinary instruction at the grammar-school, he was 
 sent, in 1746, to continue his education in the. Uni- 
 versity of Glasgow. Here he studied with much assi- 
 duity and success : physical science, however, chieHy 
 engrossed his attention. He was a favourite pupil of 
 Dr. Robert Dick, professor of natural philosophy, and 
 the intimate companion of his son and successor. This 
 young professor was of a character peculiarly suited to 
 Dr. Black's taste, having the clearest conception, and 
 soundest judgment, accompanied by a modesty that 
 was very uncommon, \\hen he succeeded his father, in 
 1751, he became the delight of the students. .He was 
 carried oH'by a fever in 1757. 
 
 Young Black Ik'ing required by his father to make 
 choice of a profession, he preferred that of medicine 
 a* the most suitable to the general habiu of his studies. 
 
CIIF.MISTRY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 315 
 
 Fortunately Dr. Gallon had just l>egun his great 
 career in the College of Glasgow, and having made 
 choice of the field of philosophical chemistry which 
 lay as yet unoccupied before him. Hitherto chemistry 
 hud been treated as a curious and useful art; but Cul- 
 Jen saw in it a vast department of the science of nature, 
 depending on principles as immutable as the laws of 
 mechanism, and capable of beim; formed into a system 
 as comprehensive and as com pit te as astronomy it<olf. 
 He conceived the resolution of attempt!')? himself to 
 explore this magnificent field, and cxj>ccted much re- 
 putation from accomplishing hi* object. Nor was he 
 ltd gather disappointed* He quickly took the science 
 out of the hands of artists, and exhibited it as a study 
 fit for a gentleman. Dr. Black attended his chemical 
 lectures, and, from the character which has already 
 been given of him, it is needless, to say that he soon 
 discovered the uncommon value of his pupil, and at- 
 tached him to himself, rather as a co-operator and a 
 friend, than a pupil. He was considered as his assist- 
 ant in all his operations, and his experiments were fre- 
 quently adduced in the lecture as good authority. 
 
 Young Black laid down a very comprehensive and 
 serious plan of study. This appears from a number 
 of note-books found among his papers. There are 
 some in which he seems to have inserted every thing 
 as it took his fancy, in medicine, chemistry, juris- 
 prudence, or matters of taste. Into others, the same 
 things are transferred, but distributed according to 
 their scientific connexions. In short, he kept a 
 journal and ledger of his studies, and has posted his 
 books like a merchant. What particularly strikes one 
 in looking over these books, is the steadiness with 
 which he advanced in any path of knowledge. Things 
 are inserted for the first" time from some present im- 
 pression of their singularity or importance, but with- 
 out any allusion to their connexions. When a thing 
 of the same kind is mentioned again, there is gene* 
 
316 HISTORY OP CHEMISTRY. 
 
 rally a reference back to its fellow ; and thus the most 
 isolated facts often acquired a connexion which gave 
 them importance. 
 
 He went to Edinburgh to finish his medical studies 
 in 1 750 or 1751 , where he lived with his cousin german, 
 Mr. J anus Kussel, professor of natural philosophy ia 
 that university. 
 
 It was the good fortune of chemical science, that 
 at this very time the opinions of professors were di- 
 vided concerning the manner in which certain lilhon- 
 triptic medicines, particularly lime-water, acted in 
 alleviating the excruciating pains of the stone and 
 gravel. The students usually partake of such diiicr- 
 ences of opinion : they are thereby an'mated to more 
 serious study, and science gains by their emulation. 
 This was a subject quite to the taste of young Mr. 
 Black, one of Dr. Cullen's most zealous and intelli- 
 gent chemical pupils. It was, indeed, a most inter- 
 esting subject, both to the chemist and the physician. 
 
 All the medicines \\hu-h were then in vogue as sol- 
 vents of urinary calculi had a greater or lc>s resem- 
 blance to caustic potash or soda ; substances so acrid,, 
 when in a concentrated state, that in a short time they 
 reduce the fleshy parts of the animal body to a mere 
 pulp. Thus, though they might possess lithontriptic 
 properties, their exhibition was dangerous, if in un- 
 skilful hands. They all seemed to derive their effi- 
 cacy from quicklime, which a^uin derives its power 
 from the fire. It was therefore very natural for them 
 to ascribe its power to igneous matter imbibed from 
 the tire, retained by the lime, and communicated by 
 it to alkalies, which it renders powerfully acrid. Hence, 
 undoubtedly, the term caustic applied to the alkalies 
 in that state, and hence also the acidum pinyue of 
 Mayer, which was a peculiar state of fire. It appears 
 from Dr. Black's note-books, that he originally enter- 
 tained the opinion, that caustic alkalies acquired 
 igneous matter from quicklime. la one of them he 
 
CI1L.M1STRT IN GRtAT BRITAIN. 317 
 
 hints at some way of catching this matter as it escapes 
 from lime, while it becomes mild by exposure to the 
 air ; but on the opposite blank page *is written, " No- 
 thing escapes the cup rises considerably by absorb- 
 in? air." A few pages further on, he compares the 
 loss of weight sustained by an ounce of chalk when 
 calcined, with its loss while dissolved in muriatic acid. 
 Immediately after this, a medical case is mentioned, 
 which occurred in November, 17.V2. Hence it would 
 appear, thit he had before that time suspected the real 
 cause of the difference between limestone and burnt 
 lime. He had prosecuted his inquiry with vigour ; for the 
 experiments with magnesia are soon after mentioned. 
 
 These experiments laid open the whole mystery, as 
 appears by another memorandum. " When I preci- 
 pitate lime by a common alkali there is no efferves- 
 cence : the air quits the alkali for the lime; but it is 
 lime no longer, but C. C. C. : it now effervesces, which 
 good lime will not.'* What a multitude of important 
 ^consequences naturally flowed from this discovery ! He 
 now knew to what the causticity of alkalies is owinsr, 
 and how to induce it or remove it at pleasure. The 
 common notion was entirely wersed. Lime imparts 
 nothing to the alkalies; it only removes from them 
 a peculiar kind of air (carhmiic acid gas) with which 
 they were combined, and which prevented their na- 
 tural caustic properties from beinTdeveloj)ed. All the 
 former mysteries disappear, and the jrreatest simplicity 
 appears in those operations of nature which before 
 appeared so intricate and obscure. 
 
 Dr. Black had fixed uj>on this subject for his in- 
 au<rural di-sertation,and was induced, in consequence, 
 to defer applying for his decree till he had succeeded 
 in establishing his doctrine beyond the possibility of 
 contradiction. The inaugural essay was delivered at 
 a moment peculiarly favourable to the advancement 
 of science. Dr. Cullen had been just removed to 
 Edinburgh, and there was a vacancy in the chemical 
 
31ft HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY, 
 
 chair in. Glasgow : it could not be bestowed better 
 than on such an alumnus of the university on one 
 .who hud distinguished himself both as a chemist and 
 an excellent reasoner ; for few finer models of induc- 
 tive in vest i<ration exist than are displayed in Black's . 
 essay on quicklime and magnesia. He was appointed 
 professor of anatomy and lecturer on chemistry in the 
 University of Glasgow in J75(>. It was a fortunate 
 circumstance both for himself and for the public, that 
 a situation thus presented itself, just at the time when 
 lie was under tin? necessity of settling in the world 
 a situation which allowed him to dedicate his talents 
 chieHy to the cultivation of chemistry, his favourite 
 science. 
 
 When Dr. Black took his degree in medicine, he 
 sent some copies of his essay to his father at Bor- 
 deaux. A copy was given by the old gentleman to 
 his friend, the President Montesquieu, who, after a 
 few days called on Mr. Black, and said to him, 
 " Mr. Black, my very good friend, I rejoice with 
 you : your son will be the honour of your name and 
 family." This anecdote was told Professor John Ro- 
 bison by the brother of Dr. Black. 
 
 Thus Dr. Black, while in (Jlusirow, taught at one 
 and the same time two different clashes. He did not 
 consider himself very well }iruliticd to teach anatomy, 
 but determined to do hi* utmost; but he soon after- 
 wards made arrangements with the professor of medi- 
 cine, who, with the concurrence of the university, 
 'exchanged his own chair for that of Dr. Black. 
 
 Black's* medical lectures constituted his chief :task 
 while in filas^uw. They gave the trreatest satis- 
 faction by their perspicuity and simplicity, and by 
 the cautious moderation of all his general doctrines: 
 and, indeed, all \\\< perspicuity, and all his neatness 
 of manner in exhibiting simple truth*, were necessary 
 to create a reli-h for moderation and caution, after the 
 brilliant prospects of systematic knowledge to. which 
 
CHEMISTRY IN" GREAT BRITAIN'. 319 
 
 the students had been accustomed by Dr. Cullcn, his 
 celebrated predecessor. But Dr. Black had no wish 
 to form a medical school, distinguished by some all- 
 comprehending doctrine : he satisfied himself with a' 
 clear account of as much of physiology as he thought 
 founded on good principles, and a short sketch of such 
 general doctrines as were maintained by the most emi- 
 nent author*, though perhaps on a less firm founda- 
 tion. He then endeavoured to deduce a few canons 
 of medical practice, and concluded with certain rules 
 founded on successful practice only, but not dedu- 
 cible from the principles of physiology previously laid 
 down. With his medical lectures he does not appear 
 to have been himself entirely satisfied : he did not 
 encourage conversation on the different topics, and 
 . no remains of these lectures were to be found among 
 his papers. The preced in? account of them was given 
 to Professor Robison by a surgeon in Glasgow, who 
 attended the two last medical courses which Dr. Black 
 ever delivered. 
 
 Dr. Black's reception at Glasgow by the university 
 was in the highest degree encouraging. His former 
 conduct as a student had not only done him credit in 
 his classes, but had conciliated the affection of the 
 professors to a very high decree. He became imme- 
 diately connected in the strictest friendship with the 
 celebrated Dr. Adam Smith a friendship which con- 
 tinued intimate and confidential through the whole of 
 their lives. Both were remarkable for a certain sim- 
 plicity of character and the most incorruptible inte- 
 grity. Dr. Smith used to say, that no one had less 
 nonsense in his head than Dr. Black ; and he often 
 acknowledged himself obliged to him for setting him 
 right in hi* judgment of character, confessing that he 
 himself was too apt to form his opinion from a single 
 feature. 
 
 It was during his residence in Glasgow, between 
 the years 1759 and 1763, that he brought to maturity 
 
320 HISTORY or CHEMISTRY. 
 
 those speculations concerning the combination of heat 
 with matter, which had frequently occupied a por- 
 tion of his thoughts. It had long been known that ice 
 has the property of continuing Always at the tempera* 
 tureof 3*2* till itbe melted. Thishappens equally though 
 it be placed in contact with the warm hand or sur- 
 rounded with bodies many decrees hotter than itself. 
 The hotter the bodies are that surround it, the sooner 
 is it. melted; but its temperature during the whole 
 process of melting, continues uniformly the same. Yet, 
 during the whole process of melting, it is constantly 
 robbing the surrounding bodies of heat; for it makes 
 them colder, without acquiring itself any sensible heat. 
 Dr. Black had some vague notion that the heat so 
 received by the ice, during its conversion into water, 
 was not lost, but was contained in the water. This 
 opinion was founded chiefly on a curious observation 
 of Fahrenheit, recorded by Bocrhaave; namely, that 
 water might in some cases be made considerably colder 
 than melting snow, without free/ing. In such cases, 
 when disturbed it would freeze in a moment, and in 
 the act of free/ing always gave out a quantity of heat. 
 This opinion was continued by observing the slowness 
 with which water is converted into ice, and ice into 
 water. A fine winter-day of sunshine is never stifK- 
 cient to clear the hills of snow ; nor is one frosty 
 night capable of covering the .ponds with a thick coat- 
 ing of ice. The phenomena sutistit-d him that much 
 heat was ubsorlnnl and Hxed in the water which trickles 
 from wreaths of snow, and that much hcut emerged 
 from it while water was slowly converted into ice; 
 for during a thaw the melting snow is always colder 
 than the uir, and must, therefore, be alwavs receiving 
 heat from it; while, during ;i frost, the air is always 
 colder than the freezing water, and must therefore be 
 always receiving heat from it. These observations, 
 and many others which it is needless to state, satisfied 
 Dr. Black that when ice is converted into water it 
 
CHEMISTRY IN GREAT BRITAIN'. 321 
 
 twites with a quantity of heat, without increasing in 
 temperature ; and that when water is frozen into ice 
 it '.rives out a quantity of heat without diminishing in 
 temperature. The heat thus combined is the cause 
 of the fluidity of the water. As it is not sensible to 
 the thermometer. Dr. Black called it latent heat. He 
 made an exjxriment to deter.nine the quantity of heat 
 necessary to convert ice into water. This he estimated 
 by the length of time necessary to melt a given weight 
 of ice, measuring how much heat entered into the 
 game, weight of water, reduced as nearly to the tern- 
 ]>crature of ice as possible during the first half-hour 
 that the experiment lasted. As the ice continued 
 .during the whole of its melting at the same temper- 
 ature as at first, he concluded that it would absorb, 
 every half-hour that the process lasted, as much heat 
 as the water did during the first half hour. The re- 
 sult of this ex]>criment was, that the latent heat of 
 water amounts to 140; or, in other words, that this 
 heat, if thrown into a quantity of water, equal in 
 weight to that of the ice mclu-cf, would raise its tern- 
 j>erature 140. 
 
 Dr. Black, having established this discovery in 
 the most incontrovertible manner by simple and 
 decisive experiments, drew up an account of the 
 whole investigation, and the doctrine which he founded 
 upon it, and read it to a literary society which met 
 every Friday in the faculty-room of the college, con- 
 sist incr of the members of the university and several 
 gentlemen of the city, who had a relish for science 
 and literature. This* paper was read on the 23d of 
 April, as appears by the renters of the society. 
 
 Dr. Black quickly perceived the vast importance of 
 this discovery, and'took a pleasure in lay inr before 
 his students a \iew of the beneficial effects of this ha- 
 bitude of heat in the economy of nature. During the 
 summer season a vast mairazine of heat was accumu- 
 lated in the water, which, by gradually emerging 
 
 rot. I. Y 
 
322 HISTORY or CHEMISTRY. 
 
 during congelation, serves to temper the cold of winter. 
 Were it not for this accumulation of heat in water and 
 other bodies, the sun would no sootier go a few decrees 
 to the south of the equator, than we should feel all 
 the horrors of winter. He did not confine his views 
 to the congelation of water alone, but extended them 
 to every case of congelation and liquefaction which 
 he has ascribed equally to the evolution or fixation 
 of latent heat. Even those bodies which change from 
 solid to fluid, not all at once, but by slow degrees, as 
 butter, tallow, resins, owe, he found, their gradual 
 softening to the same absorption of heat, and the same 
 combination of it with the substance undergoing lique- 
 faction. 
 
 Another subject that engaged his attention at this 
 time, was an examination of the scale of the thermo- 
 meter, to learn whether equal differences of expansion 
 corresponded to equal additions or abstractions of 
 heat. His mode was to mix together equal weights of 
 water of different temperatures, and to measure the 
 temperature of the mixture by a thermometer. It is 
 obvious that the teni|*rature must be the exact mean 
 of that of the two portions of water ; and that if the 
 expansion or contraction of the mercury in the ther- 
 mometer l>e an exact measure of the difference of 
 temperature, a thermometer, so placed, will indicate 
 the exact mean. Suppose one pound of water at 100 
 to be mixed with one pound of water at 200% and the 
 whole heat >till to remain in the mixture, it is obvious 
 that it would divide itself equally between the two 
 portions of water. The water of 100" would become 
 hotter, and the water of 200" would become colder: 
 and the increase of temperature in the colder portion 
 would be just as much as the diminution of temperature 
 in the hotter portion. The colder portion would be- 
 come hotter by 50*, while the hotter portion would 
 become colder by 50*. Hence the real temperature, 
 after mixture, would be 150*; and a thermometer 
 
CHEMISTRY IX GREAT BRITAIN. 323 
 
 plunged into such a mixture, if a true measurer of 
 heat, would indieate 150*. The result of his experi- 
 ments was, that as high up as he eould try by mixing 
 water of different temperatures, the mereiirial thermo- 
 meter is an accurate measurer of the alterations of 
 temperature. 
 
 An account of his experiments on tins subject was 
 drawn up by him, and read to the literary society of 
 the Collcgc'of Glasgow, on the 28th of March, 1760. 
 Dr. Black, at the time he made these experiments, did 
 not know* that he had IKCII already anticipated in 
 them by Dr. Brooke Tavlor, the celebrated mathema- 
 tician, who had obtained similar results, and had con- 
 .siirned his experiments to the Royal Society, in whose 
 Transactions for 17*23 they were published. It h<$ 
 been since found by Coulomb and Petit, that at higher 
 trmjxraturcs than 21 4 2" the rate of the expansion of 
 mercury begins to increase. Hence it happens that 
 at high temj>cnitures the expansion of mercury is no 
 longer an accurate measurer of temperature. Fortu- 
 nately, the expansion of glass very nearly equals the . 
 increment of that of mercury. The conseque nee is, 
 that in a common irlass-thermometer mercury mea- 
 sures the tnie increments of temperature very nearly 
 up to its boiling point ; for the boiling. point of mer- 
 cury measured by an air-thermometer is 6f> 4 2* : and if 
 a glass mercurial thermometer be plunged into Iwiling 
 mercury, it will indicate 660", a diflerencc of only 2* 
 from the true point. 
 
 There is such an analogy between the cessation of 
 thermometric expansion during the liquefaction of ice, 
 and during the conversion of water into steam, that 
 their could be no hesitation about explaining lioth in 
 the same way. Dr. Black immediately concluded 
 that as water is ice united to a certain quantity of Intent 
 heat, so steam is water united to a still greater quan- 
 tity. The slow conversion of water into steam, not- 
 withstanding the great quantity of heat constantly 
 T2 
 
324 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY* 
 
 flowing into it from the fire, led no reasonable doubt 
 aU)ut the accuracy of this conclusion. In short, all 
 the phenomena are precisely similar to those of the 
 conversion of ice into water ; and so, of course, must 
 the f xplunation be. So much was he convinced of 
 this, that he taught the doctrine in his lectures in 
 17(>l, before he had made a single experiment on the 
 subject ; and he explained, with great felicity of ar- 
 gument, many phenomena of nature, which result 
 from this vaporifie combination of heat. From notes 
 taken in his class during this session, it apjiears that 
 nothing more was wanting to complete his views on 
 this subject, than a set of experiments to determine the 
 exact quantity of heat which was combined in steam 
 in a state not indicated by the thermometer, and there- 
 fore Intent, in the same sense that the heat of lique- 
 faction in water is In teat. 
 
 The requisite experiments were first attempted by 
 Dr. Black, in 1704. They consisted merely in mea- 
 suring the time requisite to convert a certain weight 
 of water of a given temperature into steam. The 
 water wns put into a tin-plate wide-mouthed vessel, 
 and laid upon a red-hot plate of iron, the initial tern, 
 pcratnreof the water was marked, and the time ne- 
 cessary to heat it from truit point to the boiling point 
 noted, and then the time requisite to boil the whole to 
 dryness. It was taken for granted that as much heat 
 would enter into the water during every minute that 
 the experiment lasted, as did during the first minute. 
 From this it was concluded tint the latent heat of 
 steam is not less than 810 degrees. 
 
 Mr. Jamvs Watt afterwards rej>eated these experi- 
 ments with a better apparatus and very great care, 
 anil calculated from his results that the latent heat of 
 steam is not under 9.00 decrees. Lavoisier and Laplace 
 afterwards made exp riments in a different way, and 
 deduced 1000 as the result of their experiments. 
 The subsequent experiments of Count Humiurd, meda 
 
CIIF.MISTIIY IX GREAT IWITAIX. 325 
 
 in a very ingenious manner, so as to obviate most of 
 the sources of error, to which such researches are 
 liable, come very nearly to those of I^avoisicr. lOtXP 
 therefore, is usually now-a-days adopted a* the num- 
 ber which denotes the true latent heat of steam. 
 
 Dr. Black continued in the University of Glasgow 
 from 1756 to 1766, much esteemed as an eminent 
 professor, much employed as an able and attentive 
 physician, and much beloved as an amiable and ac- 
 complished man, happy in the enjoyment of a small 
 but select society of friends. Meanwhile his reputa- 
 tion as a chemical philosopher was every day increasing 
 and pupils from foreign countries carried home with 
 them the peculiar doctrines of his courses ^so that 
 Jlxcd air and latent heat began to be spoken of 
 among; the naturalists of the continent. In 1766 Dr. 
 Ctillcn, at that time professor of chemistry in Edin- 
 burgh, wa* appointed professor of medicine, and thus 
 a vacancy was made in the chemical chair of that 
 university. There was but one wish, with regard to a 
 successor. Indeed, when the vacancy hapj>ened in 
 17.56, on the death of Dr. Plummer, the reputation of 
 Dr. Black, who had just taken hi* decree, was so high, 
 both as a chemist and an accurate thinker and rea- 
 soner, that, had the choice depended on the university, 
 he would have been the new professor of chemistry. 
 He had now, in 1 766, greatly added to his claim of 
 merit by his important discovery of latent heat ; and 
 he had acquired the esteem of all by the sinirular mo- 
 deration and scrupulous caution which marked all hi* 
 researches. 
 
 Dr. Black was appointed to the chemical chair in 
 Edinburgh in 1766, to the general satisfaction of 
 the public, but the University of Glasgow suffered an 
 irreparable loss. In this new situation his talents were 
 more conspicuous and more extensively useful. He 
 saw that the case was so, and while he could not but 
 be gratified by the number of students whom the high 
 
HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY 
 
 reputation of Edinburgh, as a medical school, brought 
 together, his mind was forcibly struck by the impor- 
 tance of hi* duties as a teacher. This ltd him to form 
 tlu> resolution of devoting the whole of his study to the 
 improvement of his pupils in the elementary knowledge 
 of chemistry. Many of them came to his class with 
 a very scanty stock of previous knowledge. Many 
 from the workshop of the manufacturer had lit tie or none. 
 He was conscious that the nund* r of this kind of pupils 
 must increase with the increasing activity and prospe- 
 rity of the country ; and they appeared to him by no 
 means the least important part of his auditory. To en- 
 gage the attention of such pupils, and to be perfectly 
 understood by the most illiterate of his audience, Dr. 
 Black considered as a sacred duty : he resolved, 
 therefore, that plain doctrines taught in the plainest 
 manner, should henceforth employ his chief study. To' 
 render his lectures perfectly intelligible they were il- 
 lustrated by suitable experiments, by the exhibition of 
 specimens, and by the repetition of chemical processes. 
 To this nu-thod of lecturing Dr. Black rig idly adhered, 
 endeavouring every year to make his courses more plain 
 and familiar, and illustrating them by u greater variety 
 of examples in the way of experiment. \o man could 
 perform these more neatly or successfully ; they were 
 always ingeniously and judiciously contrived, clearly 
 establishing the point in view, and were never more 
 complicated than was sufficient for the purpose. Nothing 
 that had the least appearance of quackery; nothing 
 calculated to surprise and astonish his atui,nce; 
 nothing savouring of a showman or sleight-of-hand 
 man was ever permitted in his lecture-room. Every 
 thing was simple, neat, and elegant, calculated equally 
 t please and to inform : indeed simplicity and neatness 
 stamped his character. It was this that constituted 
 the charm of his lectures, and rendered them so de- 
 lightful to his pupils, lean speak of them from ex- 
 perience, for 1 was fortunate enough to hear the last 
 
CHEMISTRY IN* GRHAT BRITAIN. 327 
 
 course of lectures which. he ever delivered. I ran 
 say with perfect truth that I never listened to any 
 lectures with so much pleasure as to his : and it was 
 the elegant simplii ity of his manner, the perfect clear- 
 ness of his statements, and the vast cpiantity of infor- 
 mation which he contrived in this way to communicate, 
 that delighted me. I was all at once transited into 
 a new world my views were suddenly enlarged, and 
 I looked flown from a height which I had never before 
 reached ; and all this knowledge was communicated 
 without any apparent effort either on the part of the 
 professor or his pupils. His illustrations were just suf- 
 ficient to answer completely the object in view, and 
 nothing more. No quackery, no trickery, no. love of 
 mere dazzle and glitter, ever had the least influence 
 upon his conduct. He constituted the most complete 
 model of a perfect chemical lecturer that I have ever 
 had an opportunity of witnessing. 
 
 The disco\cry which Dr. Black had made that 
 marble is a combination of lime and a peculiar sub- 
 stance, to which he gave the name of Ji.rcd air, began 
 gradually to attract the attention of chemists in 
 other pails of the world. It was natural in the first 
 place to examine the nature and properties of this 
 fixed air, and the circumstances under which it is gene- 
 rated. It may seem strange and unaccountable that 
 Dr. ttlack did not enter with ardour into this new 
 career wl ich he had himself elicited, and that he 
 ;il lowed others to reap the corn after having himself 
 sown the grain. Vet he did take S'-me steps towards 
 ascertaining the properties of fixed ttir; though I 
 am not certain what progress he made. He knew that 
 a candle would not burn in it, and that it is destructive 
 to life, when any living 1 animal attempts to breathe 
 it. He knew that it was formed in the lungs during 
 the breathing of animals, and that it is generated 
 during the fermentation of wine and beer. Whether 
 he was aware that it possesses the properties of an 
 
328 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 acid I do not know ; though with the knowledge which 
 he possessed that it combines with alkalies and alkaline 
 earths, and neutralizes them, or at least blunts and di- 
 minishes their alkaline properties, the conclusion that 
 it partook of alkaline properties was scarcely avoidable. 
 All these, and probably some other properties ofjixetl 
 mr he was in the constant habit of stating in his lectures, 
 from the very commencement of his academical career; 
 though, as he never published any thing on the subject . 
 himself, it is not possible to know exactly how far hi* 
 knowledge of the properties ufjixid air extended. The 
 oldest manuscript copy of his lectures that I have seen 
 was taken down in writing in the year 1773; and 
 IK' fore that time Mr. Cavendish had published his 
 paper on //X<Y/ air and hydrvycn yas, and hud detailed 
 the properties of each. It was impossible, from the 
 manuscript of Dr. Black's lectures to know which of the 
 properties of Jixcd air stated by him were discovered 
 by himself, and which were taken from Mr. Cavendish. 
 
 This languor and listlessness, on the part of Dr. 
 Black, is chicHv to beascril>ed to the delicate state of 
 his health, which precluded much exertion, and was 
 particularly inconsistent with any attempt at putting* 
 his thoughts down upon paper. Hence, probably, that 
 carelessness about posthumous fame, and that regard- 
 lessness of reputation, which, however it may be ac- 
 counted for from bodily ailment, must still be consi- 
 dered as a blemish. How differently did Paschal act in 
 a similar state of health ! With what energy did he 
 exert himself in spite of bodily ailment! But the tone 
 ofhis mind was quite di tie rent from that of Dr. Black. 
 Gentleness, dittidence, and perhaps even slowness 
 of apprehension, were the characteristic features by 
 which the latter was distinguished. 
 
 There is an anecdote of Black which I was told by 
 the lute Mr. Benjamin Bell, of Edinburgh, author of 
 a Well-known system of surgery, and he assured me 
 that he had it from the lute Sir George Clarke, o 
 
CHEMISTRY IV GREAT BRITAIN. 323 
 
 Pcnnicuik, who was a witness of the circumstance 
 related. Soon after the appearance of Mr. Caven- 
 dish's paper on hydrogen pas, in which he made an 
 approximation to the specific gravity of that body, 
 showing that it was at least ten times lighter than 
 common air, Dr. Black invited a party of his friends 
 to supper, informing them that he had a curiosity to 
 show them. Dr. Mutton, Mr. Clarke of Klden, and Sir 
 George Clarke of Pennicuik, were of the number. 
 When the company invited had assembled, he took 
 them into a room. He had the allcntois of a calf 
 filled with hydrogen gas, and upon setting it at liberty, 
 it immediately ascended, and adhered to the ceiling. 
 The phenomenon was easily accounted for: it was 
 taken for granted that a small black thread had been 
 attached to the allcntois, that this thread passed through 
 the ceiling, and that some one in the apartment above, 
 by pulling the thread, elevated it to the ceiling, and 
 kept it in this position. This explanation was so pro- 
 bable, that it was acceded to by the whole company ; 
 though, like many other plausible theories, it turned 
 out wholly unfounded ; for when the allentois was 
 brought down no thread whatever was found attached 
 to it. Dr. Black explained the cause of the ascent to 
 his admiring friends ; but such was his carelessness of 
 his own reputation, and of the information of the pub- 
 lic, that he never gave the least account of this curious 
 experiment even to his class ; and more than twelve 
 years elapsed before this obvious property of hydrogen 
 gas was applied to the elevation of air-balloons, by 
 M. Charles, in Paris. 
 
 The constitution of Dr. Black had always been ex- 
 ceedingly delicate. The slightest cold, the most 
 trifling approach to repletion, immediately affected 
 his chest, occasioned feverishncss, and if the disorder 
 continued for two or three days, brought on a spit- 
 ting of blood. In this situation, nothing restored him 
 to ease, but relaxation of thought, and gentle exercise* 
 
330 HISTORY OF Clir.MlSTRY. 
 
 The sedentary life to which study confined him, was 
 manifestly hurtful ; and he never allowed himself to 
 indulge in any investigation that required intense 
 thought, without finding these complaints increased. 
 
 Thus situated, Dr. Black was obliged to be a con* 
 tented spectator of the rapid progress which chemistry 
 was making, without venturing himself to engage in 
 any of the numerous investigations which presented 
 themselves on every side. Such indeed was the eager- 
 ness with which chemistry was at that time prosecuted, 
 and such the passion for discovery, that there was 
 some risk that his undoubted cluim to originality 
 and priority in his own great discoveries, might be 
 called in question, and even rendered doubtful. Hi* 
 friends at least were afraid of this, and often urged 
 him to do justice to himself, by publishing an account 
 of his own discoveries. He more than once begun 
 the task ; but was so nice in his notions of the manner 
 in which it should be executed, that the pains he took 
 in forming a plan of the work never failed to affect 
 his health, and oblige him to desist. It is known that 
 he felt hurt at the publication of several of Lavoisier's 
 papers, in the Memoires de I'Academic, without any 
 allusion whatever to what he himself hud previously 
 done on the same subject. How far Lavoisier was 
 really culpable, and whether he did not intend to do 
 full. just ice to all the claims of his predecessors, cannot 
 now be known; as he was cut oti'in the midst of IiU 
 career, while so many of his scientific projects re- 
 mained unexecuted. From the posthumous works of 
 Lavoisier, there is some reason for believing that if 
 lie had lived, lie would have done justice to all par- 
 ties; but there is no doubt that Dr. Black, in the mean 
 time, thought himself aggrieved, and that he formed 
 the intention of doing himself justice, by publishing 
 an account of bis own discoveries; however this in- 
 tention was thwarted and prevented by bad health. 
 
 No one contributed more largely to establish, to sup- 
 
CHEMISTRY IN GRF.AT BRITAIX 331 
 
 port, and to increase, the high character of the medical 
 school in the University of Edinburgh than Dr. Black. 
 His talent for communicating knowledge was not Jess 
 eminent than his faculty of observation. He soon be- 
 came one of the principal ornaments of the university ; 
 and his lectures were attended by an audience which 
 continued increasing from year to year for more than 
 thirty years. His personal appearance and manner* 
 were those of a gentleman, and peculiarly pleasing: 
 his voice, in lecturing, was low, but fine ; and his ar- 
 ticulation so distinct, that he was perfectly well heard 
 by an audience consisting of several hundreds. While 
 in Ola-crow, he had practised extensively as a physi- 
 cian ; but in Edinburgh he declined general practice, 
 and confined his attendance to a few families of inti- 
 mate and respected friends. He was, however, a phy- 
 sician of good repute in a place where the character of 
 a physician implied no common decree of liberality, 
 propriety, and dignity of manners, as well as of learn- 
 ing and skill. 
 
 Such was Dr. Black as a public man. While young, 
 his countenance was comely and interesting; and as he 
 advanced in years, it continued to preserver that pleas- 
 ing expression of inward satisfaction which, by giving 
 ease to the beholder, nover fails to pleise. Hi* man- 
 ners were simple, unaffected, and graceful ; he was of 
 the most easy approach, ail able, awl readily entered 
 into conversation, whether serious or trivial : for he 
 was not merely a man of science, but was well ac- 
 quainted with the elegant accomplishments* He had 
 an accurate musical ear, and a voice which would obey 
 it in the most perfect manner; he sang and per- 
 formed on the flute with great taste and feeling; and 
 could sing a plain air at sight, which many instru- 
 mental performers cannot do. Music was hi< amuse- 
 ment in Glasgow ; after his removal to Edinburgh h<* 
 gave it up entirely. Without having studied drawing 
 he had acquired a considerable power of expression 
 
332 . HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 with his pencil, both in figures and in landscape. He 
 was jK'culiaily happy in expressing the passions, and 
 seemed in this respect to have the talents of a historical 
 painter. Figure indeed, of every kind, attracted bis 
 attention ; in architecture, furniture, ornament of every 
 sort, it was never a matter of indifference to him. Even 
 a retort, or a crucible, was to his eye an example of 
 beauty, or deformity. These are not indifferent things; 
 they are features of an elegant mind, and they account 
 for some part of that. satisfaction and pleasure which 
 persons of different habits ami pursuits felt in Dr. 
 Black's company and conversation. 
 
 Those circumstances of form, and in which Dr. 
 Black perceived or sought for beauty, were suitableness 
 or propriety: something that rendered them well 
 adapted for the purposes for which they were intended. 
 This love of propriety constituted the leading feature 
 in Dr. Black's mind; it was the standard to which he 
 constantly appealed, and which he endeavoured to 
 make the directing principle of his conduct. 
 
 Dr. Black was fond of society, and felt himself 
 beloved in it. His chief companions, in the earlier 
 part of his residence in Edinburgh, were Dr. Adam 
 Smith, Mr. David Hume, Dr. Adam Ferguson, Mr. 
 John Home, Dr. Alexander Carlisle, and a few others. 
 Mr. Clarke of Elden, and his brother Sir George, Dr. 
 Hot buck, and Dr. James Hut ton, particularly the latter, 
 \vcre affectionately attached to him, and in their 
 society he could indulge in his professional studies. 
 Dr. Hut t>a was the only person near him to whom 
 Dr. Black imparted every s|>cculation in chemical 
 science, and who knew all his literary labours : seldom 
 were the two friends asunder for two days together. 
 
 Towards the close of the eighteenth century, the infir- 
 mities of advanced life began to )>ear more heavily on his 
 feeble constitution. Those hours of walking and gen- 
 tle exercise, which had hitherto been necessary for his 
 ease, were gradually curtailed. Company and con* 
 
CHEMISTRY IN GREAT BRITAIV. 333 
 
 versation bejran to fatigue : he went less abroad, and 
 was visited only by his intimate friends. His duty at 
 college became too heavy for him, and he pot an 
 assistant, who took a share of the lectures, and re- 
 lieved him from the fatigue of the experiments. The 
 last course of lectures which he delivered was in the 
 winter of 1796-7. After this, even lecturing was too , 
 much for his diminished strength, and he was obliged 
 to absent himself from the class altogether; but he 
 Ftill retained his usual a liability of temper, and his 
 habitual cheerfulness, and even to the very last was 
 accustomed to walk out and take occasional exercise. 
 As his strenirth declined, his constitution l>ecame more 
 and more delicate. Every cold he caught occasioned 
 some decree of spitting of blood ; yet he seemed to 
 have this unfortunate disposition of body almost under 
 command, so that he never allowed it to proceed far, 
 or to occasion any distressing illness. He spun hi* 
 thread of life to the very last fibre. He guarded 
 against illness by restricting himself to an abstemious 
 diet; and he met his increasing infirmities with a 
 proportional increase of attention and care, regulating 
 liis food and exercise by the measure of his strength. 
 Thus he made the most of a feeble constitution, by 
 prevent ins: the access of disease from abroad* And 
 enjoyed a state of health which was feeble, indeed, but 
 scarcely interrupted ; P.S well as a mind undisturbed in 
 the calm and cheerful use of its faculties. His only 
 apprehension was that of a lon<r-continued sick-led 
 from the humane consideration of the trouble and 
 distress that he might thus occasion to attending 
 friends ; and never was such generous wish more com- 
 pletely gratified than in hisca^e. 
 
 On'the 10th of November, 1709, in the seventy-first 
 year of his age, he expired without any convulsion* 
 shock, or stupor, to announce or retard the approach 
 of death. Being at table with his usual fare, some 
 bread, a few prunes, and a measured quantity of milk, 
 
334 HISTORY or CHEMISTRY. 
 
 diluted with water, and having the cup in his hand 
 when the last stroke of his pulse was to be given, he 
 set it down on his knees, which were joined together, 
 and kept it steady with his hand in die manner of a 
 person perfectly at ease ; and in this attitude expired 
 without spilling a drop, and without a writhe in his 
 countenance; as if an e\|>criment had been re- 
 quired to show to his friends the facility with which 
 he departed. His servant opened the door to tell him 
 that sonic one had left his name ; hut getting no an* 
 $wer, stepped about halfway to him ; and seeing him 
 sitting in that easy posture, supporting his basin of 
 milk with one hand, he thought that he had dropped 
 asleep, which was sometimes wont to hap|>en after 
 meals. He went back and shut the door ; but be lore 
 he got down stairs some anxiety, which he could not 
 account for, made him return and look again at his 
 master. Kven then he was satisfied, after coming 
 pretty near him, ami turned to go away ; but he again 
 returned, and coming close up to him, he found him 
 without life. His very near neighbour, Mr. Benjamin 
 Bell, the surgeon, was immediately sent for; but no-' 
 thing whatever could be done.* 
 
 Dr. Black's writings are exceedingly few, consisting 
 altogether of no more than three papers. The first, 
 entitled " Experiments upon Magnesia alba, Quick- 
 lime, and other Alkaline Substances,** constituted the 
 subject of his inaugural dissertation. It afterwards 
 jipjH aretl in an English dress in one of the volumes of 
 The Edinburgh Physical and Literary Essays, in the 
 year 17.55. Mr. Creech, the bookseller, published it 
 in a separate pamphlet, together with Dr. Cullcn's 
 little essay on the "cold produced by evaporating 
 
 The preceding character of Dr. Black is from Professor 
 RohUon, who knew him intimately ; and from Dr. Adam Fenrii- 
 M>n, who was his next relutiun. See the preface to Dr. Black's 
 lectures. The portrait of Dr. Black prefixed to these lecture* 
 is an excellent likeness. 
 
CHEMISTRY IX GRF.AT BRITAIN. 335 
 
 fluids," in the year 1796. This essay exhibits one of the 
 very finest examples of inductive reasoning to be found 
 in the English language. The author shows that mag- 
 nesia is a peculiar earthy body, possessed of properties 
 very different from lime. He tjives the properties of 
 lime in a pure state, and proves that it differs from lime- 
 stone merely by the absence of the carbonic acid, which 
 is a constituent of limestone. Limestone is a carltonqtc 
 of lime; quicklime is the pure uncombined earth. He 
 shows that magnesia has also the property of combining 
 with carbonic acid ; that caustic potash, or soda, is 
 merely these Ixulies in a pure or isolated state ; while 
 the mild alkalies are combinations of these bodies with 
 carbonic acid. The reason why quicklime converts 
 mild into caustic alkali is, that the lime has a stronger 
 affinity for the carbonic acid than the alkali ; hence 
 the lime is converted into carlxwnte of lime, aiid the 
 alkali, deprived of its carbonic arid, becomes caustic* 
 Mild potash is a carbonate of potash ; caustic potash, 
 is potash freed frum carlonic acid. The publication 
 of this essay occasioned a controversy in (Jermany, 
 which was finally settled by Jacqtiin and Lavoisier, 
 who related Dr. Black's experiments and showed 
 them to be correct. 
 
 Dr. Black's second paper wns published in the 
 Philosophical Transactions for 1775. It is entitled 
 44 The supposed Effort of boiling on \Vater, in disposing 
 it to freeze more readily, ascertained by Experiments.*' 
 He shows, that when water that has been recently boil- 
 ed is exposed to cold air, it begins to freeze as soon as 
 it reaches the freezing point; while water that has not 
 been boiled may be cooled some decrees below the 
 freezing: point before it begins to congeal. But if the 
 unboiled water be constantly stirred during: the whole 
 time of its exposure, it begins to freeze when cooled 
 .down to the freezing point as well as the other. He 
 shows that the difference between the two waters con- 
 
336 HISTORY OF CIIEMISTRV. 
 
 sists in this, that the boiled water is constantly absorb* 
 ing air, which disturbs it, whereas the other water re- 
 mains in a state of rest. 
 
 His last paper was " An Analysis of the Water of 
 some boiling Springs in Iceland/' published in the 
 Transactions of the Hoyal Society of Edinburgh. This 
 was the water of the Geyser spring, brought from Ice- 
 land by Sir J. Stanley. Dr. Black found it to con- 
 tain a great deal of silica, held in solution in the water 
 by caustic soda. 
 
 The tempting career which Dr. Black opened, and 
 which he was unable to prosecute for want of health, 
 soon attracted the attention of one of the ablest men 
 that Great Britain has produced 1 mean Mr.Cavendish. 
 
 The Honourable Henry Cavendish was born in Lon- 
 don on the 10th of October, 1731 : his father was 
 Lord Charles Cavendish, a cadet of the house of 
 Devonshire, one of the oldest families in England. 
 During his lather's lifetime he was kept in rather nai- 
 row circumstances, being allowed an annuity of 500 
 only ; while his apartments were a set of stables, 
 fitted up for his accommodation. It was during this 
 period that he acquired those habits of economy, 
 and those singular oddities of character, which he ex- 
 hibited ever alter in so striking a manner. At his la- 
 ther's death he was left a very considerable fortune; 
 and an aunt who died at a later period bequeathed 
 him a very handsome addition to it; but, in consequence 
 of the habits of economy which he had acquired, it was 
 not in his |>o\vcrto spend the greater part of his annual 
 income. This occasioned a yearly increase to his 
 capital, till at last it accumulated so much, without any 
 care on his part, that at the period of his death he left 
 Itthind him nearly 1,300,000; and he was at that 
 time the greatest proprietor of stock in the Bank of 
 England* 
 
 On one occasion, the money iu the hands of hi* bank* 
 
CHEMISTRY IN GREAT BRITAIN*. 337 
 
 ers had accumulated to the amount of 70,000. These 
 gentlemen thinking it improper to keep so large a sum 
 in their hands, sent one of the partners to wait upon 
 him, in order to learn how he desired it disposed of. 
 This gentleman was admitted ; and, after employing 
 the necessary precautions to a man of Mr. Cavendish's 
 peculiar disposition, stated the circumstance, and beg- 
 ged to know whether it would not he proper to lay out 
 the money at interest. Mr. Cavendish dryly answered, 
 " You may lay it out if vou please," and left the room. 
 
 He hardly ever went into any other society than that 
 of his scientific friends: he never was absent from the 
 weekly dinner of the Royal Society club at the Crown 
 and Anchor Tavern in the Strand. At these dinners, 
 when he happened to be seated near those that he 
 liked, he often conversed a great deal ; though at other 
 times he was very silent. He was likewise a constant 
 attendant at Sir Joseph Banks's Sunday evening meet- 
 ings. He had a house in London, which he only 
 visited once or twice a-week at stated times, and with* 
 out ever speaking to the servants : it contained an 
 excellent library, to which he gave all literary men the 
 freest and most unrestrained access. But he lived in 
 a house on Clapham Common, where he scarcely ever 
 received any visiters. His relation, Lord George Ca- 
 vendish, to whom he left by will the greatest part of his 
 fortune, visited him only once a-ycar, and the visit 
 hardly ever exceeded ten or twelve minutes. 
 
 He was shy and bashful to a degree bordering on 
 disease ; he could not bear to have any person intro- 
 duced to him, or to be pointed out in any way as a 
 remarkable man. One Sunday evening he was 
 standing at Sir Joseph Banks*s in a crowded room, 
 conversing with Mr. Hatchett, when Dr. Ingenhousz, 
 who had a good deal of pomposity of manner, came 
 up with an Austrian gentleman in his hand, and intro- 
 duced him formally to Mr. Cavendish. He mentioned 
 the titles and qualifications of his friend at great 
 
 VOL. 1. X 
 
338 HISTORY or CIIFMISTRY. 
 
 length, and said that he had been peculiarly anxious 
 to be introduced to a philosopher so profound and so 
 universally known and celebrated as Mr. Cavendish. 
 As soon as Dr. Ingenhousz had finished, the Austrian 
 gentleman began, and assured Mr. Cavendish that his 
 principal reason for coining to Londun was to see and 
 converse with one of the greatest ornaments of the 
 age, and one of the most illustrious philosophers that 
 ever existed. To all these high-flown speeches Mr. 
 Cavendish answered not a word, but stood with hi* 
 eyes cast down quite abashed and confounded. At 
 lust, spying an opening in the crowd, he darted through 
 it with all the speed of which he was master; nor did 
 he stop til! he reached his carriage, which drove him 
 directly home. 
 
 Of a man, whose habits were so retired, and whose 
 intercourse with society was so small, there is nothing 
 else to relate except his scientific lalnmrs : the cur- 
 rent of his life passed on with the utmost regularity ; 
 the description of a single day would convey a correct 
 idea of his whole existence. At one time he was in 
 the habit of keeping an individual to assist him in his 
 experiments. This place was for some time filled by 
 Sir Charles Dlagden; but they did not a^ree well to- 
 gvther, and after some time Sir Charles left him. 
 Mr. Cavendish died on the 4th of February, 1810, 
 aired seventy-eight years, four months, and six days. 
 M'hen he found himself dying, he gave directions to 
 his servant to leave him alone, and not to return till a 
 certiii-i time which he specified, and by which period 
 he expected to be no longer alive. The sen-ant, how- 
 ever, who was aware of the state of his master, and was 
 anxious about him, oj>cned the door of the room before 
 the time specified, and approached the bed to take a 
 look at the dying man. Mr. Cavendish, who was still 
 sensible, was offended at the intrusion, and ordered 
 him out of the room with a voice of displeasure, com- 
 manding him not by any means to return till the time 
 
CHEMISTRY IX GREAT BRITAIN. 339 
 
 specified. When he did come back at that time, he 
 found his master dead. What a contrast l>etwcen the 
 characters of Mr. Cavendish and Dr. Dlack ! 
 
 The appearance of Mr. Cavendish did not much 
 prepossess strangers in his favour ; he was somewhat 
 above the middle size, his body rather thick, and his 
 neck rather short. He stuttered a little in his speech, 
 which gave him an air of awkwardness : his counte- 
 nance was not strongly marked, so as to indicate the 
 profound abilities which he possessed. This was pro- 
 bably owing to the total absence of all the violent pas* 
 sions. His education seems to have IH?CII very com- 
 plete; he was an excellent mathematician, a profound 
 electrician, and a most acute and ingenious chemist. 
 He never ventured to give an opinion on any subject, 
 unless he had studied it to the bottom. He appeared 
 before the world first as a chemist, and afterwards as 
 an electrician. The whole of his literary labours con- 
 sist of eighteen pa|>ers, published in the Philosophical 
 Transactions, which, though they occupy only a few 
 pages, are full of the most important discoveries and the 
 most profound investigations. Of these papers, there are 
 ten which treat of chemical subjects, two treat of elec- 
 tricity, two of meteorology, three are connected with 
 astronomy, and there is one, the last which he wrote, 
 which gives his method of dividing astronomical in- 
 struments. Of the papers in question, those alone 
 which treat of Chemistry can be analyzed in a work 
 like this. 
 
 1. His first paper, entitled," Expcrimentson fictitious 
 Air," was published in the year 1766, when Mr. Caven- 
 dish was thirty-five years of age. Dr. Hales had de- 
 monstrated (as had previously been done by Van Hel- 
 niont and Glauber) that air is given out by a vast 
 number of bodies in peculiar circumstances. But he 
 never suspected that any of the airs which he obtained 
 differed from common air. Indeed common air had 
 always been considered as an elementary substance to 
 
340 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 which every elastic fluid was referred. Dr. Black had 
 shown that the mild alkalies and limestone, and car* 
 bonate of magnesia, were combinations of these bodies 
 with a gaseous substance, to which he had given the 
 name of fixed air; and he had pointed out various 
 methods of collecting this fixed air ; though he him- 
 self had not made much progress in investigating its 
 properties. This paper of Mr. Cavendish may be con- 
 sidered as a continuation of the investigations begun 
 by Dr. Black. He shows that there exist two species of 
 air quite different in their properties from common air : 
 and he calls them inflammable air andjijred air. 
 
 Inflammable air (hydrogen gas) is evolved when 
 iron, zinc, or tin, are dissolved in dilute sulphuric or 
 muriatic acid. Iron yielded about l-2'2d part of its 
 weight, of inflammable air, zinc about l-23d or 
 I -'24th of its weight, and tin about l-44th of its 
 weight. The properties of the inflammable air were 
 the same, whichever of the three metals was used 
 to procure it, and whether they were dissolved in sul- 
 phuric or muriatic acids. When the sulphuric acid was 
 concentrated, iron and zinc dissolved in it with diffi- 
 culty and only by the assistance of heat. The air given 
 out was not inflammable, but consisted of sulphurous 
 acid. These facts induced Air. Cavendish to conclude 
 that the inflammable air evolved in the first case was 
 the unaltered phlogiston of the metals, while the sul- 
 phurous acid evolved in the second case, was a com- 
 pound of the same phlogiston and a portion of the 
 acid, which deprived it of its inflammability. This 
 opinion was very different from that of Stahl, who con- 
 sidered combustible bodies as compounds of phlogiston 
 with acids or calces. 
 
 Cavendish found the specific gravity of his inflamma- 
 ble air about eleven times less than that of common air. . 
 This determination is under the truth ; but the error is, at 
 least in part, owing to the quantity of water held in 
 solution by the air, and which, as Mr. Cavendish showed, 
 
CHEMISTRY IN GREAT BRITAIN'. 341 
 
 amounted to about l-9th of the weight of the air. 
 He tried the combustibility of the inflammable air, 
 when mixed with various proportions of common air, 
 and found that it ex ploded with the greatest violence when 
 mixed with rather more than its bulk of common air. 
 
 Copper he found, when dissolved in muriatic acid by 
 the assistance of heat, yielded no inflammable air, but 
 an air which lost its elasticity when it came in contact 
 with water. This air, the nature of which Mr. Caven- 
 dish did not examine, was muriatic acid gas, the pro- 
 perties of which were afterwards investigated by Dr. 
 Priestley. 
 
 Thejixed air (carbonic acid gas) on which Mr. Ca- 
 vendish made his experiments was obtained by dis- 
 solving marble in muriatic acid. He found that it 
 mi^ht be kept over mercury for any length of tim* 
 without undergoing any alteration ; that it was gra- 
 dually absorbed by cold water ; and that 100 measures 
 of water of the temperature /i5 absorbed 103'8 mea- 
 sures of fixed air. The whole of the air thus ab- 
 sorbed was separated again by exposing the water to a 
 boiling heat, or by leaving it for some time in an open 
 vessel. Alcohol (the specific gravity not mentioned) 
 absorbed 2 times its bulk of this air, and olive-oil 
 about l-3d of its bulk. 
 
 The specific gravity of fixed air he found 1 '57, that 
 of common air being 1.* Fixed air is incapable of 
 supporting combustion, and common air, when mixed 
 with it, supports combustion a much shorter time than 
 when pure. A small wax taper burnt eighty seconds in a 
 receiver which held 180 ounce measures, when filled 
 with common air only. The same taper burnt fifty- 
 one seconds in the same receiver when filled with a 
 mixture of one volume fixed air, and nineteen volumes 
 of common air. When the fixed air was 3-iOths Of 
 
 Thin I apprehend to be a little abore tlte truth, the true 
 pecific prraritjr of carbonic acid gas being 1*5277, that of air 
 
342 HISTORY OP CllEMISTRY. 
 
 the whole volume the taper burnt twenty-three se- 
 conds. When the fixed air was l-10th, the taper burnt 
 eleven seconds. When it was 6-55ths or 1-9*16 of 
 the whole mixture, the taper would not burn at all. 
 
 Mr. Cavendish was of opinion that more than one 
 kind of fixed air was given out by marble; mother words, 
 that the elastic fluid emitted, consisted of two different 
 airs, one more absorbable by water than the other. 
 He drew his conclusion from the . circumstance that 
 after a solution of potash had been exposed to a 
 quantity of fixed air for some time, it ceased to absorb 
 any more; yet, if the residual portion of air were thrown 
 away and new fixed air substituted in its place, it be* 
 Iran to absorb ajjaiu ; but Mr. Dulton has since given 
 a satisfactory explanation of this seeming anomaly by 
 showing that the absorbability of fixed air in water is 
 proportional to its purity, and that when mixed with a 
 great quantity of common air or any other gas not 
 soluble in water, it ceases to be sensibly absorbed. 
 
 Mr. Cavendish ascertained the quantity of fixed 
 air contained in marble, carbonate of ammonia, com- 
 mon pea flashes, and carbonate of potash: but not- 
 withstanding the care with which these ex]>eriments 
 wen made they are of little value ; because the proper 
 precautions could not be taken, in that infant suite of 
 chemical science, to have these salts in a state of 
 purity. The following were the results obtained by 
 Mr. Cavendish: 
 
 1000 grains of marble contained 408 grs. fixed air. 
 1000 carb. of ammonia 533 
 1000 pearlashes . . 284 
 1000 carb. of potash 4'23 
 Supposing the marble, carbonate of ammonia, and 
 carbonate of potash, to have been pure anhydrous 
 simple salts, their composition would be 
 
 1000 grains of marble contain 440 grs. fixed air. 
 1000 carb. of ammonia 709-6 
 1000 carb. of potash 314-2 
 
CHEMISTRY IN GRF.AT BRITAIN'. 343 
 
 Bicarbonate of potash was first obtained by Dr. 
 Black. Mr. Cavendish formed the salt by dissolving 
 pearlashes in water, and passing a current of carbonic 
 arid pis through the solution till it deposited crystals. 
 These crystals were not altered by exposure to the air, 
 did not deliquesce, and were soluble in about four 
 times their weight of cold water. 
 
 Dr. M* Bride had already ascertained that vegetable 
 and animal substances yield fixed air by putrefaction 
 and fermentation. Mr. Cavendish found by experiment 
 that sugar when dissolved in water and fermented, 
 gives out 57-100ths of its weight of fixed air, possess- 
 ing exactly the properties of fixed air from marble. 
 During the fermentation no air was absorbed, nor was 
 any change induced on the common air, at the surface 
 of the fermenting liquor. Apple-juice fermented much 
 faster than sugar; but the phenomena were the same, 
 and the fixed air emitted amounted to ^ of the 
 weight of the solid extract of apples. Gravy and 
 raw meat yielded inflammable air during their putre- 
 faction, the former in much jrreater quantity than the 
 latter. This air, as far as Mr. Cavendish's experi- 
 ments went, he found the same as the inflammable air 
 from zinc by dilute sulphuric acid; but its specific 
 gravity was a little higher. 
 
 This paper of Mr. Cavendish was the first attempt 
 by chemists to collect the different kinds of air, and 
 endeavour to ascertain their nature. Hence all his 
 processes were in some measure new : they served as a 
 model to future experimenters, and were gradually 
 brought to their present state of simplicity and per- 
 fection. He was the first person who attempted to de- 
 termine the specific gravity of airs, by comparing their 
 weight with that of the same bulk of common air ; 
 and though his apparatus was defective, yet the prin- 
 ciplc was good, and is the very same which is still em- 
 ployed to accomplish the same object. Mr. Caven* 
 dish then first began the true investigation of gases, 
 
844 HISTORY OF CIIKMISTRY, 
 
 and in his first paper he determined the peculiar nature 
 of two very remarkable gases, carbonic and hydnujen. 
 2. Mineral waters have at all times attracted the 
 attention of the faculty in consequence of their 
 peculiar properties and medical virtues. Some faint 
 steps towards their investigation were taken by Boyle. 
 l)u Clos attempted a chemical analysis of the mineral 
 waters in France; and Hierne made a similar investi- 
 gation of the mineral waters of Sweden. Though these 
 t*x|Kriments were rude and inaccurate, they led to the 
 knowledge of several facts respecting mineral waters 
 which chemists were unable to explain. One of these 
 was the existence of a considerable quantity of calca- 
 reous earth in some mineral waters, which was precipi- 
 tated by boiling. Nobody could conceive in what way 
 this insoluble substance ( carbonate of lime ) was held 
 in solution, nor why it was thrown down when the wa- 
 ter was raised to a boiling heat. It was to determine 
 this point that Mr. Cavendish made his experiments on 
 Rathbone-place water, which were published in the 
 year 1767, and which may be considered as the first 
 analysis of a mineral water that possessed tolerable 
 accuracy. Hathbone-place water was raised by a 
 pump, and supplied the portion of London in its imme- 
 diate neighbourhood. Mr. Cavendish found that when 
 boiled, it deposited a quantity of earthy matter, con- 
 sisting chierly of lime, but containing also a little 
 magnesia. This he showed was held in solution by 
 fixed air ; and he proved experimentally, that when an 
 excess of this gas is present, it has the property of 
 holding lime and magnesia in solution.* Besides these 
 earthy carbonates, the water was found to contain a 
 little ammonia, some sulphate of lime, and some com- 
 mon salt. Mr. Cavendish examined, likewise, some 
 
 The salts held in solution are in the state of bicarbonate* 
 t>f lime and magnesia. Koiling drives olT half the carbonic acid, 
 and the simple carbonates being insoluble are precipitated. 
 
CHEMISTRY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 345 
 
 other pump- water in London, and showed that it con- 
 tained lime, held in solution by carbonic acid. 
 
 3 Dr. Priestley, at a pretty early period of his 
 chemical career, had discovered that when nitrons ^as 
 is mixed with common air over water, a diminution of 
 bulk takes place ; that there is a still greater diminu- 
 tion of bulk when oxygen gas is employed instead of 
 common air; and that the diminution is always pro- 
 portional to the quantity of oxygen <ras present in the 
 gas mixed with the nitrous gas. This discovery in- 
 duced him to employ nitrous gas as a test of the 
 quantity of oxygen present in common air ; and various 
 instruments were contrived to facilitate the mixture of 
 the gases, and the measurement of the diminution of 
 volume which took place. As the goodness of air, or 
 its fitness to support combustion, and maintain animal 
 life, was conceived to depend upon the proportion of 
 oxygen gas which it contained, these instruments were 
 distinguished by the name of eudiometers ; the sim- 
 plest of them was contrived by Fontana, and is usually 
 distinguished by the name of the eudiometer of Fon- 
 tana. Philosophers, in examining air by means of 
 this instrument, at various seasons, and in various 
 places, had found considerable differences in the dimi- 
 nution of bulk : hence they inferred that the propor- 
 tion of oxygen varies in different places ; and to this 
 variation they ascribed the healthiness or noxiousness 
 of particular situations. For example, Dr. Ingenhousz 
 had found a greater proportion of oxygen in the air 
 above the sea, and on the sea-coast; and to this he 
 ascribed the healthiness of maritime situations. Mr, 
 Cavendish examined this important point with his 
 .usual patient industry and acute discernment, and 
 published the result in the Philosophical Transactions 
 for 1 783. He ascertained that the apparent variations 
 were owing to inaccuracies in making the experiment ; 
 and that when the requisite precautions are taken, the 
 proportion of oxygen in air is found constant in all 
 
346 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 places, and at all seasons. This conclusion has since 
 been confirmed by numerous observations in every 
 part of the globe. Mr. Cavendish also analyzed 
 common air, and found it to consist of 
 
 79*16 volumes azotic gas, 
 20*84 volumes oxygen gas. 
 
 100-00 
 
 4. For many years it was the opinion of chemists 
 that mercury is essentially liquid, and that no degree 
 of cold is capable of congealing it. Professor Bru tin's 
 accidental discovery that it may be frozen by cold, 
 like other liquids, was at first doubted ; aud when it 
 was finally established by the most conclusive expert* 
 incuts, it was inferred from the observations of Braun 
 that the freezing point of mercury is several hundred 
 degrees below zero on Fahrenheit's scale. It became 
 an object of grout importance to determine the exact 
 point of the congelation of this metal by accurate ex- 
 periments. This was done at Hudson's Bay, by Mr. 
 liutchins, who followed a set of directions given him 
 by Mr. Cavendish, and from his experiments Mr. Ca- 
 vendish, pn a paper inserted in the Philosophical 
 Transactions for 1783, deduced that the freezing point 
 of mercury is 38-66 degrees below the zero of Fal&ren- 
 heit's thermometer. 
 
 5. These experiments naturally drew the attention 
 of Mr. Cavendish to the phenomena of freezing, to 
 the action of freezing mixtures, and the congelation of 
 acids. He employed Mr. M'Nah, who was settled in 
 the neighbourhood of Hudson's Bay, to make the re- 
 quisite experiments; and he published two very curious 
 and imjKjrtant pipers on these subjects in the Philo- 
 sophical Transactions for 1786 and 1788. He ex- 
 plained the phenomena of congelation exactly accord- 
 ing to the theory of Dr. Black, but rejecting the 
 hypothesis that heat is a substjnce sui generis, and 
 
CHEMISTRY IX GRF.AT BRITAIN. 347 
 
 thinking it more probable, with Sir Isaac Newton, that 
 it is owing to the rapid internal motion of the particles 
 of the hot body. The latent heat of water, he found 
 to be 1.00*. The observations on the congelation of 
 nitric and sulphuric acids are highly interesting: he 
 showed that their freezing points vary considerably, 
 according to the strength of each ; and drew up tables 
 indicating the freezing points of acids, of various.de- 
 grees of strength. 
 
 6. But the most splendid and valuable of Mr. Ca- 
 vendish's chemical experiments were published in two 
 papers, entitled, ** Experiment? on Air," in thcTransac- 
 tions of the Royal Society for 1784 and 178.5. The 
 object of these experiments was to determine what 
 happened during the phlvyistication nf nir, as it was 
 Ht that time termed; that is, the change which air 
 underwent when metals were calcined in contact with 
 it, when sulphur or phosphorus was buint in it, and. 
 in several similar processes. He showed, in the first 
 place, that there was no reason for supposing that 
 carbonic acid was formed, except when some animal 
 or vegetable substance was present ; that when hydro- 
 gen yas was burnt in contact with air or oxygen gas, 
 it cttmlnncd with that eas^ and formed water ; that 
 nitrous yas. by combining with the oxygen of the at- 
 mosphere, formed nitron* ncifl ; and that when ojryyen 
 and ozotic gas are mixed in the requisite proportions, 
 and electric sparks passed through the mixture, they 
 combine, and form nitric acid. 
 
 The first of these opinion* occasioned a controversy 
 between Mr. Cavendish, and Mr. Kirwan, who main- 
 tained that carbonic acid is always produced when air 
 is phlogisticated. Two papers on this subject by 
 Kirwan, and one by Cavendish, arc inserted in the 
 Philosophical Transactions for 1784, each remarkable 
 examples of the peculiar manner of the respective 
 writers.. AH the arguments of Kirwan are founded 
 on the experiments of others. He displays great read- 
 
348 HISTORY OF CII EMISTR Y. 
 
 ing, and a strong memory ; but does not discriminate 
 between the merits of the chemists on whose authority 
 he founds his opinions, Mr. Cavendish, on the other 
 hand, never advances a single opinion, which he has 
 not put to the test of experiment; and never suffers 
 himself to go any further than his experiment .will 
 warrant. Whatever is not accurately determined by 
 unexceptionable trials, is merely stated as .a conjecture 
 on which little stress is laid. ' . 
 
 In the first of these celebrated papers, Mr. Caven- 
 dish has drawn a comparison between the phlogistic 
 and antiphlogistic theories of chemistry ; he has shown 
 that each of them is capable of explaining the pheno- 
 mena in a satisfactory manner ; though it is impossible 
 to demonstrate the truth of either ; and he has given 
 the reasons which induced him to prefer the phlogistic 
 theory reasons which the French chemists were una- 
 ble to refute, and which they were wise enough not to 
 notice. There cannot be a more striking proof of the 
 influence of fashion, even in science, and of the un- 
 warrantable precipitation with which opinions are 
 rejected or embraced by philosophers, than the total 
 inattention paid by the chemical world to this admira- 
 ble dissertation. I lad Mr. Kirwan adopted the opi- 
 nions of Mr. Cavendish, when he undertook the defence 
 of phlogiston, instead of trusting to the vague expe- 
 riments of inaccurate chemists, he would not have 
 been obliged to yield to his French antagonists, and 
 the antiphlogistic theory would not so speedily have 
 gained ground. 
 
 Such is an epitome of the chemical papers of Mr. 
 Cavendish. They contain five notable discoveries ; 
 namely, 1 . The nature and properties of hydrogen gas. 
 2. The solubility of bicarbonates of lime and magnesia 
 in water. 3. The exact proportion of the constituent* 
 of common air. 4. The composition of water. 5. The 
 composition of nitric acid. It is to him also that we 
 are indebted for our knowledge of the freezing point 
 
CHEMISTRY IV GREAT BRITAIN. 349 
 
 of mercury ; and he was likewise the first person who 
 showed that potash has a stronger affinity for acids 
 .than soda has. His experiments on the subject are to 
 be found in a paper on Mineral Waters, published 
 .in the Philosophical Transactions, by Dr. Donald 
 Monro. 
 
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 nn^ 
 
 JAN 3 197533 
 
 1975 
 
 OCT211984 -3 
 
 LrD21A-50w-2,'71 
 (P2001slO)476 A-32 
 
 General Library 
 
 University of California 
 
 Berkeley 
 
GENERAL LIBRARY - U.C. BERKELEY 
 
 B000871771