592 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



excluding however his surgical books, which were already, however, in 

 print at that time, or at least the important ones. Many of the 

 writings included in Huser's collected works of Paracelsus are in the 

 opinion of modern scholars not genuine. Huser himself included some 

 which he thought were not genuine. The important point here, how- 

 ever, is that the body of the writings ascribed to Paracelsus was in print 

 by 1591. 



There exists no evidence that up to this time any one had ever heard 

 of Basil Valentine. No known reference has been found in any author 

 before 1600, no original manuscript nor copy of probably prior date has 

 been known to exist. 



The writings of Paracelsus, or attributed to him, give evidence that 

 he possessed a familiar and extensive knowledge of the chemical facts 

 and experimental methods of his time. He mentions the names of 

 those from whom he learned the art and they are names that are known 

 as students or practical chemists of the period, such as Trithemius, and 

 Sigmund Fiiger, the miner and mine owner. Paracelsus published 

 many chemical facts and observations which were new to the literature 

 of chemistry. The names of zinc and bismuth appeared to have been 

 first mentioned by him. He characterized these as resembling the 

 metals (that is, the seven ancient metals) and called them bastards' of 

 the metals, because they lacked malleability and ductility. He recog- 

 nized a basis of discrimination between alum and the vitriols, in that 

 while the latter have metals as bases alum has an earth for base, a good 

 distinction for that time. He showed how an amalgam of copper might 

 be obtained by precipitating copper from its "vitriol" (or sulphate) 

 by means of iron and then rubbing the precipitated metal with mercury. 

 He describes the action of oil of vitriol upon iron and notes that "air 

 rises and breaks forth like a wind." 1 He notes the bleaching action 

 of the fumes of sulphur upon red roses, notes the preparation of metal- 

 lic arsenic "prepared like a metal," and the formation of "fixed 

 arsenic" (non-volatile arsenic acid) by the action of niter upon white 

 arsenic. He first uses the term " reduction " for the preparation of the 

 metals. He mentions the use of an infusion of nut galls for detecting 

 iron in mineral waters and describes the separation of muriatic acid 

 from mixture with nitric acid by the use of silver. 



In Paracelsus first appears the theory of the chemical elements 

 which dominated chemical thought until the rise of the phlogiston 

 theory, viz., the notion that all substances are composed of the three 

 elements mercury, sulphur and salt. From Gheber, Lullus and others 

 of his predecessors he was familiar with the notion that mercury and 

 sulphur were constituents of the metals, but he extended the theory 

 and gave it a more consistent form by interpreting the mercury as the 



1 Hoefer, " Histoire de la Ckimie," 2d ed., II., p. 12. 



