132 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [FeB. 27 



(1500) are many coarse woodcuts representing distillations 

 conducted under different planetary aspects ; also a noteworthy 

 interior of a pharmacy of the fifteenth century, the apothecary's 

 assistant busy with a pestle, gallipots on shelves, scales on a 

 book, and the licence and certificates of the master conspicu- 

 ously displayed. 



The remarkable and abundant illustrations of the operations 

 of mining, treatment of ores by washing and smelting, in George 

 Agricola's De re metallica (1556), are too well known to need 

 mention. 



The Alchymia of Andreas Libau (or Libavius), published at 

 Frankfort in 1595, is consi^icuous for accuracy of description and 

 systematic arrangement of topics. He treats in this work of the 

 Encheria, or manual operations, and of the C/ij/wia, or substances, 

 in separate books. The former he divides into two sections, one 

 dealing with laboratory apparatus, and one with the construc- 

 tion and management of furnaces. He describes and figures 

 an ideal laboratory provided not only with every requisite for 

 chemical experimentation, but also the means of entertaining 

 visitors, including svich luxuries as baths, enclosed corridors for 

 exercise in inclement weather, and a well stocked wine-cellar. 

 This work, sometimes called the " First Text-book of Chem- 

 istry," contains woodcuts of a great variety of alembics liaving 

 peculiar forms for special uses ; also a distilling apparatus fitted 

 with an ingenious system of condensers for very volatile liquids. 

 Besides the usual funnels for filtering Libavius describes the 

 now neglected method of filtering by caj^illary fibres of wool 

 or asbestus ; a process which, however, was known as early as 

 400 B. C, as I have shown in a paj^er read to the Academy, 

 October 13, 1879. Filtration was often styled " destillatio per 

 filtrum,'' and the method just named was known as " destillatio 

 per lacinias ;" it is practically capillary siphoning. 



Libavius' sumptuous plans were never realized, but towards 

 the close of the seventeenth century the first public laboratory 

 was opened at Altdorf (near Nuremburg) under Prof. John 

 Moritz Hoffman. In the same year (1683), the first government 

 laboratory was established by Karl XI. at Stockholm; of this 

 the first director was Urban Hjiirne. 



A woodcut in a work published in 1570 dej^icts in a very 

 interesting way all the steps in the manufacture of sugar, men 

 chopi^ing the cane, others grinding and pressing it, large cauld- 

 rons for boiling the juice, conical moulds in a frame, and the 

 completed sugar-loafs. 



Distilling apparatus in great variety is figured in the Elixir 

 vitce of the Italian author Donate d' Eremita, published in 



