9 EDWAKD DIVERS. 



was manufactured in Japan, not only tit Isawa, a village in !«(', wliere 

 it is still made, ])ut also in the city of Osaka and in a town near it, 

 called Sakai. Mr. H. Kokului, manufacturer, tells me that records 

 exist at Is:iwa-nun-a of his family having carried on the manufacture 

 of keifvn there for the last three hundred years. 



Far earlier, namely, in the tenth century Minamoto-no-Shitagö, 

 in his work entitled U uiiiiio-lhiijmho, niakes mention of a mercurial 

 preparation named köj'an or ' |)o\vdci' (jf mercury.' It is, however, 

 questionable whether this was mercui'ous chloride or mercuric oxide, 

 and therefore whether calomel was known or not at this time. But 

 since calomel, under the name of l-eifun, is mentioned l)y Chinese 

 writers even earlier than this it may be safely accepted that Japanese 

 knowledge of this Ixjdy is older than that in Europe. The Western 

 knowledoj-e of chloride of mercury dates from the first half of the six- 

 teenth century, liut tlie distinction between calomel and corrosive 

 sublimate was not recognised till near the end ofthat century. 



Literanj. — The literature on Japanese calomel is meagre. Japan- 

 ese writers of the old school have contented themselves for the most 

 part with translating Chinese writings. Ono Ranzan mentions that 

 the Japjinese method differs from the Chinese in making use of water 

 in place of alum and other chemicals, in which he came near the truth. 

 The late Dr. Geertz, who in the Government service did much in 

 establishing Western pharmacy in Japan, treated of keij'nn in some 

 metal lurofi cal contributions he made to the Transactions of the Asiatic 

 Societij of JajHOt. AVhat he wnjte is contained in vol. iv (1875), and 

 consists of information almost exclusively about Chinese calomel, and 

 gained more from Chinese and Japanese writings than from any ex- 

 perience of his own. Concerning Chinese calomel English readers 

 have the Notes on Chinese Materia Medim, among the Science Papers 

 by the late Daniel Hanbury, F.R.S., edited by J. Ince. Hanbury 



