PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 23 
make fraudulent substitutes for gold and silver, and not, as 
is commonly thought, from any scientific views concerning 
the constitution of matter. 
The Greek writers knew something of many ores, minerals, 
and saline substances, but nothing of mineral acids and their 
salts, nor had they any systematic scientific knowledge— 
they merely knew more or less imperfectly certain isolated 
facts and processes. 
Berthelot traces the filtration of alchemy and allied 
matters from the Greeks, through the Syrians to the Arabs. 
The Arabian treatises, which found their way to Spain, 
were translated into Latin; from these Latin translations the 
natives of Europe acquired their knowledge of philosophy, 
mathematics, alchemy, and medicine. 
Some of the Greek knowledge of alchemy, however, was 
translated directly into Latin during the time of the Roman 
Empire; many of the writings are merely workshop receipts ; 
one, a formula for working bronze, gives the origin of the 
name bronze, 7.e., “ De Compositio Brandisii,” Brindes or 
Brundusium ; Brindisi (modern), bemg in Pliny’s day 
noted for metallic mirrors. 
Berthelot found that the reputed Arabic originals of many 
Latin translations never had any existence, and this is 
especially the case with some of the chemical works supposed. 
to have been written by Jébir ibn Hayyan (Abu Musa), 
an Arabian physician, usually known as Geber. 
Geber lived in the ninth century, and some of his writings 
are preserved in Paris and Leyden, but they differ from the 
versions attributed to him in Latin, French, German, and 
Enghsh. The treatises on alchemy by Raymond Lully are 
also spurious. 
The Arabians have been given credit for chemical know- 
ledge which belongs to a period 500 years later, and the 
history of chemistry has been in consequence falsified to 
that extent. 
