12 Proceedings of the Boyal Physical Society. 



will result. By pointing out the value of chemistry as an 

 aid to medicine, there is no doubt that Paracelsus did good, 

 both by bringing fresh workers into this field, and also by 

 removing the attention of men from the vain pursuit of 

 the philosopher's stone. Beyond his labours in connection 

 with the union of chemistry and medicine, he does not seem 

 to have done much original chemical work. Paracelsus was 

 born near Zurich, and he spent a portion of his life travelling 

 in France, Spain, Italy, and Germany, with the view of 

 improving his medical knowledge ; and it has been asserted 

 that to some remedies with whicli he became acquainted in 

 these journeyings, and by means of which he was enabled to 

 perform some wonderful cures, he attained not a mean share 

 of his reputation. He has also been accused of boasting 

 of being in possession of the philosopher's stone, the elixir 

 vitce, etc. Be this as it may, there can be no doubt that 

 Paracelsus did good work, even if he had done nothing 

 more than effect the junction of chemistry and medicine, 

 a service which it is freely acknowledged he rendered to 

 science. 



Contemporary with Paracelsus was George Agricola, who 

 was considered, and I think justly so, the most celebrated 

 metallurgist of his time. 



He certainly must have worked to some purpose in the 

 particular branch of the science to which he devoted himself, 

 as some of the processes with which he was acquainted are in 

 use even in the present day. To technical chemistry he, 

 without doubt, lent a valuable helping hand. 



Andrew Libavius, who died about sixty years after Agricola, 

 made a praiseworthy attempt to free chemistry from the 

 absurdities of alchemy, and yet, curiously enough, he himself 

 firmly believed to the end in the transmutation of metals. 

 Libavius rendered signal service to the science by the publi- 

 cation of his " Alchemia." In this book, which was published 

 about twenty years before his death, he sets forth in plain 

 and forcible language aU the then known leading chemical 

 facts. He was a patient worker, and w^as rewarded by his 

 labours resulting in discovery. The useful and most impor- 

 tant salt, stannic chloride, which to this day is known as the 



