CHEMISTRY. 



History. Aquinas, who afterwards wrote several treatises on al- 



''', "' chymy, not inferior, in point of mysticism, to the 



other works of that renowned divine. There are, 



however, several words and phrases (amalgam, for 



instance) still retained in chemistry, which make 



their first appearance in his works. And his theories, 



which are ingenious enough, tend not a little to elu- 



cidate the data on which the alchymists went. We 



find, too, in him the commencement of that combi- 



nation of astrology and alchymy, which makes so 



conspicuous a figure in the writings of his successors. 



Roger At the same time with Albertus, lived Roger Ba- 



Bacon. cor)j ^ f ar ^ most j]l ustr j ous> tne best informed, 



and the most scientific of all the alchymists. He 

 was born in 1224, in the county of Somerset in Eng- 

 land ; studied at Oxford, and afterwards at Paris. 

 He became a cordelier friar, and, devoting himself to 

 philosophical investigations, his discoveries, notwith- 

 standing the pains which he took to conceal them, 

 made such a noise, that he was accused of magic, and 

 hii> brethren in consequence threw him into prison. 



His writings display a degree of knowledge and 

 extent of thought scarcely credible, considering the 

 time when he wrote. In his small treatise, De Mi- 

 ral/ili Poteslate Artis et Naturae, he begins by point- 

 ing out the absurdity of believing in magic, necro- 

 mancy, charms, or any of those similar opinions 

 which at that time were universally prevalent. He 

 points out the various ways in which mankind are 

 deceived by jugglers, ventriloquists, (ic. ; mentions 

 the advantages which physicians may derive from act- 

 ing on the imaginations of their patients, by means 

 of charms, amulets, and infallible medicines ; affirms 

 that many of those things which are considered as 

 supernatural, are merely so because mankind in ge- 

 neral an- unacquainted with natural philosophy. I'o 

 illustrate this, he mentions a great number of natural 

 phenomena which had been reckoned miraculous, and 

 concludes with several secrets of his own, which he 

 affirms to be till more extraordinary imitations of 

 nature. These he delivers in the enigmatical stile of 

 the times, induced, as he tells us, partly by the con- 

 duct of other philosophers, partly by the propriety 

 of the thing, and partly by the danger of speaking 

 too plainly. One of these secrets is a description of 

 gunpowder, in language which cannot be mistaken. 

 This wa more than a century before Swartz, the 

 German, who got the credit of the discovery, even 

 existed. 



Arnoldin Ai uoldus de Villa Nova lived at the same time with 

 de Villa Roger Bacon. He was a physician, and seems to 

 have been born at Villenruve, a village in Provence, 

 about the year 1240. He travelled through Spain, 

 France, and Italy, and afterwards taught publicly in 

 the university of Montpelher. His reputation as a 

 physician was so great, that his attendance was re- 

 queued in dangerous cases by different kings, and 

 even by the Pope himself. He was skilled in all the 

 sciences of his time, and was besides a proficient in 

 Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic. When at Paris he 

 Studied astrology, and calculating the age of the 

 world, found that it was to terminate in the year 

 1335. The theologians i;f Paris exclaimed against 

 this and several of his other opinions, ar.d condemned 

 onr astrologer as a heretic. This obliged him to 





leave France ; but the Pope protected him. He died History. 

 in 1313, on his way to visit Pope Clement V. who lay S """Y~"~"' 

 sick at Avignon. He has got the credit, (though, 

 as far as appears, without deserving it,) of the dis- 

 covery of spirit of wine and oil of turpentine. But 

 he seems to have been one of the first that introduced 

 these substances into pharmaceutical preparations. 

 All his life long he was passionately devoted to al- 

 chymy. His writings on the subject are numerous. 

 They all treat of the philosophers' stone, and are 

 much more obscure than those of his predecessors ; 

 though it must be acknowledged that some impor- 

 tant facts now and then occur in them. Perhaps 

 the most curious of his tracts is his Rosarium, which 

 is intended as a compend of all the alchymy of his 

 time. It is divided into two parts : The first, which 

 treats of the theory of the art, is plain enough ; but 

 the second, on the practice, which is subdivided into 

 32 chapters, and vr hich professes to teach the method 

 of making the philosophers' stone, is in several places 

 unintelligible. 



Raymond Lully, who was born at Barcelona in Raymond 

 1 235, was a disciple of Arnold, though they were Lu "T- 

 both nearly of the same age, and died almost at the 

 same time. The history of Raymond is very obscure. 

 According to some, he was at first a profound logician, 

 but, being disgusted with the vanity of disputing 

 without end about trifles and absurdities, he turned 

 the whole of his attention to alchymy. He after- 

 wards travelled through France, Germany, and Eng- 

 land ; and, if some accounts are to be credited, he 

 was at last stoned to death in Africa for preaching 

 Christianity. His chemical writings are very numer- 

 ous ; but the whole of them are so obscure, and 

 abound so much in ridiculous whims and absurdities, 

 that they hardly deserve the labour of a perusal. 

 He seems to have been the first who introduced those 

 hieroglyphical pictures or symbols, which afterward* 

 appeared in such profusion in the writings of the 

 alchymists. He was, however, the discoverer, or at 

 least the first describer, of some very important che- 

 mical agents. 



John Isaac Hollandus, and his countryman of the J. I. Hoi- 

 same name, were either two brothers, or a father and landus. 

 son. They were born in Stolk, a village in Holland, 

 it is supposed in the 13th century. They wrote 

 various treatises on chemistry, remarkable, consider- 

 ing the time when they lived, for clearness and pre- 

 cision. They describe all their processes with accu- 

 racy, and even give figures of the instruments which 

 they employed. This renders their works very in- 

 telligible ; and they deserve attention, because they 

 exhibit the clearest proofs that many of the processes 

 si'pposcd of much more modern date were well known 

 to them. 



These are the principal alchymietical writers. It 

 would be tedious and useless to enlarge the catalogue, 

 as the greater number of their writings are remark- 

 able for nothing but obscurity and absurdity. They 

 all boast that they are in possession of the philoso- 

 phers' stone ; they all profess to communicate the 

 method of making it ; but their language is enigma- 

 tical, that only the wise may receive instruction, and 

 that they may assist those adepts alone who are fa- 

 voured with illumination from heaven. Their wrrit- 

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