K1SE AND PROGRESS 



this is said to be the first place in which the word alchemy is 

 u- * But Vossius asserts that we ougut, in the p'ace here re. 

 ferred to, instead of alchemia, to read chenia-r : be this as it may, 

 we can have no doubt of al hernia bein. compounded of the Arabic 

 al (the) .jvl ehemia, to denote excellence an>i sujjerioriy, as in al. 

 manack, al Koran, and othT words. Whether the Greeks invent, 

 ed, or received from the F'gyptians, the doctrine concerning the 

 transmutation of metals, or whether the Arabians were the first 

 who professed it, is uncertain. To change iron, lead, tin, copper, 

 or quickshvei into gold s e.ns to be a problem more likely to ani- 

 mate mankind to attempt its solution. thr! ei.her that of squaring 

 the circle, or of finding out p^r^t -iu.il motion ; and as it has never 

 yet been prov. d, , r .ap never ca.i oe proved, to be an impossible 

 problem, it ought not to be esteemed a matter of wonder, that the 

 fust chemical books we meet with, are almost entirely employ t d in 

 alchemical inquiries. 



Chemistry, with the rest of the sciences, being banished from the 

 other parts of the world, took refuge among the Arabians. Geber, 

 in the seventh, or as some will have it in the eighth, and others in 

 the ninth century, wrote several chemical, or rather alchemical 

 books, in Arabic. In these works of Geber are contained such 

 useful directions concerning the manner of conducting distillation, 

 calcination, sublimation, and other chemical operations; and such 

 pertinent observations respecting various minerals, as justly seem 

 to entitle him to the character, which some have given him, of be- 

 i:.i ;iit Mt'Kr of chemistry; thou h, in one of the most celebrated 

 of his works, he modestly acknowledges himself to have done lit. 

 tie else than abridge the doctrine of the ancients, concerning the 

 transmutation of metals J. Whether he was preceded by Mesue 

 and Rhazes, or followed by them, is not in the present inquiry a 

 matter of much importance to determine; since the forementioned 

 physic in. >:, as well as Avicenna, who, frera all accoi nts. was pos- 

 terior to Ci'lnr, speak of many chemical preparations, and thus 



* Jul. Fermi. Mater. Artronnmicon. Lib. III. c. 15. 



f Voss. t(\mo. Vox Alchcmia. 



J Totam n oil ram metallorum transmutandorum scientiam, qunrn rz libris 

 antiqunrum philosnphorum ahbreviavimus rompilat our <1ivTya, in nostris volu- 

 minibus hie in unam summum redegiinu*. tirhri Alch. cap. I, edition by 

 Zctznrr, in 1512. In Tancken's edition, in 1681, the words, metallorum traos* 

 mutandorum, are omitted. 



