OF CHEMISTRY. 7 



thoroughly establish the opinion, that medical chemistry, as well as 

 alchemy, was in those dark ages well understood by the Arabians. 



Towards the beginning of the thirteenth century, Albert the 

 Great, in Germany, and Roger Bacon, in England, began to cul. 

 tivate chemistry with success, excited thereto, probably by th# 

 perusal of some Arabic books, which about that time were trans, 

 lated into Latin. These two monks, especially the latter, seem to 

 have as far exceeded the common standard of learning in the age 

 in which they lived, as any philosophers who hare appeared in any 

 country, either before their time or since. They were succeeded 

 in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, by a great many eminent 

 men, both of our own country and foreigners, who, in applying 

 themselves to alchemy, made, incidentally, many useful discoveries 

 in various parts of chemistry : such were Arnoldus de Villa Nova, 

 in France; our countryman George llipley ; Raymund Lully, of 

 Majorca, who first introduced, or at least more largely explained, 

 the notion of an universal medicine; and Basile Valentine, whose 

 excellent book, intitled Cttrrus Antimonii Triumphal?*, has con. 

 rributcd more than any thing else, to the introduction of that most 

 useful mineral into the regular practice of most physicians in 

 Europe ; it has given occasion also to a variety of beneficial, as 

 well as (a circumstance which might be expected, when so ticklish 

 a mineral fell into the hands of interested empirics), to many per- 

 nicious nostrums. To this, rather than to the arrogant severity 

 with which Basile Valentine treats the physicians, his cotempora- 

 ries, may we attribute the censure of Boerhaave ; who, in speak, 

 ing of him, says, " he erred chiefly in this, that he commended 

 every antimonial preparation, than which nothing can be more 

 foolish, fallacious, and dangerous ; but this fatal error has infected 

 every medical school from that time to this*." 



The attempting to make gold or silver by alchemical processes, 

 had been prohibited by a constitution of Pope John the 22d, who 

 was elevated to the pontificate in the year 1316 1; and within 

 about one hundred and twenty years from the death of Friar 

 Bacon, the nobility and gentry of England had become so infatu. 

 ated with the notions of alchemy, and wasted so much of their sub. 

 stance in search of the philosopher's stone, as to render the inter, 

 position of government necessary to restrain their folly. The fol- 



BoerN. Ch. vol. 1. p. 18. t Kirch. MUD. Sub. 1. xi, sect, iv. c. 1. 



4 



