CHAPTER IV 



THE ALCHEMICAL STUDIES OF SCOT 



THE Moorish schools of Spain were famous, not 

 only for their researches in natural history, but 

 also for the interest they took in chemistry, then 

 called alchemy : a name which sufficiently indicates 

 the nation which chiefly pursued these studies, 

 and the language that recorded their progress. 

 The practical turn taken by alchemy, as the founda- 

 tion of a scientific materia medico, in minerals, is 

 shown by the writings of Rases. This author, 

 who belonged to the ninth and tenth centuries 

 (860-940), produced a considerable work on medi- 

 cine in which he devoted special attention to the 

 diseases of children. Under his name appeared 

 several alchemical writings, either his own or the 

 productions of the school which followed his teach- 

 ing and borrowed his name. 



Michael Scot, as we know, had become familiar 

 with the works of Rases while still in Sicily, and 

 thought so highly of the De Medicina as to borrow 

 thence for his treatise on physiognomy no fewer 

 than thirty-one chapters relating to that subject. 1 

 It is a natural conjecture then which leads us to 

 find in his acquaintance with this author's writ- 

 ings the starting-point of Scot's interest both in 

 1 See ante, p. 32. 

 E 



