Ixvi NOTES. 



to Montpellier, and contributed in a principal degree to the establishment of 

 its celebrated medical school, belonging to the 12th century, which was 

 modelled according to Arabian patterns (Cavier, Hist, des Sciences naturelles, 

 T. i. p. 387). 



( 344 ) p. 219. Respecting the gardens of the palace of Rissafah, which was 

 built by Abdurrahman Ibu-Moa\vijeh, see History of the Mohammedan 

 Dynasties in Spain, extracted from Ahmed Ibn Mohammed Al-Makkari, by 

 Pascual de Gayangos, Vol. i. 1840, p. 209211. En su Huerta planto el 

 Key Abdurrahman una palma que era entonces (756) unica, y de ella proce- 

 dieron todas las que hay en Espaiia. La vista del arbol acrecentaba mas que 

 templaba su melancolia" (Antonio Coude, Hist, de la Dominacion de los 

 Arabes en Espana, T. i. p. 169). 



(&*) p. 220. The preparation of nitric acid and aqua regia by Djaber 

 (whose proper name was Abu-Mussah-Dschafar) is more than 500 years 

 anterior to Albertus Magnus and Raymond Lully, and almost 700 years an- 

 terior to the Erfurt Monk, Basilius Valentinus. Nevertheless, the discovery 

 of these decomposing (dissolving) acids, which constitutes an epoch in 

 chemical knowledge, was long ascribed to the three last named Europeans. 



( 346 ) p. 220. Respecting the rules given by Razes for the vinous fermen- 

 tation of amylum and sugar, and for the distillation of alcohol, see Hofer, 

 Hist, de la Chimie, T. i. p. 325. Although Alexander of Aphrodisias 

 (Joannis Philoponi Grammatici in Libr. de Generatione et Interitu Comm. 

 Venet. 1527, p. 97), properly speaking, only describes circumstantially distil- 

 lation from sea-water, yet he also indicates that wine may also be distilled. 

 This is the more remarkable, because Aristotle had put forward (Meteorol. ii. 

 3, p. 358, Bekker) the erroneous opinion, that in natural evaporation fresh 

 water only rose from wine, as from the salt water of the sea. 



( M7 ) p. 220. The chemistry of the Indians, comprising alchemistic arts, 

 is called ras&yana (rasa, juice or fluid, also quicksilver ; and ayana, march or 

 proceeding), and forms, according to Wilson, the seventh division of the Ayur- 

 Veda, the " science of life, or of the prolongation of life" (Royle, Hindoo 

 Medicine, p. 39 48). The Indians have been acquainted from the earliest times 

 (Royle, p. 131) with the application of mordants in calico or cotton printing, 

 an Egyptian art which we find most clearly described in Pliny, lib. xxxv. cap. 11, 

 No. 150. The name " chemistry" indicates literally " Egyptian art," the art 

 of the black land ; for Plutarch (de Iside et Osir, cap. 33) knew that the Egyp- 

 tians called their country Xrj/ua, from the black earth. The inscription on 

 the Rosetta stone has Chmi. I find the word chemie, as applied to the de- 



