CHEMISTRY AND ALCHEMY. 



science from the healing point of view, was not, from its very character, 

 calculated to give us a complete idea of the chemical knowledge appertaining 

 to the epoch at which he wrote it. We can merely guess that this knowledge 

 was in a pretty advanced stage ; but the applications of chemistry to 

 metallurgy, to docimacy, to the arts of luxury, and to various kinds of 

 industries, such as the melting of metals, the fabric of warlike weapons, 

 the decoration of edifices and furniture, &c., all are buried in the tomb of 

 so many generations of artists who have left no other trace of their existence 

 than a few of their productions. We can learn less from history in this 

 respect than from an attentive study of the museums of Spain and Sicily, in 



Fig. 127. The Alchemist Geber. After an Engraving by Vriese. 



which are preserved many art monuments which testify to the marvellous 

 skill of the Saracens and the Moors. 



The "Canon " by Avicenna, the works of Serapion the younger, and of Mesue 

 (see the chapter on Medical Sciences), contain, however, some interesting 

 details as to chemical operations, which show that there was gradual progress, 

 and every now and then a discovery of importance. Mesue says that in the 

 middle of the ninth century certain principles had been recognised as to the 

 analytical classification of the bodies which compose organic matter. 

 Albucasis, a savant of the eleventh century, and a student in the Arab school 

 at Cordova, who, after rising to the highest rank as physician and surveyor, 



