VOL. XV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 221 



Having dispatched what properly concerns his Annus Climactericus, and the 

 letters relating to it, the author gives the continuation of his observations since 

 that time : relating to several astronomical phaenomena, as new comets, solar 

 and lunar eclipses, occultations of stars by the moon, &c. 



A course of Chemistry. By Nicholas Lemery,* M. D. Translated from the 5th 

 Edition in French. By Walter Harris, M.D. Fellow of the College of 

 Physicians. Land. 1686. N° 175, p. 1 183. 



This edition is not only adorned with several tables of figures, representing 

 the supellex chymica ; but is also enlarged by the addition of divers operations ; 

 as particularly the pulverisation of tin, by casting it, when melted in a crucible, 

 into a round wooden box, which has been whitened with chalk on all sides 

 within ; then covering the box, and presently shaking it about, until the tin is 

 become cold, and converted into a grey powder; in which form it easily mixes 

 with salts, and other matters. It also teaches the making of flowers of jupiter ; 

 which consist of tin volatilized, and raised in the form of meal, &c. and 

 the preparation of an oil of mercury, by dissolving corrosive sublimate in 

 spirit of wine ; which may be done, although that spirit is not able to 

 dissolve quicksilver, nor mercurius dulcis. A caustic oil of antimony is 

 taught to be made by dissolving antimony in the acid spirits of salt and vitriol. 



• This chemist^ who was born at Rouen in l645j after receiving some instructions in pharmacy, 

 in bis native town, travelled to Paris (where Glaser at that time gave lectures), and afterwards to 

 Montpelier. At this place he remained 3 years in the house of an apothecary, where he had th* 

 best opportunities of making chemical experiments. He returned to Paris in 1672. Here he 

 eagerly engaged iu the prosecution of that branch of experimental inquiry to which he was so much 

 attached. He connected himself at first with the Prince of Tonde's apothecary, and consequently 

 had the use of that nobleman's laboratory ; but afterwards he established a laboratory of his own, 

 where he delivered a course of lectures to a large concourse of pupils ; and acquired considerable 

 sams not only by them, but also by the sale of his chemical preparations, which were in very great 

 request. In \675 he published his Cours de Chimie, which soon went through many editions, and 

 was translated into various languages. When he came over to England, in consequence of the per- 

 secutions exercised against the protestants in France, he presented the work just mentioned to 

 Charles II, and had the honour of kissing his Majesty's hand on the occasion. In 1697 appeared his 

 Pharmacop6e Universelle, and his Traite des Drogues ; and in 1707 his Traite de I'Antimoine, a 

 work which exhibited its author in a very conspicuous point of view as a chemical experimenter> 

 and added not a little to the knowledge which had been before acquired concerning the properties of 

 this metallic body, and the compounds produced from it. In particular he discovered an improved 

 method of obtaining what was termed kermes mineralis; an antimonial preparation which has been 

 much celebrated for its medicinal virtues. Lemery died in 1715, leaving a son who became phyw- 

 cian to Lewis XV, and held the professorship of chemistry in the King's garden. 



