206 
NATURE 
ae Ps Chor CL ee | be ae Cok ee ee 
[Fan. 16, 1873 
THE BIRTH OF CHEMISTRY 
Vi. 
Latin and English MSS. on Alchemy.—Sources from which the 
earlier Alchemists acquired knowledge. — Arabic learning 
during the Middle Ages.—Geber. 
N the last article we discussed the Greek MSS. on Alchemy, 
and endeavoured to show that, owing to the uncertainty of their 
age and the obscurity of their authorship, they are less important 
components of the early history of chemistry than some writers 
have laboured to prove them. 
There exist also many MSS. in Arabic and Persian on alchemy, 
but in all probability few of them are earlier than the Sth century. 
The Library of El Escorial is undoubtedly more rich in such MSS. 
than any existing library ; but from the imperfect manner in 
which its treasures are catalogued, we are unable even to give a 
list of the more important of these treatises. The British Museum 
ve 
PA 
contains several Arabic MSS. on alchemy, written about the 1ath 
century, Such of these as we have seen are devoid of drawings, 
and apparently also of symbols, mee: 
Early MSS. on alchemy in Latin exist in all Jarge libraries. 
They contain various recipes for making the philosophers’ stone, 
“* secrets of art,” copies of the inscription of the Smaragdine table, 
with the interpretation thereof, and an infinite amount of unintel- 
ligible nonsense. They differ in no respect from the later printed 
treatises on alchemy, which we shall presently discuss in detail. 
The matter of most of the MSS. is to be found in printed works 
compiled by alchemists of the 15th and 16th centuries. 
One of the oldest alchemical MSS. in the British Museum is a 
transcript of the Speculam Secretorum of Roger Bacon, who died in 
1284. It is in the Sloane Collection, and was written towards the 
end of the 13th century, say between 1290 and 1300. There is 
no autograph MS. of Roger Bacon either in the British Museum 
or in the Record Office ; the MS. in question was copied by an 
unknown man. The following woodcut represents a few lines of 
the commencement of the MS. 
Jrepre fpeculii foto Alhrimme. 
rome ol n oft abuaprad mytprerotn ake c bane aye pep 
nolenrow quis Sefrac copia Ube 
phick be (Psp COnz ‘Sqreteu % fectoss : “. 
aductee, erycorqeamalle Gf: ssfrernVo cork perreci vhop ec ov e1 
while ArTe- Mer Von: ecTmso opiy fen pili Gran fp ar ecBaleAro 
Amara nore dial CY CH aufpectu fine Te dro Detectadm fore ob lei 
The andur bor opifag Acusy fre Afrevibettce arte opAnds fine 
- Fic. 8,—Alchemical MS, of the thirteenth century.British Museum. 
The above reads as follows :—‘‘Incipit speculum secretorum 
alkimiz. Innomine Domini Nosiri Jesu Christi ad instructionem 
multorum circa hanc artem studere volentium, quibus deficit copia 
librorum, hic libellus edatur, speculumque\secretorum indicatur, 
idcirco quia in illo, quasi in speculo, totum secretum philosopho- 
rum et operatio eorum in hac arte, nec non et ordo operis, sensi- 
biliter inspiciatur. Et habeant amici nostri posteri ex ejus in- 
spectu sine tedio delectationem, sine obscuritate viam hoc opus 
aggrediendi, sine difficultate artem operandi.” The translation is 
as follows :—‘‘In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, for the 
information of the many who wish to devote themselves to the 
study of this art, and who lack a supply of books, this small 
manual is published, and is entitled the ‘ Mirror of Secrets,’ 
seeing that in it, as in a mirror, the whole secret of philosophers 
and their working in this art—nay more, the process of their 
work—may be visibly discerned. And may our friendly descen- 
dants obtain from the perusal of it unwearied delight, a clear 
pa for taking this work in hand, and a mode of operation un- 
ampered by obstacles.” 
Among the earlier English MSS. on Alchemy in the British 
Museum is one which, the Preface informs us, was done ‘‘at the 
iastance and prayer of a poure creature, and to the helping of 
man, I, Malmedis, being at greete uneased in prisone, have thees 
forseide bokes hidre to itake a hand, and so I shal fynnysshe hit, 
to God be the laude and preisyng.” 
_ The following woodcut (Fig. 9) represents a portion of this 
MS, relating to mercury* :— 
It will be noted that mercury, together with sulphur, and the 
‘rede stoone,” is designated the producer of all metals ; we 
also observe an allusion to the Aristotelian theory of the elements 
(of which an account has been given in the second of these arti- 
cles) in the assertion that mercury is ‘‘hotte and moyste.” This 
MS. is in the Sloane collection, and is well preserved, and writ- 
ten on vellum. 
Let us now turn our attention to the dogmas of the alchemists 
and early chemists, as set forth in the numberless printed books 
on the subject. 
We must bear in mind at the outset that chemistry and 
alchemy--understanding by the former legitimate inquiry into 
the nature of different kinds of matter, and by the latter the 
* We must express our great indebtedness to Mr. Maunde Thompson, of 
he British Muszum, for allowing us ready access tothe MSS. department, 
futile attempts to make gold—existed side by side in the same 
age, often in the same person. We cannotagree with M, Hoefer 
when he says, ‘‘La chimie du moyen 4ge, c'est l’alchimie,” 
because some of the early chemists were not alchemists, and the 
crude processes of the one often led to the exact processes of the 
other, Lord Bacon in the “De Augmentis Scientiarum,” has 
some very pertinent remarks regarding alchemy :—‘‘ Credulity 
in arts and opinions,” he remarks, ‘‘is likewise of two kinds, 
viz., when men give too much belief to arts themselves, or to 
certain authors in any art. The sciences that sway the imagina- 
tion more than the reason are principally three, viz. Astrology, 
Natural magic, and Alchemy. . . . Alchemy may be com- 
pared to the man who told his sons that he had left them gold, 
buried somewhere in his vineyard ; where they by digging found 
no gold, but by turning up the mould about the roots of the 
vines, procured a plentiful vintage. So the search and endea- 
vours to make gold have brought many useful inventions and 
instructive experiments to light.” 
The heritage which the alchemists and early chemists received 
from the ancients was by no means insignificant ; for they pos- 
sessed all the experience accumulated by the ancients in the 
various arts and processes which we have before described ; and 
of theoretical matter they possessed, adopted, and prized, 
the theory of the transmutation of the elements proposed by 
Aristotle. Of works bearing upon the history of matter they 
had the writings of Aristotle, Dioscorides, Lucretius, Archi- 
medes, Hero, Vitruvius, and Pliny. Few books are quoted 
more often in alchemic treatises than the ‘* Natural History ” of 
Pliny ; and we sometimes find an almost verbatim transcript of 
certain portions of this work. The alchemists can therefore 
scarcely be said to have created a science, for the science of their 
day is linked with that of the ancients. 
When ancient learning had almost died out, and Europe was, 
intellectually, in a state of complete darkness, the Arabians were 
the most cultiyated people in the world. It is to Arabia that 
we must look for the origin of several sciences which we are 
wont to attribute to other nations. The Arabians instituted 
universities, observatories, public libraries, and museums ; they 
collected together all the remains of ancient learning, and through 
their medium the greater number of Greek and Latin authors 
which were read during the Middle Ages were known to Europe. 
In the eighth century the Arabsj had full possession of Spain, 
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