Supplciuciit to '' Naturcy Oiiobcr ii, 1906 



KSS.WS AND Annh'ESSES ON CIIEMISTKV 



AM) I'lIYSICS. 

 \hluiiHlhiu,i;,ii inul Ifrlru^c ziir Ccs.hichlc dcr 

 Xiiliiru'issciisiluillini. liy Prof. V.. O. von I.ipp- 

 mann. Pp. xii + 5i)o. (Leip/if,' : \''ii ■md ('".. 

 ir|()6.) Price 9 marks. 



THF, author of these collected essays and addresses, 

 the director of the sug^ar refinery at Halle, is 

 p<Tliap-. best known to l-jif,'-lish chemists by his con- 

 iril)Lilion> U) thr chcinislrv of ihe sugars and hi.s 

 comprehensive treatise on the same subject. Dr. 

 Lippmann is clearly, not only a sugar technologist 

 and chemist, but a classical scholar and litterateur; 



The essays before us deal mainly with the history 

 ol v.arious branches of physical and chemical science, 

 ■ Hid have been written, as a rule, to commemorate 

 -.nine special occasion. From the chemistry of Pliny 

 and Dioscorides we pass to the history of freezing 

 mixtures, of gunpowder, of the thermometer, and of 

 bismuth. The history of sugar and the discoveries 

 lonm-cled with its development have natur.illy claimed 

 ,1 sliart' of the author's attention. 



In the final section are included such di\er^ subjects 

 as the scientific work of Lionardo da N'inci, ihe philo- 

 >(iphv of Francis Bacon, the natural science of 

 .Shakespeare, a tercentenary address on Descartes, 

 .md Ihe law of the conservation of energy of Robert 

 .Ma\er. The essays are short, the style simple and 

 e.is\ , and the matter excellent. 



The ordinary chemist with little leisure for his- 

 iciricil research ,md unequipped with the requisite 

 classical erudition will find these pages full of things 

 which he is glad to know. He discovers, for example, 

 ih.it Geber, whom he has probably been taught to 

 venerate as the greatest of the Arabian alchemists, 

 must take his place beside Basil Valentine as a 

 nnthical creation. In the abstract from Pliny's 

 " Natural History " he will find that purified wool- 

 fat (our modern lanoline) was a valued cosmetic 

 .inning the Romans, and that they were familiar with 

 both .1 liard and a soft soap. Whether these corre- 

 sponded to their modern equivalents we are not in- 

 formed, nor is it anywhere stated that the caustic 

 alkalis were known, yet the saponification of tallow- 

 would doubtless necessitate the use of these sub- 

 stances. 



One of the -most interesting essays is that on the 

 history of gunpowder. The author takes some pains 

 to establish the fact that saltpetre, and consequently 

 gunpowder, were unknown to the Greeks and 

 Romans, and that the so-called Greek fire was a 

 mixture iif which the principal ingredients were 

 mineral oil and quicklime. In contact with water, the 

 heat generated by the hydration of the lime would 

 ignite the mineral oil. The author brings evidence to 

 prove that the Chinese were not the discoverers of 

 gunpowder, and consequently that the .\rabians did not 

 introduce it into Europe from (^hina during the eighth 

 and ninth centuries as commonly supposed. The first 

 Arabian writer to mention saltpetre lived apparently 

 earlv in the thirteenth century, and the author con- 

 sider> that the knowledge of the m;mufacture of fire- 

 NO. 1928, VOL. 74] 



works and gunpowder is derived from the " Fire- 

 book " of M.arcus (Iraecus. which appeared about the 

 middle of ihe lhirle<'nlh ccnUirv in Constantinople, 

 and was the source from which Roger Bacon, 

 .\lbertus .Magnus, and Thomas .Aquinas drew their 

 information. Finally, the use of gunpowder for dis- 

 charging projectiles is ascribed to the monk Berthold 

 .Schwar/, or Berlholdus of the Black .\rt, who 

 accidentally discovered its power when preparing (he 

 mixture for medicinal purposes. The last stalcnienl 

 agree,s substantially with Boerhaave's account, who 

 says that Berthold made his secret known lo the 

 Venetians. " The effect is," says Boerhaave, " that 

 (he art of war has since that time turned entirely on 

 this one chemical invention ; so that the feeblest boy 

 may no.v kill Ihe stoutest hero," and he concludes 

 with the pious wish, " God grant that mortal men 

 may not be so ingenious at their own cost as to pervert 

 a profitable science any longer to such horrible uses." 

 There is one curious point in this interesting story 

 which seems to require explanation. Whilst the 

 author considers that Ihe iiitrum mentioned by Pliny 

 represents native soda, it seems unlikely that the 

 efflorescence which Pliny also mentioned under 

 nitrum as being collected from walls and used as a 

 manure should in all cases have been this substance. 

 The white efflorescence in cattle stalls and places 

 where animal matter was undergoing putrefaction 

 must have been a common observation, and must date 

 back to a ver\- early time. It is therefore difficult to 

 believe that nitre w;is unknown until the thirtfenth 

 century, as the author states. 



F'urther on in the volume we come across an 

 interesting little contribution to the history of the 

 thermometer in the form of a poem of the early part 

 of the seventeenth century. The name of the first 

 inventor of the thermometer seems to be wrapped in 

 some obscuritv. Although Boerhaave in his treatise 

 ascribes the invention to Cornelius Drebbel, of 

 .\lcmaer, in W. Friesland, who lived in the six- 

 teenth centurv, vet in the appendix to his " Elements 

 of Chemistrx." published in 1753, of which the 

 writer possesses a copv, he states that Robert Fludd, 

 an Oxford phvsician who lived at the beginning of 

 the seventeenth century, found in ;in ancient manu- 

 script a statement lo the effect that il was an old 

 invention which had been revived and improved. 



One of the essays which is sure to attract the reader 

 is the historv of the sugar industry. The various 

 steps are described by which the sugar-cane was trans- 

 planted from India to Persia in 500 A.n., introduced 

 by the .Arabs into Egypt about 640 .V.D., thence along 

 the shores of the Mediterranean to the Canaries, 

 Madeira, and .St. Thomas by the Portuguese in T420, 

 and so to the West Indies, where it flourished so 

 luxurianllv that it killed the European industry. .\n 

 interesting table of prices, which range from about 

 40/. the cwl. in 1260 lo 7/. 13s. in iSoo, is included 

 at the end of the essay. 



The two following essays are devoted to the rise 

 and development of the beet-sugar industry, which, 

 like that of the coal-tar dyes, is a history of successful 

 scientific effort. It has t.iken less than a centurv for 



