THE DISCOVERY OF ALCOHOL. 95 
modern chemistry so easily distinguishes, there existed 
with the ancients a certain amount of confusion, and this 
it is which renders the reading and interpretation of the 
old writers so difficult. The decisive step in acquiring a __ 
knowledge of distillation was taken in Egypt. There 
the first distilling apparatus properly so called, was 
invented in the time of the first ages of the Christian 
era. They are described with precision in the works 
of ZOSIMIUS, an author of the 3rd century, according 
to the technical treatises of two female alchemists 
named CLEOPATRA and MARy. In the margin of a 
Greek MS, of ST. MARK, are drawings of the apparatus, 
and these are in stri€t conformity with the Greek text 
of the ancient writer. [1 have produced elsewhere these 
figures and this description. The apparatus consists of 
a boiler or rather a receiver of balloon shape, in which 
_ the liquid is placed; but for the lid is substituted a more 
complicated system, namely a large tube over the 
balloon, ending above in a top for condensation, shaped 
like a reversed balloon. This top is furnished with 
lateral tubes, conical, and bent towards the base, which 
are to receive the condensed liquid and allow of its 
flowing out into smaller balloons. All the essential 
eee 
parts of a distilling apparatus are there defined. These 
are the lateral tubes and receptacles which charac- 
terise the alembic, The word alembic as we employ 
it, results from joining the Arabic article a/ with 
the Greek word améix already employed by Dios- 
CORIDES to designate the condensing lid or cover; 
_ the words dékos dikos brkion are inscribed in the draw- 
ings of ZOSIMIUS on the upper balloon or top, where the 
condensation is effected, as well as on the lateral recep- 
