THE DISCOVERY OF ALCOHOL. 105 
“ fire water, which you must keep in a well stoppered 
‘ glass vase.” 
The MS, of Munich adds :—* The virtues and properties 
of fire water are these. Moisten with this water a linen’ 
rag and light it ; it will produce a great flame. When it 
is put out, the rag remains intaét. If you wet your finger 
with this water and set fire to it, it will burn like a 
candle without your receiving any injury.” This was a 
conjuror’s trick. The part these latter gentlemen played 
is shewn in a great many inventions of antiquity and the 
middle ages. 
The faéts indicated in this description show how often 
the first observers were struck with the real or apparent 
properties of different bodies however trifling they 
might be. . 
But they often complicated their observations by cer- 
tain superfluous details to which they attached as much 
importance as to the rest, on account of theories which 
served them as guides; these theories have played a 
certain part in the history of science. For instance in 
the first receipt of MARCUS GR&€CUS there is that 
singular dire&tion, to add sulphur before distilling. This 
dire€tion also exists in a book of AL-FARABI transcribed 
in another MS. of the same period, and which is found 
in the work of PortTA, Natural Magic, composed in the 
16th century. It is therefore not accidental. It is in fa& 
the result of a theoretic idea set forth at length in many 
works. Chemists then thought that the great moisture 
of wine was opposed to its inflammability and it was to 
combat this that they added either salts or sulphur, the 
dryness of which they said increased combustible proper- 
ties. One of the old writers quotes in support of his 
oO 
