174 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 189 



man abbot, says it came both -ways.* It 

 was much later, during the 16th century, 

 that the theory of a French origin became 

 generally accepted as certain. 



But passing by this diflBculty, and con- 

 tinuing to accept the seven passages as bona 

 fides, to what date do they point? Johannes 

 Salicetus, whose work on this pestilence was 

 printed in 1501, says that it" had prevailed 

 in Germany since 1457. f The records of a 

 monastery at Mainz (near which Valentine 

 must have lived) show that a chorister 

 there was attacked by it in 1472, J so that it 

 was already spreading beyond the army ; 

 and so famous a physician as Basil Valen- 

 tine boasts of being would certainly have 

 heard of that case. But Valentine says it 

 was brought to Germany, not by German 

 soldiers coming home, but by French sol- 

 diers in the ' present war.' I do not know 

 what war that could have been, unless it 

 was the struggle of Charles the Bold, 

 not far from the Rheingau, which lasted 

 from 1464 to 1477. Thus, if the book is 

 genuine at all, we find again that it must 

 have been written about 1470. 



There is a third indication of the date. 

 Namely, the author tells us that in his 

 youth he learned in England the process of 

 making beer with hops, which process he 

 describes. He adds that in Germany this 

 method is not very common, thus implying 

 that it was very common in England thirty 

 years or more before he wrote the Triumph' 

 Wagen, or, say, about 1430 or 1440. Unfor- 

 tunately, all authorities agree that hop- 

 brewed beer was not introduced into 

 England till very long after. I find the 

 date 1551 given as that of the first planting 

 a hop-garden in England. Men could not 

 have had much experience of hop-brewed 

 beer as long as hops were considered to be 

 an adulteration. Now, under Henry VIII. 



*Ibid. 

 tibid. 

 J Ibid. 



penalties were imposed against that mode 

 of brewing. Basil, however, speaks of it 

 as a great improvement, and never hints at 

 any condemnation of it. This is a diffi- 

 culty that it seems impossible to avoid. 



There are others. The author was a far 

 more accomplished chemist than any other 

 of the 15th century or of the early part of 

 the 16th. How can it be that such a man 

 lived a long life and never imparted any of 

 his skill to any scholar ? 



Moreover, he accomplished, he tells us, 

 cures which astounded physicians. Being 

 a very superior man otherwise, he must 

 have become famous. Yet Kopp, with all 

 his learning in alchemy, declares that there 

 is nowhere any mention of him before 1599. 

 I know of but three statements which 

 could be brought against Kopp's generaliza- 

 tion, and all three break down under 

 examination. In the first place there is a 

 story traced to the Sapientia Insaniens of the 

 Dutch alchemist, Jacob Tolle, a book which 

 I understand to be a commentary upon the 

 Triumph- Wagen,* that the Emperor Maxi- 

 milian I., in 1515, undertook to collect facts 

 concerning the life of Basil Valentine, and 

 that, unable to obtain any information, he 

 finally sent to Eome and caused search to 

 be made of the rolls of the Benedictine or- 

 der, which search was unsuccessful. But 

 this story is incredible. The busy Maxi- 

 milian interested himself in everything ex- 

 cept chemistry. In 1515 he was absorbed 

 with Hungarian affairs. But these are the 

 least of the objections to the tale. To sup- 

 pose Basil Valentine was heard of in 1616 

 is almost to suppose he was living about 

 1470. In that case there must have been 

 numerous persons near Mainz, who per- 



*If I have seen an entire passage of a book, or have 

 othervpise conclusive evidence of its containing cer- 

 tain matter, I consider myself justified in saying so, 

 even if I have not seen the whole book. In the present 

 case, however, the story may be told somewhat dif- 

 ferently by Tollius. 



