78 MR. C. SCHORLEMMER ON THE 



has never been called the black art, a name which was 

 exclusively reserved for magic or necromancy. 



It has also been stated that the name was derived from 

 the Arabic kema, to hide ; while others have maintained 

 that the founder of our science was Cham or Ham, the 

 son of Noah, or an Egyptian king with the name of Chem- 

 mis. It has further been suggested that the name of the 

 science was derived from ^(eoii (to melt), or from %i'y"'69 

 (juice or liquid). 



To this it has been objected that the original spelling 

 was ')(rj/jb€La and not 'xyixela, which, although Hermann 

 Kopp, the great historian of chemistry, inclines to this 

 view, has not yet been proved satisfactorily. Humboldt 

 believes that the latter word got into some manuscripts by 

 a mistake of the transcriber, and continues : — "Alchimy 

 commenced with the metals and their oxides, and not with 

 the juice of plants.^"" This objection, however, cannot be 

 maintained at all, because vegetable juices, or, at least, 

 substances designated by their names, are mentioned by 

 the older alchemists as the most potent substance by which 

 transmutations could be effected *. 



Some time ago my friend Professor Theodores called my 

 attention to an interesting paper on this subject, published 

 by Professor Gildemeister f^ in which he maintains the 

 derivation of the word chemistry from %u/i69. According 

 to him Mmiyd in Arabic does not originally have an 

 abstract meaning, and is the name, not of a science, but 

 of a body by which, or rather by a substance obtained 

 from which, the transmutation of metals is effected ; it is 

 synonymous with iksir. Alchemy, as a science, was called 

 the preparation of Mmiyd or iksir, also the science of the 

 preparation of Mmiyd, or, more shortly, science of Mmiyd. 



* Kopp, op. cit. p. 76. 



t Zeitsch. deutseh. morgenland. G-es. xxx. p. 634. 



