106 DR. R. ANGUS SMITH ON THE 



markable that heat comes into nearly all of them, and heat 

 to a large extent : there are exceptions, especially those 

 peculiarly modern actions producing changes in solutions. 

 It is an old saying that bodies do not act but when dis- 

 solved ; and in order to dissolve them, fuse them, or make 

 them liquid, it is seldom that heat to a very sensible amount 

 does not take part in the process. 



Did not some old Egyptian see some one working with 

 furnaces at the mines of Midian, at Akita, east of Coptos, or 

 any places between the Nile and the K-ed Sea, bringing out 

 lead and silver, and collecting small amounts of gold at the 

 bottom of a crucible ? and did he not speculate on the 

 wonderful things produced by heat in the chief towns in 

 Chem of the Thebaid? When he went over to Ramses or 

 to Heliopolis, we can suppose him following his studies 

 among the physicians, who had most certainly laboratories 

 in which they boiled their plants and roots and seeds. 

 They could not boil without vessels in which to boil them; 

 and wood or charcoal fires under the vessels were necessary ; 

 and that there were roofs to cover the workers is most pro- 

 bable, if not certain, whilst men would stand and watch the 

 processes. These are chemical operations; and there is a 

 similarity in the appearance to an outsider amongst them 

 all. If, too, we include the dissolving of metals and the 

 boiling down of soda solutions, the idea is widened. And we 

 can suppose the same inquirer going to a dye-house at Tini, 

 on the west of the Nile, and observing the cloth treated with 

 diflFerent mordants plunged into the boiling dye solution, 

 perhaps madder, and coming out of various colours, even 

 when only one colour was used. It seems to me, then, not 

 likely that such a class of artisans and professional men 

 would be without a comprehensive name for their labours. 

 A name which did emerge out of darkness into near places 

 is known to be " chemia ;" and this is the word so much 



