110 DR. R. ANGUS SMITH ON THE 



' Kerithuth ' (or excision) of the Babylonian Talmuds^ folio 

 5 b, the following occurs: — ' The anointing of a king is in 

 the form of a diadem_, the anointing of a priest in the form 

 of a Greek ki (13)/ Now a Greek ki is %, consequently- 

 Semitic K was considered the equivalent of Greek %, and 

 %77/ie/a or %?7/ita ought to be writtten as it is written, 

 {^"•QO; kimia/^ ^'Egyptian etymology, then, ought to be 

 consulted. It is not probable, although it is possible, that 

 the Egyptians named it from their country; for natives do not 

 think of naming a produce of their own, whether abstract 

 or concrete, after their own country ; foreigners do that for 

 them. Then the Egyptian term must have been chosen 

 for the connexion between the science of X''i"'" ^^^ ^^^ 

 idea of heat " (blackness) ; " but,''^ he adds, " I have not 

 succeeded in discovering an express declaration to the effect 

 that chemistry is called so because it deals with fire or 

 heat.'' 



Thus far Professor Theodores has confirmed my idea, 

 and with learning that I could not muster. 



He also adds : — " As in Semitic, so in Egyptian, 'black' 

 is a derived meaning ;" and I am glad to have this autho- 

 rity for altogether throwing aside the word " black " as 

 connected with chemistry. 



Prof. Theodores came to the conclusion that, although 

 the word was found in Semitic, it was of Hamitic origin ; 

 and he agreed with me that it was needful to go a step 

 onwards or to the side, and adds,''Bunsen, in his large work 

 ' Die Stellung Aegyptens in der Weltgeschichte,' vol. v. 

 sect. 2, in the Etymological Table, inserts : — ' Hem, or 

 'hem, sieden, gliihen, = Hebrew ham. As 'h is related to s, 

 the Egyptian S6m has the same value, and with this the 

 Teutonic Sommer. Sommer has some connexion through 

 Sun, Sonne.' This is in Bunsen." 



By this reasoning we are fairly removad from the Arabic, 



