WORD '^CHEMIA" or '' CHEMISTRY." 113 



Greeks into Pan from some supposed similarity of charac- 

 teristics. This Greek and Roman habit of translating or 

 giving equivalents for names has caused a great deal of 

 confusion. 



We have seen that Zosimus was one of the earliest 

 chemists ; and he is called Panopolites, a citizen of Pano- 

 polis. If the Greeks had not translated the name^ he 

 would have been called Zosimus of Chemmis, or Zosimus 

 the Chemmite (the chemist); and then probably no one 

 would have disputed the meaning. And here he stands 

 before us with his description of metals and of distillation, 

 and with drawings of his alembics, and what appears as a 

 crucible with fire under it. 



I have said that I believed the origin of the word to be 

 " heat ;" but it is not necessary that it should have taken 

 the leap at once. It is probable that the name came 

 directly from the town of Chemmis or the district of Chem, 

 whilst the name of the town came from the god Khem, the 

 representative o£ solar heat. The common people would 

 think of the town, the more scientific of the character or 

 quality. 



Herodotus tells us of two places in Egypt called Chem- 

 mis; the second is a floating island in Lower Egypt, at Buto. 

 It is one of the wonders that people here would not believe 

 until a similar one was found in England, although there 

 were several on the Thrasimenian lake not far north of 

 Rome, and also on the Tarquinian. 



The mysterious word Imouth, which is connected with 

 chemistry. Pan, and jEsculapius, has been said to be an 

 Egyptian word for " chemistry -," but if we look at Khem, 

 we have a clue to Imouth also. Khem, in the widest sense 

 as the producer, " was the father of his own father ;" and 

 Mauth was the abstract idea of mother, who consequently 

 proceeded from herself (this from Wilkinson) ; or, the 



SER. HI. VOL. VII, I 



