WORD " CHEMIA " OR " CHEMISTRY." 125 



Addendum II. 



There is another derivation of the word '' chemistry/' 

 mentioned by Mr. James Mactear, F.C.S. I have only 

 received a few lines on the subject, an abridgment of a 

 paper read at the Philosophical Society of Glasgow, In 

 this it is said that Mr. Mactear traces the history of 

 chemistry through the medical science of Greece, Persia, 

 &c., and the word itself to kham, an Arabic word of 

 Sanskrit origin meaning "five/'' or rather its compound 

 khamis meaning "the fifth/-' — adding, "As is well known, 

 the ancient Hindoos recognized five elements — water, fire, 

 earth, air, and ether, the latter being the principle or 

 type of active force or motion which caused the changes 

 in the condition of the elementary types or their combi- 

 nations. From a consideration of these and other facts, he 

 derived the title of the science from al khamis, *" the fifth,' 

 meaning the science of force or change. No more perfect 

 descriptive title could be found for it in our present enlight- 

 ened age/' 



The scientific division of the elements is found in the 

 atomical philosophy of Canade, where ether comes in as 

 the fifth existence, " infinite, one, and eternal." In the 

 Sankhya philosophy the first is a diffused etherial fluid oc- 

 cupying space. The further account of it and its power of 

 influencing the other elements will, I dare say, be published 

 by Mr. Mactear. I can refer at present those who are in- 

 terested in the question to the ' Essays on the Religion 

 and Philosophy of the Hindus,' by the late H.T.Colebrooke, 

 a standard authority. 



It cannot be agreed to give the Arabs more than the 

 form of the word, or the al in alchemy ; they are there- 

 fore left out,— unless the word " fifth " can be taken further 

 back and shown in any Sanskrit dialect to have a connexion 



