8 Mr. G. F. Rodwell on the Theory of Phlogiston. 



par excellence; but Professor Max Muller informs me that 

 the word sulphur bas no etymology in Latin, and is probably 

 derived from a Sanskrit root. I may mention that sulphur was 

 frequently called " lapis ardens," and was sometimes qualified by 

 the word " ireirvpoayikvov. " Assimilatur igni," says Beguinus, 

 " propter flammam, quam facile concipit." Again, we know 

 that at a far earlier period the connexion had been recognized ; 

 for both in the Pentateuch and Apocalypse we read of the de- 

 struction of cities, &c, being effected " irvpl kcli Oelw" or, as 

 the Vulgate has it, " igne et sulphure," and, quite literally in 

 our English version, " with fire and brimstone." A sulphurous 

 smell accompanying lightning is frequently mentioned by ancient 

 writers ; and it seems probable that the Greek term Belov origi- 

 nated from this idea ; for, since sulphur appeared to accompany 

 divine manifestations, it would seem reasonable to designate it 

 by a name indicating its origin. 



Every combustible body was believed by the chemists to con- 

 tain a sulphur, upon the presence of which its combustibility 

 depended ; hence the term " sulphureous " came to be applied 

 instead of " combustible," and soon entirely superseded it. There 

 were necessarily many sulphurs : thus there was " the sulphur of 

 wood" (carbon), "the sulphur of wine" (alcohol), "the sul- 

 phurs of metals " (frequently actual sulphur), even " the sul- 

 phur of charcoal ;" and, by a gross error (disproved by Boyle) , 

 " the sulphur of nitre " was specified ; for when fused nitre was 

 caused to act upon a combustible body, it was not at first ob- 

 served that the nitre itself was incombustible. Boyle describes 

 the inflammable " fume " which is given off when acid is poured 

 upon iron-filings as consisting of " the volatile sulphur of Mars, 

 or of metalline steams participating of a sulphurous nature"*. 

 Thus inflammable solids, liquids, and gases were alike called sul- 

 phurs. If more be needed to show that by the term sulphur the 

 chemists signified a combustible principle, let me quote a passage 

 from a work published during the lifetime of Becher, and writ- 

 ten by an author whom he not unfrequently quotes. Boyle, in 

 a treatise ( On the Producibleness of Chemical Principles/ pub- 

 lished in 1680, speaks of "the sulphur of the chemists" in the 

 following terms : — " But because the most intelligible and least 

 indefinite notion their writings suggest of sulphur is that 'tis a 

 combustible and inflammable principle, I have hitherto treated 

 of it as such." The same idea was attached by Paracelsus to 

 his " sideric sulphur," which he supposed to receive its influence 

 from the stars, and to possess the property of conferring combus- 

 tibility upon bodies. 



* Vide his essay i On the Difficulty of preserving Flame without Air/ 

 published in 1672. 



