92 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and materia medica as yet printed, or in the manuscript Arabic 

 works of Geber and other alchemic authors which I possess and 

 am preparing for publication, with any precise text relative to 

 alcohol or to any definite distilled liquid. I have already ex- 

 plained the passages of Rases that have been wrongly cited as 

 bearing on this point, which relate only to fermented liquids 

 without reference to their distillation or to the extraction of alco- 

 hol. So Abulcasim, who has been cited, after describing some dis- 

 tilling apparatus modeled after the dibicos and tribicos of the 

 Greeks, adds simply, " According to this method, whoever wants 

 distilled wine can distill it." He gives directions for distilling rose- 

 water and vinegar in the same way. He speaks only of distilla- 

 tion in a mass. Still, the idea of the preparation of a distilled 

 fragrant water, like rose-water, appears here clearly for the first 

 time ; but there is nothing in it that applies to an essence proper, 

 or especially to alcohol. 



I repeat that simply a distillation of wine, without any dis- 

 tinction between the successive products of a fractional distilla- 

 tion, is meant in these texts. But it was perceived from that 

 time, contrary to the opinion of Aristotle, that distilled wine was 

 not identical with water ; still, our authors do not speak of alco- 

 hol, although the knowledge of that substance would result al- 

 most immediately from the study of the distilled liquids yielded 

 by wine. 



The most ancient manuscript containing a precise reference to 

 this product is in the Clef de la peinture, which was written in 

 the twelfth century. It is a receipt in cipher, which when de- 

 ciphered and translated reads : " By mixing pure and very strong 

 wine with three parts of salt and heating it in vessels designed 

 for the purpose, we obtain an inflammable water, which is con- 

 sumed without burning the matter on which it is placed." This 

 meant alcohol. The property of burning on the surface of bodies 

 without burning them greatly struck the first observers of it. A 

 more explicit mention is contained in the Treatise on Fires of 

 Marcus Graecus, a Latin work drawn from Arabian and Grecian 

 sources, no manuscripts of which, however, are of earlier date 

 than the year 1500. It is a compilation of technical receipts, 

 mostly relating to the art of war. The receipt for the burning 

 water was added later to the original text ; for it is not a part of 

 another manuscript that exists in Munich, but is inserted in it 

 outside of and after the Treatise on Fires. It contains some new 

 hints and characteristics, and is as follows : " Preparation of In- 

 flammable Water. — Take wine, black, thick, and old. For a quar- 

 ter of a pound add two scruples of very finely powdered sulphur, 

 one or two of tartar, extract of a good white wine, and two scru- 

 ples of common salt in coarse fragments. Place the whole in a 



