Sal- Ammoniac : a Study in Primitive Chemistry. 



By H. E. Stapleton, B.A., B.Sc, (Oxon), Professor of Chemistry, Presidency College, 

 Calcutta ; late Officiating Principal of the Calcutta Madrasah. 



[Read, August 2nd, 1905.] 



Contents. 



Page. 



I. Pliny on Sai-Ammoniac * 25 



II. Comparison of the substances used by Greek and Arabic alchemists 26 



III. Preparation and Properties of Nushadur, the Arabic equivalent of Sal- 



Ammoniac ] 28 



IV. Magical associations of Nushadur with Hair and other animal substances ... 29 

 V. Use of Hair amongst Muhammadans in Exorcism 31 



VI. The 'Aqiqah ceremony 32 



VII. Medicinal use of human hair by the Arabs 34 



VIII. Application of animistic theories of medicine to Alchemy 36 



IX. Chemistry of Hair as an alchemical drug 39 



X Etymology of the word Nushadur 40 



The aim of the following paper is to convey some slight impression of the 

 environment of the science of chemistry in its alchemical youth. For this purpose, a 

 study is made of the history of the well-known substance Sal-Ammoniac, with the 

 idea of throwing light upon the primitive conceptions of nature that led to ^introduction 

 as an alchemical drug. 



Our earliest authority for the use of the term 'sal-ammoniac' is Pliny. 1 In his 

 Historia Naturalis, XXXI, 39, the following statement occurs : — 



" Invenit et [nativum salem] juxtaPelusium Ptolemseus rex, cum castra faceret. Quo 

 exemplo postea inter ./Egyptum et Arabiam, etiam squalentibus locis, cceptus est inveniri, 

 detractis arenis : qualiter et per Africse sitientia usque ad Hammonis oraculum. Is 

 quidem crescens cum Luna noctibus. Nam Cyrenaici tractus nobilitantur Hammoniaco 

 et ipso, quia sub arenis inveniatur, appellato. 2 Similis est colore 3 alumini, quod 

 schiston vocant, longis glebis, neque perlucidis, ingratus sapore, sed medicinse utilis. Pro- 

 batur quam maxime perspicuus, rectis scissuris. Insigne de eo proditur, quod levissimus 

 intra specus suos, in lucem universam prolatus, vix credibili pondere ingravescat. Causa 

 evidens, cuniculorum spiritu madido sic adjuvante molientes, ut adjuvant aquae. Adulter- 

 atur Siculo, quern Cocanicum appellavimus : necnon et Cyprio mire simili. In Hispania 

 quoque citeriore Egelastse 4 cseditur, glebis paene translucentibus, cui jampridem palma 



1 2 3 — 79 A.D. 



2 Pliny thus derives the name of the salt from S^os, sand, and not from the name of the god Ammon. 

 8 ' Canescens ' (Hist. Nat., XXXV, 52, Harduin's ed., Paris, 1685). 



* To the present day, common salt forms a large item in the exports of Spain ; and a mountain of rock salt still exists at 

 Cardona in the province of Barcelona. 



Mem. A.S.B. 22-10-0$. 



