26 



MR. H. E. STAPLETON ON SAL-AMMONIAC 



a plerisque medicis inter omnia salis genera perhibetur. Omnis locus in quo reperitur sal, 

 sterilis est, nihilque gignit : et in totum sponte nascens intra haec est." 



The chief point to note in connexion with this extract is that Pliny, in the sentence 

 commencing ' Similis est,' is unconsciously referring to an entirely different salt from that 

 mentioned in the next sentence, which is probably taken from the Materia Medica of his 

 contemporary Dioscorides (Book V, Sect. 126). The Egyptian salt, ' longis glebis,' is 

 almost certainly a sodium carbonate (' Natron ' ), whereas the latter salt, ' rectis scissuris,' 

 corresponds to common salt. The silence of Dioscorides and Pliny as to the volatility of 

 the salt they describe also corroborates the view that the sal-ammoniac of the Greeks and 

 Romans was not a salt of ammonia. 1 



Turning now to the consideration of its use in the current alchemy of the Alexandrian 

 school, we find that although casually alluded to as a cleansing agent or flux, 2 sal- 

 ammoniac finds no place in the lists of drugs that then entered into alchemical processes. 

 This may be seen from the following comparative table of substances used for making 

 gold and silver, which is drawn from the ' Treatise of Moses ' edited by Berthelot in the 

 third volume of his Collection des Anciens Alchimistes Grecs. 3 



For Chrysopoia. 





For Argyropoia. 



Mercury (from Cinnabar) 



' Mercury 



' drawn from 



The metallic constituent* of Magnesia 



(a) 



Arsenic 9 



Chrysocolla 5 



V) 



Sandarach 9 



Claudianos 6 



(0 



Psimmithion 10 



Yellow Arsenic 



(d) 



Magnesia 



Cadmia 7 



w 



Italian Stimmi 11 



Androdamas 8 



Copper 





I This has been often pointed out before — first, I believe, by Beckmann in his History of Inventions and Discoveries, though 

 J have not been able to refer to this book. 



* E.g., in the X Papyrus of Leyden. Cf. Berthelot, Collection des Anciens Alchimistes Grecs, I, Introd., pp. 30 and 45. 



3 Text, pp. 306 and 307 ; Trans., pp. 294 and 295. The ' Treatise of Moses' does not furnish material for a complete table 

 {e.g., it does not mention Tin and Iron which are quoted from Democritos by Zosimos as entering into alchemical operations; 

 cf. Berthelot, op. cit., IF, p. 159), but the lists now given are sufficient to show (a) that Alexandrian alchemy dealt chiefly with 

 inorganic substances j and ( b) that Mercury and Lead were the chief subjects of transmutation. 



* Apparently an alloy of Lead and Copper, elsewhere called Mo\v^56xi\k6s. One variety of Magnesia was probably therefore 

 an impure lead sulphide; cf. Berthelot, op. cit., I, Trans., p. 11 ; II, Trans., pp. 184-193. 



6 In the X Papyrus of Leyden, an alloy of Copper, Gold, Tin and other metals (Berthelot op. cit., I, Introd., p. 36). 

 6 According to Berthelot, {op. cif., I, Introd., p. 244) this is an alloy of Copper and Lead. 



1 (a) An ore of copper ; Pliny, Hist. Nat., XXXIV, 2 : (b) The volatilised deposit obtained in the metallurgy of silver {Idem, 

 22), and copper (Dioscorides, V, 84). 



8 Arsenical Pyrites; cf. Berthelot, op. cit., I, Trans., p. 5. 



9 Arsenic = Orpiment, and Sandarach = Realgar ; (Berthelot, Collection des Anciens Alchimistes Grecs, I, Introd.,. p. 238). 



10 Lead Acetate or Carbonate, cf. Pliny : " Fit autem ramentis plumbi tenuissimis super vas aceti asperrimi impositis, atque 

 ita distillantibus. Quod ex eo cecidit in ipsum acetum, arefactum molitur, et cribratur, iterumque aceto mixto in pastillos divid- 

 itur, et in sole siccatur aestate." (Hist. Nat., XXXIV, 54). According to Rossi (quoted by Liddell and Scott) the word is of 

 Egyptian origin. 



II Lead or Antimony Sulphide, (Berthelot, op. cit., I, Trans., p, 11, note). 



