A STUDY m PRIMITIVE CHEMISTRY. 29 



consumptionem humiditatis j 1 sublima salem armoniacum verum et utilem, hunc iterum in 

 sudore dissolve, et congela, et sublima a sale communi semel ; et est prseparatus. Vel 

 teratur primo cum praeparatione Salis communis mundati, postea sublimetur in alto alutel, 

 donee totaliter fuerit extractum purum : postea solvatur super porphydunr sub divo, si de 

 ejus aqua habetur facere, vel servetur ipsum sublimatum et purum sufficienter." 3 



The famous Spanish botanist Ibnu-1-Baitar in his Jam? u-l-Mufradat (Treatise on 

 Simples) quotes the following remarks of three of his predecessors : — 

 " Ibnu-t-Tilmidh. 4 II y en a deux especes, un sel naturel et un sel artificiel. Le sel naturel 

 sort de sources chaudes dans les montagnes du Khorassan, 5 que Ton dit avoir un bouil- 

 lonnement tres-intense. Le meilleur est le naturel . . . qui est clair comme du cristal. — 

 El-Ghafeky. 6 C'est une espece de sel . . . II s' en trouve de fortement sale qui pique forte- 

 ment la langue. II y en a aussi qui provient de la suie des bains, surtout des bains 

 chauffes au fumier. 7 ... II est utile contre les taies de l'ceil. II combat la procidence de la 

 luette sur la gorge et convient contre les angines . . . Dissous dans de l'eau et verse dans 

 une habitation, il en ecarte les reptiles ; verse dans leur repaire, il les tue. 8 Triture avec 

 de l'eau de rue et ingurgite, il tue les sangsues. Le Cherif El-Edrissy. 9 Prepare avec 

 de l'huile et employe en frictions au bain sur la gale de nature atrabilaire, il la fait 

 disparaitre. Mache et projete dans la bouche des serpents et des viperes, il les tue 

 subitement. Melange avec de l'huile d'eeufs et employe en onctions sur la lepre blanche, 

 apres des lotions prealables, il la guerit, surtout si Ton en prolonge l'usage." 10 



From these statements two inferences may be drawn. One is that the Nushadur of 

 the Arabs included both Ammonium Chloride and Ammonium Carbonate ; the other that 

 the introduction of Nushadur into alchemy, was, in all probability, due to its supposed 

 magical character — a character which, as I shall now proceed to show, would undoubtedly 

 be assigned to it by Asiatics from its intimate connexion with animal substances. 

 Regarding the first point, no further explanation is necessary than the notes that have 



1 Text ' hujusmodi ' ; corrected from p. 715 of the Artis Chemicae Principes ; cf. Note (3) infra. 



i Probably ' porphyrum,' the sense being that the sublimed sal-ammoniac is allowed to deliquesce in a porphyry vessel. 



5 This article occurs on p. 480 of the 16th cent, volume entitled Artis Chemicae Principes, the first part of which is occupied 

 by the De Anima of the pseudo-Avicenna (cf. note 2, p. 28 antea). A portion of the same article is also found in another treatise 

 attributed to Jabir. viz., the ' De Inventione Veritatis,' reprinted on pp. 709-735 of the Basle volume. By the process described, 

 Ammonium Chloride would be obtained. 



* Celebrated doctor of Baghdad, 1073 — 1164 A.D. 



6 Burnes {Travels into Bukhara, 1834 ed , II, p. 166) mentions that it is still obtained from the hills near Juzzak (Jazakh), 

 a town to the N.E. of Samarcand in Khurasan. As it is of volcanic origin, this salt is probably ammonium chloride, but I have 

 not been able to discover where the analysis of it that Klaproth is reported to have made was published. 



15 Spanish botanist, t 1164. 



1 The soot of dung fires always contains an appreciable quantity of ammonium chloride. This was undoubtedly the chemi- 

 cal constitution of the sal-ammoniac of mediaeval Europe, as even down to the 17th century the sal-ammoniac of European 

 commerce was almost entirely drawn from Egypt, where it was manufactured from the soot of the camel-dung fires of the fellahin. 

 (cf. Ure's Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines, 7th ed., Vol. I, p. 149). 



* In the Syrio-Arabic alchemical MS. of the British Museum (cf. Berthelot, La Chimie au Moyen Age, II, p. 160) it is stated 

 that it was for this reason that the symbolical name ' Theriac ' was given to N hshadur . This famous medicine of Galen was 

 supposed to be very efficacious against snake-bite, Cf. also this paper, p. 37 note (1). 



9 Ash-Sharif al-Idrisi, better known as a geographer. His chief work, Nuzhatu-l-Mu^htaq, was finished in 1154 A.D. 



10 Leclerc's translation, Paris, 1877, Tome III, p. 380. 



