40 MR. H. E. STAPLETON ON SAL-AMMONIAC: 



alchemy was, under the theistic influences of Sufiism, 1 nothing was likely to be more 

 esteemed as a source of alchemical energy than the human spirit, and accordingly we 

 find the hair ( in addition to all other parts of the human body with which spirituality was 

 associated), in full use among the early Arabian alchemists. Subsequently, for the 

 reasons just indicated, the place of hair was largely taken by sal-ammoniac, 2 but, as is 

 evident from the methods employed in its preparation, the magical associations that led 

 to its adoption did not altogether pass into oblivion. 



The reasons that brought about the introduction of ammonium chloride into alchemy 

 have now been sufficiently dealt with, and I only propose to add a brief discussion of 

 the source from which the Arabs obtained their knowledge of the alchemical properties 

 of this important substance. 



Passing over the improbable assumption that Jabir discovered these properties for 

 himself, 3 the Greek school of Alexandria was the first to suggest itself. Against this, 

 however, the objection may at once be made that hair and sal-ammoniac are barely 

 mentioned by Greek alchemists. 4 Of the Persian school of alchemy, we know little 

 more than that it existed in the early centuries of our era ; 5 while India is ruled 

 out of the discussion by the fact that the Sanskrit name srawn:, navasar, for sal-ammoniac 

 is of alien origin. 6 Finally an etymological analysis of the Chinese and Arabic names 

 for the salt suggested a possible solution of the problem. 



The only derivation of the Arabic NlishadurXkidX has come to my notice, is that it is a 

 corruption of two Persian words : j}j \JL}> nush darn, ' life-giving medicine.' This 

 etymology, though of a suspiciously popular character, might have been accepted were it 



not for the fact that the Chinese name for sal-ammoniac is $f[^!r, nan-sha? It is 

 hardly likely that if the Chinese had drawn their name for ammonium chloride from the 

 Persian, they would have dropped half of the original name; whereas if the Persians had 

 taken the Chinese name, it is conceivable that the word ^ld darii, ' medicine,' might have 

 been suffixed to the Chinese original. Hence the decision seemed to lie in the etymology 



t Jabir was a Sufi, e.g., the Fihrist of Ibn Abi Ya'qub an-Nadlm (written in 988 A.D.), Fliigel's ed., p. 355. 



8 Cf., e.g., the De Anima, passim. 



8 Jabir wrote a Kitdbu-sh-Sha'r (' Book on Hair'). Alchemical pamphlets dealing with ' Plants,' 'Animals,' ' Blood,' ' Urine' 

 and * Eggs,' are also recorded from his pen (cf. Fihrist, ed. cit., p. 356). 



* The most noticeable reference to a Greek belief in the virtue of hair is a parable of Hermes, quoted, ostensibly from a 

 lost work of Al-FarabI (the master of Ibn Sina ; f 950), in the De Anima (ed. cit., p. 55). Hermes is represented as taking his 

 son on his shoulder and exclaiming 'The Stone is in him' meaning thereby — so the commentator says— ' in his hair and blood.' 

 It is, to say the least, doubtful, and not supported from actual Greek authorities. 



' A treatise written in Pahlawl by an alchemist named Jamasb, for Ardashlr, the founder of the Susanian dynasty 

 (226-241 A.D.), is recorded in HajT Khalfa's Kashfu-dh-Dhuniin (Fliigel's ed., Ill, p. 384). 



8 Cf. Ray, History of Hindu Chemistry, p. 54, note (1). 



1 Hanbury, (Pharmaceutical Journal, VI, 1865, p. 514) has shown that though occasionally common salt is offered as a sub- 

 stitute, the true nau-sha of the Chinese is ammonium chloride. It is said in Pekin to be obtained from certain volcanic springs 

 in the province of Sze-chuen, and in Tibet. The first notice of the similarity between the Chinese and Urdu names for sal- 

 ammoniac, is due to Porter Smith {Materia Medica and Natural History of China, Shanghai; and Triibner, London, 1871, 

 p. 190). I should add that I am indebted to Mr. D. Hooper of the Economic Section of the Indian Museum for affording 

 me an opportunity of quoting the details of Hanbury's papers that are given in this and the following note. Porter Smith 

 pnly makes very casual references to Hanbury's work. 



