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From the positive directions respecting the formation of 
these several substances, we see that the Hindoos must 
have been acquainted with several chemical processes, as 
solution and evaporation, calcination and sublimation. 
Distillation they have for ages practised. Mr. Hatchett, 
referring to Mr. Kier's paper on the method of distillation, 
as employed by the natives of Chatra, in Ramgur, and 
which is exactly the same as practised all over India; 
has already observed, that the antiquity and generality 
of the practice, and the rude simplicity of the contrivance, 
stamp the originality of the invention, and tend to confirm 
the claim of the people of India to the discovery of the 
art of distillation. Simple as is their apparatus, they distil 
with it two of the most fragrant of essences, the atur of 
roses, and the oil of sweet calamus, or fragrant grass-oil 
of Namur. That the Hindoos also practise distillatio 
per descensum, may be seen in their mode of preparing 
the empyreumatic oil, called oleum nigrum, from the 
seeds of Celastrus nutans (malkungnee), described in 
Mr. Malcolmson's able Prize Essay on the History and 
Treatment of Beriberi; which he and others found the 
most efficacious remedy in that intractable complaint. 
Independent, however, of notices in their medical 
works, of the knowledge which the Hindoos possessed of 
many chemical processes ; we might have inferred that 
they must have been acquainted with some, at least ; 
from the high antiquity among them of many chemical arts, 
such as bleaching, dyeing, calico-printing, tanning, soap, 
and glass-making. The invention of gunpowder and of 
fireworks has often been assigned them. Working in 
metals they have long been famous for : their steel acquired 
so great celebrity at an early period, as to have passed 
into a proverb among the Persians, where fouladee hind 
indicates steel of the best quality; and juwabee hind, 
