39 
aut quae sunt lanuginem habentes et similes (marmaheigi) 
et super quas existunt fila coloris lazuli : et quarum color 
similatur (almebacalbum). This is translated " iridi 1 '' in 
the margin, where Rhazes is referred to; " quasi omnia 
excepta sunt" : he therefore must also have been acquainted, 
as indeed we have already seen was the case, with the 
Hindoo authors on Medicine. 
Though not unwilling, because I believe it leads to truth, 
to pluck a few more plumes from those who heated their 
baths with the library of Alexandria, and littered their 
horses with leaves from the books of Bokhara, I feel I 
must not wander into other subjects, though I may touch 
upon one which is connected with our own. Having 
proved that the Arabs had access to some parts of these 
two Hindoo works, we are entitled to conclude that they 
had so to all, and to infer that as in the cases we have 
cited, so would they be likely to be indebted for any other 
new information which these contained. But this will deprive 
them of the honour of originating a branch of science which 
has always been allowed them, though I do not know that 
they have ever claimed it themselves ; indeed, Geber, their 
earliest Chemist, expressly states, that he acquired his 
science from ancient sages.* That the Hindoos were among 
these, I think we may safely conclude, as ProfessorWilson 
informs us, that the seventh division of the Ayur Veda 
(a work from which the above quotations were taken), is 
" Rasayana, or Chemistry, or, more correctly, Alchemy; as 
the chief end of the chemical combinations it describes, 
and which are mostly metallurgic, is the discovery of the 
universal medicine — the elixir that was to render health 
permanent, and life perpetual." But as no Hindoo work 
* Totam nostram metallovum transrautantlorum scientram, quam ex 
libris antiquorum philosophorum abbreviamus, compilatione diversa, in 
nostris voluminibus, hie in unam summa redigimus. — Geber Alch. cap. 1. 
