ON VETERINARY CHEMISTRY. 93 
versant with the means of separating the metals from their ores, 
and, probably, with forging, welding, and casting. 
There does not appear to be any validity in the argument 
brought against this, that the iron which the ancients were acquaint- 
ed with was that known by the name of cast iron, from which 
few useful instruments could be constructed, and, therefore, all 
their tools were made of copper — called brass in the scriptures — 
since to obtain this, a knowledge of the method of separating the 
metal from its ores, and the smelting of it, was necessary. 
The Eastern parts of the earth were indubitably first inhabited. 
The Indian nation existed before tfie Egyptian, which last was 
early famed for its learning, and the cultivation of the arts and 
sciences. Monuments of its grandeur exist to the present day; 
and they give to all modern works a character of insignificance. 
The pyramids will probably endure as long as the earth on which 
they are based. It is not unlikely that the magicians of Egypt 
effected their deceptions, as far as they were permitted to carry 
them, by chemical means. From the Egyptians Moses derived 
his knowledge, for “ he was brought up in the court of the Pha- 
raohs, and was learned in all the learning of the Egyptians.” 
Thus he was able to destroy the golden calf which Aaron had 
made, and to render it miscible with, if not soluble in, water. 
Now gold, we know, in its primitive or simple state, is not con- 
sumeable; yet Moses says that he “took the calf which they had 
made, and burned it with fire, and stamped it, and ground, it very 
small, even until it was as small as dust, and he cast the dust 
thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount.” 
It has been conjectured that he converted the gold into a sulphu- 
ret by combining it with sulphur, or, that he united it with the 
sulphuret of potash. In these combinations it would be miscible 
with water. 
From the antient Egyptians, who, we have every reason to sup- 
pose were acquainted with chemistry, as an art at least, it passed 
to the Greeks. The Centaur Chiron was probably versed in che- 
mistry, so far as it was known in those days. This personage is 
described as being a compound of a man and a horse ; the head 
and body of a man being grafted on the shoulders of a horse, which 
arose from this circumstance : — The first colony of Egyptians that 
landed on the rocky shores of Thessaly, brought with them the 
horses which they had been accustomed to ride in their native 
country. The horse had not before been seen in Greece, and the 
inhabitants were unacquainted with its use and management; when, 
therefore, they saw in the distance men on horses’ backs, they con- 
ceived the two to be one beast : nor is this illusion at all to be 
VOL. XII. N 
