CHEMISTRY. 
146 
The second epocma, comprehends the cultivation 
and growth of chemiftry among the Arabians; who, af¬ 
ter a long feries of ages, and through the revolutions of 
empires, preferved this fcience, and cultivated it with 
fuccels. During the dynafty of the Achemides'or Abaf- 
fides, the fciences, which had been long abandoned, were 
reftored to their vigour. Ahrianzor, the fecond caliph, 
devoted himfelf to aftronomy. Harum Rafchid, the 
fifth caliph, cotemporary with Charlemagne, caufed fe- 
veral books relating to chemiftry to be tranflated from 
the Greek. In the ninth century, Geber of Thus, in 
Chorazan, a province of Perfia, wrote three works on 
chemiftry, in which we find fome very good things. 
His belt treatife is intituled, Summa perfeSimiis M.agijlerii. 
He has written with confiderable perfpicuity on diftilla- 
tion, calcination, and the reduction and fo'lution of me¬ 
tals. In the tenth century, Rhafes, a phyfician of the 
liofpital at Bagdat, firft applied chemiftry to medicine. 
Some of his pharmaceutic prefcriptions are (till in efteein. 
In the eleventh century, Avicen, a phyfician, likewife 
applied chemiftry to medicine. His merit and know¬ 
ledge raifed him to the office of grand vizier; but the de¬ 
bauched life he led was the caule of his being degraded 
from that office ; and under fuch a defpotic government, 
it is no wonder the liberal arts foon began to droop. 
Them H irdepoch Amarks the tranfition of chemiftry from 
theeafttothewefternpartsof the world, during the Cru- 
iades; and which era is not unaptly termed, the reign of 
Alchemy. The art of making gold appears to have been 
in requeft for a long time, according to the authors who 
have written concerning it; but the folly which gave 
birth to it was at its height during the interval between 
the eleventh and fixteenth centuries. The chemical 
faCts difcovered by the Egyptians, collected by the 
Greeks, and applied to medicine by the Arabians, came 
to the knowledge of the four nations who travelled into 
the eaft during the crufades; namely, the Englilh, 
French, Germans, and Italians; and each of thefe in¬ 
fatuated nations became immediately filled with fearch- 
ers after the philofopher’s (lone. And, as the immenfe 
labours to which they devoted themfeives have contribu¬ 
ted greatly to the advancement of chemiftry, it feems 
neceffary to be acquainted, with fuch of thefe extraordi¬ 
nary men as have moft diflinguifhed themfeives. Dur¬ 
ing the thirteenth century, Albert the Great, a Domi¬ 
nican of Cologn, and afterwards of Ratifbon, acquired 
the reputation of being a magician, and has left a work 
full of alchemical procefles. Roger Bacon, an Englilh- 
man, firft flu died at Oxford. He repaired to Paris to im¬ 
prove himfelf in the mathematics and medicine. Many 
inventions are attributed to him; any one alone of which 
would have been fufiicient to have rendered his name 
immortal. Among thefe are the camera obfcura, the 
telefcope, gun-powder; he is affirmed to have made a 
felf-moving chariot, a lpeaking head, a flying machine, 
' See. He was a cordelier, and was furnamed the Admi¬ 
rable Doctor. He retired to a houfe near Oxford, where 
it is faid he worked in alchemy. Arnold of Villeneuve, 
born in Languedoc in 124.5, ftudied medicine at Paris 
during thirty years. lie wrote a commentary on the 
E piffle of the Scbola Salernitana. The alchemills ef¬ 
teein him as one of their great eft mailers. 
The fourteenth century. Raymond Luliius, born at Ma¬ 
jorca in 1235, went to Paris in 1281, and he became the 
difciple of Arnold de Villeneuve. Robert Conftantin af¬ 
firms to have himfelf feen one of the role-nobles that 
were ftruck in the tower of London, out of the gold 
made by him, during the reign of Edward the fifth, in 
the years 1312 and 1313. He wrote feveral books on al¬ 
chemy, in which are to be found fome fails concerning 
the preparation of acids, or aqua fortis, and on the pro¬ 
perties of metals. 
‘The fifteenth century. Bafilius Valentinus, a benedic- 
tine of Effort in Germany, was well acquainted with 
medicine and natural hiflory. He compoied a book on 
a 
antimony, to which he gave the pompous title of “Cur- 
rus Triumphalis Antimonii,” which was commented on 
by Kirkringius. In this book we find a great number 
of antimonial preparations that have fince been offered 
to the world under different new names, and have been 
admin'iftered in the cure of diforders with great fuccefs. 
Ifaac Hollandus the father, and his fon of the fame name, 
have written books praifed by Boerhaave, from which it 
appears, that they were acquainted with the properties of 
aquafortis, and aqua regia. All thefe authors have in 
general written in the moft obfcure and confufed man¬ 
ner on the chemical art; and though they were acquaint¬ 
ed with fome procefles of diffolution, extraction, purifi¬ 
cation, &c. their pretenfions were greatly beyond their 
knowledge, and fcarely any advantage can be derived 
from their myflic labours. 
The fourth epocha, includes the age of the univer- 
fal medicine ; of pharmaceutic chemiftry ; and of alche¬ 
my oppofed, from the fixteenth to the middle of the fe- 
venteenth century ; and it may be here remarked, that 
the bad fuccels of the alchemifts, and the ruin of their 
fortunes and reputation, were fo far from difcouraging 
chemical enterpriles, that we find a prodigious number 
of perfons during the fixteenth century, encouraged and 
fupported by the enthufiafin of that celebrated Swifs phy- 
fician, named Paracelfus. This impetuous man preten¬ 
ded that there exifted an univerfal remedy. He lubftitut- 
ed chemical medicaments in the Head of thole of the 
Galenical pharmacy then in ufe, and cured many difor¬ 
ders by mercurial preparation, which were then deemed 
fcarcely curable, more efpecially thofe of the venereal 
kind. His miraculous cures leemed prodigious; but 
tranfported by fuccefs far beyond the bounds within 
which he ought to have confined himfelf, he publicly 
burned the books of the Greek phyficians. He died in 
the midll of his triumphs, at the age of only forty-eight 
years, after having promiled himfelf immortality by the 
ufe of his fecrets. This folly, highly extravagant as it 
was, revived the ardour of the alchemifts. Some among 
them, who vainly imagined they had lucceeded in the 
dilcovery of the univerfal medicine, dignified themfeives 
by afluming the new title of adepts. Such were, at the 
commencement of the leventeenth century, 1. The Ro- 
ficrucians, a kind of fociety formed in Germany, of which 
nothing more was ever known but the title, and whofe 
numbers continued unknown. Thefe pretended bro¬ 
thers affirmed, that they were in pofieflion of the fecrets- 
of tranfnmtation, of the univerfal fcience, and medicine; 
with the fcience of occult things, &c. 2. A cofmopo- 
lite, named Alexander Sethon, or Sidon, who performed 
the work of tranfmutation before a perlon of the name 
of Hauilen. This laft related the faCl to Vander Linden, 
grandfather of tlie phyfician of that name, who collected 
a medical library. 3. Another named Thomas de Va¬ 
gan, born in England in 1612. He travelled into Ame¬ 
rica, where Starkey received gold from him. He cor- 
refponded with Boyle. This is the fame adept, who in 
France gave his powder of projection to Helvetius. The 
latter, after this pretended miracle, which was nothing 
more than an artful trick, wrote a diflertation “ De vi- 
tulo aureo,” &c. 
The fuccefs that attended the adminiftration of che¬ 
mical medicines by Paracelfus, was productive, however, 
of fome permanently good effeCts ; for it induced feveral 
men of abilities to enter into tlie inquiry, and to write 
ufeful works on the preparation of chemical medicines. 
Such are the writings of Crcllius, Schroder, Zwelfer, 
Glafer, Tachenius, Lemery, See. and the Pharmacopeias, 
publilhed by feveral faculties of medicine. Glauber, a 
German chemill, about this time rendered an effential 
fervice to chemiftry, in examining the refidues of opera¬ 
tions, which former operators had always thrown afide 
as ulelefs, and diftinguiflied. by the names of caput mor- 
tuum, or terra damnata. By this means he dilcovered 
the fait named after him, and the vitriolic ammoniac; 
